Class of 2017 Leaves Foxborough High School 'Solid As A Rock'

FOXBOROUGH, MA — It’s not that those at the 2017 Foxborough High School graduation ceremony were surprised that a graduating senior was taking in the moment, it was his method that caught everyone off guard.

Getting ready to address the crowd, class president Andre Jaberi took out a giant cigar for his speech, drawing gasps and shock that such an item would be inside a building that does not permit smoking.

“What? I’ve been waiting four long years to burn this cigar,” Jaberi said.

But it wasn’t about smoking for Jaberi, it was what the tobacco product represented to him.

“It’s actually funny how a pile of wrapped tobacco can represent achievement. For us, it represents the completion of our time at Foxborough High School and marks the beginning of the things to come. Today is the day we get to light up the symbolic stogie,” he said.

The senior's speech was the highlight of Sunday afternoon’s memorable graduation ceremony inside the Foxborough High School gym. Escaping cliches, Jaberi followed up the cigar by pulling the names of two graduates out of a bowl with the promise to speak to them. He asked them what honor and perseverance meant, eliciting responses from his classmates about how the late Vice Principal Joe Heinricher was an example of someone with honor or perseverance for one person was the battle to improve at math after getting a C.

Jaberi has always been one to disregard rules to get what he wants, he told the crowd. One night, however, after causing a ruckus in attempt to return home after curfew in middle school, his mom told him that he must reach for what he wants, but with regard for the rules.

“Clean up your act,” she told the young Jaberi.

Alexandra Nelson, the class valedictorian, followed Jaberi with remarks about the advantage of going to a small school, where they can create bonds with a faculty that described the seniors as “compassionate.”

“I think I speak for everyone when I say I won’t remember my test scores or the battles of the Civil War. Instead, I’ll remember when I struggled with a project and a classmate helped me out or when a teacher went the extra mile for to stay after me and help me understand a topic,” Nelson said.

Superintendent Debra Spinelli used a cement metaphor to describe the class as like cement. Starting out as wet and moldable, cement always ends up as solid as a rock, like the Class of 2017, Spinelli said. What falls on them also makes an impression and leaves a dent.

“Impressions in your cement are signs of a life well lived because the human experience isn’t perfect. It’s full of opportunity to celebrate those dents, to learn from adversity, and be better and stronger for it. We all have dents,” Spinelli said.

School Committee Chairman Bruce Gardner, who is familiar with many of the graduates though his time as a baseball coach and from his neighborhood, told the seniors how proud he was, leaving them with some advice.

"Don’t spend all your time on your phone, don’t try to keep up with every post, don’t choose to participate in every drama. Your potential is limitless but you need to keep your head up to see it,” he said.

Image via Foxboro Cable Access