Pinellas Park High School

[Times photo: Bill Serne] Kim Ho adjusts Andrea Stout's cap just before Pinellas Park High graduates walk into the Times Bayfront Arena on Wednesday night.

By CANDACE RONDEAUX
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 6, 2002

NUMBER OF STUDENTS WALKING IN CEREMONY: 362

VALEDICTORIAN: Kristin Kibler

SALUTATORIAN: Waynyda Jean-Baptiste

SPEAKERS: Kibler and Jean-Baptiste greeted the class; senior Katherine Gomez gave the farewell address.

BEST QUOTE: "You've sat through class after class, constantly asking yourself, 'When am I ever going to use this?' The truth is, you may not ever need to know what tribe lived in West Africa during the slave trade or what the Pythagorean theorem is and how you use it, but that's not the only thing high school is about," Kibler said.

LENGTH OF CEREMONY: 90 minutes.

AWARDS: Richard Allen Memorial Scholarship, Wei-Ting Liu.

CLASS GIFT: Computer equipment; table and chairs for media center.

BEHIND THE SCENES: As two proud moms perched on the balcony, snapping away with disposable cameras, one graduate turned to a friend and said, "I think I'm going blind from all the flashes."

SCENES AND SIGHTS: Graduates hopped and bobbed up to the stage to receive their diplomas to the theme from Dragnet.

CELL PHONES: One senior used his as a global positioning device to locate family in the audience.

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