Graduation night.
Schools around the metroplex were taking serious precautions because of the Littleton tragedy; one high school in Fort Worth installed metal detectors and asked families to arrive two hours early to be searched. The area administrations issued warnings, and people uneasily wondered how safe they were going to be.
But no matter how hard you try--- terrible things can still happen. Psychotic evil people will find a way and it was no different for the affluent town of Southlake, Texas, this graduation night, May 29, 1999.
It happened at the Fort Worth Convention Center. The senior class of Carroll High School, 350 strong, gathered to receive its degrees and be cheered into the next stage of their lives by loving parents and families. Southlake being what it is, you can imagine that we're not talking parents and a sibling. Entire clans gathered for the occasion, aunts, uncles, cousins, who, on seeing their graduate enter, would rise as one, screaming with joy and taking pictures and videos. It became competitive. (You know, yuppies just can not help themselves) We sat there, decorous, dignified, Dan, Ammo and I, G-Mom, G-dad, Aunt Anne and Bea. Sure we had three cameras and a handcam, but we were behaving with propriety, as befits our station as the family of a merit finalist. (We were actually just delighted to be there, that CW was graduating at all, and keeping a low profile. This is another story that I have finally asked and obtained CW's permission to write--and may later tonight,
being supplied with a beer and a free hour).
When I graduated 100 years ago, everyone looked the same; we had a cap and gown and a tassel. Now there is a complicated assortment of costumes that need an explanatory reference section in the program, a scorecard. For instance, CW wore a green gown, a white NHS stole, a gold tassel instead of the regular green and white one indicating a
Distinguished Scholar, and a gold medal for Texas Scholar. He had weird symbols next to his name that you had to look up, circles and asterisks showing National Merit and Dist. Scholar. He did NOT have a larger white stole that meant top ten. He DID have an empty circle which meant merit finalist as opposed to the black circle which meant
semi-finalist, not to be confused with the cross that meant Letter of Commendation.
The band began to play Pomp and Circumstance and in marched a group of black-robed people. OHMYGOD. I panicked.
“Our robes are green!!!!!” I cried. “We're at the wrong graduation!!!!! OH MY GOD!!!!”
The man in front of me turned around. “Are you from Southlake?”
“Yes!” I was near tears. How had this happened?
“So are we.” He said.
“But our son's robe is green! These are black!”
“That's the faculty,” he said and raised his eyebrows at his wife as he turned back.
Oh.
Sure enough. Here came the green robes. They all looked exactly alike. The convention center is very big. I once heard Pavarotti sing there and he needed a huge sound system.
We took pictures of a few small figures and figured CW would never know.
When they began to announce the graduates' names and they crossed the stage and received their diplomas, the competition began in earnest. “Cheer for our son!” whispered the family in front of us.
“Ok, if you'll cheer for ours,” I said. It grew wilder and wilder. Since CW is a W, by the time we got to him, several rows had been recruited to stand and cheer. It was great.
Now, it is necessary for me to explain that the black folders they hand to each graduate as he crosses the stage, are empty. For some reason, they give the actual diploma following the graduation. Just before you climb the stage, you hand a slip of paper with your name
on it to a teacher, who then reads your name aloud. One of CW's friends somehow altered his name to read- instead of the boring John Michael Smith- John Hernandez El Toro Michael Piquante Smith. And the teacher dutifully read it to tumultuous applause.
The empty folders handed out, Dr. Presley declared the class of 1999 to be graduates of Carroll High School. The choir sang the Alma Mater.
And then it happened.
What everyone had feared.
It makes my palms sweat to type this.
As the mortarboards were thrown into the air, as young voices cheered the end of their high school years,
bubbles began to rise into the air
Yes- bubbles.
Several antisocial, deviant personalities had smuggled BUBBLESTUFF into graduation under their robes and were now blowing illicit and dangerous bubbles at each other.
It's true, dear friends, and we have it on tape, even our own son in the choir, was involved in this heinous activity.
But Southlake is nothing if not responsive and vigilant, . One of the associate principals immediately began taking names and when those wicked trouble-making students attempted to claim their actual degrees after the ceremony, THEY WERE REFUSED and told they had to come see the principal the next week before they could get them. I know you feel relief to learn that some communities still take their duties as keepers of the peace so seriously. And rightfully so. Today bubbles, tomorrow bombs.
Luckily, they didn't catch my son. We have his diploma. Of course we will have him talk to a therapist about this sociopathic episode. |
