Walling: No Messages Allowed on Graduation Caps

isn't alone.

No students will be allowed to walk at Thursday night's graduation if they have an altered mortarboard, Havre de Grace High School Principal told Patch about two hours before the ceremony.

"The protocol is that everybody has a mortarboard and we've asked students to maintain dignity and tradition of graduation," Walling said in a phone interview. "To have someone put something on there, next thing you know you have 10 people with something on there."

she hoped to use the top of her white graduation cap to recognize Michael Sawyer, 16, who .

She had initially written "This is for you," but was told she couldn't walk across stage at Thursday's ceremony with the message.

Walling confirmed Ford's statement, saying, "despite the unique circumstances," it is protocol for Havre de Grace graduation ceremonies.

Ford initially did not intend to walk at graduation, but Sawyer, her boyfriend, convinced her a week before graduation.

"She was at the [senior] [Wednesday] without [a message on her cap] and she seemed to be fine," Walling said. "We're trying very hard to make this a dignified ceremony for our graduates."

graduating classes have inscribed messages on their mortarboards in the past.

Three days after Jovan Brooks died in a car accident in May 2001, graduating seniors had messages and Brooks' name plastered on their caps.

"It's something new," Walling said. "We're not allowing anybody to do it."