Franklin chooses gender neutral graduation

Last year my daughter graduated from Chief Sealth International High School in a ceremony that included different color robes for boys and girls. Boys walked in one line and girls walked in another, then came together in a boy-girl pair. Except, of course, to accommodate the mis-match in the number of boys and girls. I didn't see any point in that. The students had to meet the same requirements and were getting the same diploma. What, if anything, is gender-specific about graduation? The answer, of course, is nothing.

Franklin High School also had gender-divided graduation ceremony, but no more.

Comments

Patrick said…
Good for Franklin. My high school graduation did the split sexes too -- dark green gowns for boys, white for girls, marched in pairs. Was the message supposed to be that the altar was to be the girl's next step?
2/18/15, 9:57 AM
Jamie said…
I think this is great. No reason to segregate the kids by gender. My daughter will be graduating from Ballard in June - she'll wear a red gown and the boys will wear black and they'll sit on opposite sides of the aisle. It was interesting to see how few schools are still doing this.
2/18/15, 10:53 AM
Joe Wolf said…
This (the gender segregation) is so weird. We didn't have it in 1980, in Rapid City. Good for Franklin.
2/18/15, 12:13 PM
Anonymous said…
We didn't have it in the mid-90s at my high school in the Deep South. I had no idea any public high schools still did gender segregation for graduation -- would've thought that died out in the 60s. I also find it very weird.

Parent
2/18/15, 12:25 PM
Anonymous said…
... or in 1970 in Toppenish.

Wildcat Grad
2/18/15, 12:28 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
My own high school did it by alphabet (although the girls wore white gowns and the boys blue - not our school colors and perhaps wishful thinking).

I was quite surprised when my older son graduated from Hale and they marched in boy/girl but then separated with all the girls sitting together and all the boys sitting together. As well, they had speeches, graduated the girls, speeches and then the boys.

Roosevelt, as I recall, did have different colors for boys and girls but they sat together alphabetically.

I think school colors are fine but it doesn't have to be separated by gender.
2/18/15, 12:43 PM
Po3 said…
Would be nice to see the district make a statement on this encouraging all high schools to eliminate gender segregation.
2/18/15, 1:29 PM
Ann D said…
What a weird practice. We all wore the same color gowns in my high school and sat alphabetically. We also didn't do the valedictorian thing. No class ranking at graduation at all.
2/18/15, 3:29 PM
Anonymous said…
We sat alphabetically with everyone sitting together. I don't remember if we had two different colors of gowns...I don't think so.
LincolnHS75
2/18/15, 8:49 PM
Anonymous said…
I like the different gowns in the school colors but maybe they should assign them every other student or let them choose.

HP
2/19/15, 9:28 AM
Anonymous said…
Now if only Ballard would change it's mascot to something that didn't horrify teen girls.

GiGi
2/19/15, 11:45 AM
Anonymous said…
OSU has the same issue. Who knows what in the future will end up horrifying teens?

HP
2/19/15, 12:46 PM
Mercermom said…
At my high school on Whidbey Island in the late 80s, girls started asking boys to be their graduation partners in 10th grade. The boy I asked accepted invitations from two girls. I was the valedictorian, and I was distraught about walking at the back with the unaccompanied girls. It all worked out for me, but I'm now horrified that this was even part of graduation, and that anyone had to think about this.
2/19/15, 5:23 PM
Anonymous said…
News flash GiGi,
There are any number of female students who don't object to being a beaver. I've see it on the seat of girls' sweat pants. Not all kids are freaked out about the double entendre. In fact, a lot of kids like that kind of humour.

Better a busy, engineering herbivore than a soldier bent on US expansionism and colonization or a wolf bred into a creature meant to attack bulls for human entertainment.

BHS alum
2/19/15, 9:32 PM
Louise said…
My BHS daughter and her friends have made peace with being Beavers. They actually think it's hilarious. For a while she even wanted to check out OSU to continue being one. She just got accepted at Western, so now she'll be a Viking. Not as funny.
2/20/15, 9:42 AM
nerf said…
I did not attend my own high school graduation in the 80s partially because I didn't want to wear a gold robe (designated color for female students). I asked if I could get a black robe since they were available for male students. Response was no. I also didn't like that from almost the first day of high school kids were talking about which person of the opposite sex they wanted to walk down the aisle with at graduation. Ridiculous. Also didn't think finishing high school was that big of a deal and it sounded long and boring with 500+ graduates. So glad to hear of Franklin's common sense choice!
2/26/15, 5:20 PM
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