Graduation: AFJROTC to escort seniors to seats
May 18, 2018
With seniors graduating, the talk of tradition occurs — ringing the bell, wearing the graduation gown, walking across the stage.
This year, Derby High has decided to tweak one of their traditions — junior escorts guiding the seniors to their seats.
Instead of selecting juniors, the escorts were chosen from ROTC cadets of any grade,.
“I selected the JROTC based on their sustained outstanding appearance, behavior and professionalism,” Col. Michael Dillard wrote in an email.
Assistant principal Travis Moore said administration wanted to ensure every escort could make it to graduation to prevent any problems. The ROTC cadets will travel together on a bus.
Another reason was the chance to try something different while still retaining the formality of graduation.
“There’s also a sense, when you do graduation, you want things to be formal, and I felt that the JROTC kids reflect formal procedures really well in our school. And I thought that would be a good representation this year to come out and be part of graduation to represent their program, but also represent Derby High as a whole in a very formal way,” Moore said.
There’s traditions that you don’t mess with and traditions you can tweak, and this was one of those we thought we could tweak… But we’ll see we’ll see how it goes.
— Assistant principal Travis Moore
Sophomore Beth Barger, who is in ROTC, appreciates the change spotlighting the ROTC program.
“I think it’s a great idea because it gets, for one, our ROTC cadets out there a little bit more and shows that we still have a place in our community, even if we’re here at the end of the year,” Barger said.
Some juniors outside of ROTC are disappointed they cannot be an escort.
“I was really looking forward to it, because you know, you get to walk out the seniors, say goodbye and kind of see what you’re going to be doing next year,” junior Maci Meitler said.
Moore has a more neutral approach, wanting to watch how the change plays out.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily better or worse, but more of just trying a new thing in high school,” Moore said. “There’s traditions that you don’t mess with and traditions you can tweak, and this was one of those we thought we could tweak… But we’ll see we’ll see how it goes.”
