The Pasco County is one of a handful of Florida school districts barring seniors from graduation exercises when they don't meet all the requirements.
By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published May 21, 2003
LAND O'LAKES - One point on a state test is separating 18-year-old Raylyn Southard from walking across the stage at Mitchell High School's graduation Friday night, and her mother is not pleased.
Leslie Southard and parents of five other students who have been barred from participating in this week's commencement ceremonies because they haven't met all the state graduation requirements took their pain to the Pasco County School Board on Tuesday, pleading with the board to reconsider its 3-year-old no-pass, no-walk policy.
"Should one pen-and-paper test take away 13 years of achievement?" Southard asked the five board members, referring to the FCAT, the state-mandated standardized test required for graduation.
When 2,777 Pasco County high school seniors don their caps and gowns Friday night, 262 others who started the 2002-03 school year with them will be sitting out on the pomp and circumstance.
About 92 of those will have their performance on the FCAT to blame, according to figures provided by Bob Dorn, the administrator overseeing the system's high schools.
Students must successfully complete all their course work, maintain a 2.0 grade point average overall and pass the FCAT in order to graduate under state law. Pasco County is one of a handful of school districts in the state that bar students from graduation exercises when they don't meet all three criteria. Others let them walk despite the fact they will not receive a diploma.
Board chairwoman Cathi Martin said she sympathized with the parents, several of whom tearfully recounted their children's successes beyond the test.
But, Martin said, "There has to be some sort of accountability."
If the board were to disregard its policy in the cases of students who failed the FCAT by a point or two, it would have to decide whether to offer the same flexibility to a student who missed a 2.0 grade point average by a tenth of a point, superintendent John Long said.
"Where do we draw the line?" Martin said.
Though the board first adopted the no-walk policy in the 1998-99 school year, it began enforcing it in spring 2001, and has had to face the emotional outcry of parents every spring since.
"I probably hate these board meetings more than any other. But I really believe the board is doing the right thing," Long said.
Hudson High principal Greg Wright said he appreciates the rule. "I think this really sends a message that says, hey, everything you do matters," Wright said.
Parents and students gathered outside the central office building after they heard board members say they have no intention of changing the rules.
Ashley Beamer, 17, a senior at Mitchell, flashed the senior class ring her mother gave her the day they learned she wouldn't be walking.
"I just want to walk. That's all," Beamer said, tears rolling down her freckled cheeks.
Beamer's mother, Catherine Swanson, said Ashley's been a reading tutor, has a 2.9 grade point average and is active in the color guard for the school band.
"All this really is is a form of public humiliation," Swanson said.
Pasco seniors who didn't pass the FCAT this year will have the opportunity to take it again this summer. The school district will hold a special ceremony for summer graduates.
Additionally, administrators said, seniors who fail the test this summer will have the opportunity to enroll in the fall as 13th-year seniors, enabling them to get additional remedial courses they might need to help them pass.
- Rebecca Catalanello covers education in Pasco County. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6241 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6241. Her e-mail address is rcatalanello@sptimes.com
