NEW PORT RICHEY - The crowded gym at Ridgewood High School teemed Friday night with all the bittersweet emotions graduation brings: the sated sense of accomplishment, the excitement of opportunities ahead, the sadness of goodbyes.
In the midst of it all, the graduating Class of 2003 took the time to remember the three who weren't there.
Graduates presented honorary diplomas to the parents of Ashley Morrison and Jim Priest, two classmates whose lives were taken in separate tragedies. Morrison, a volleyball and basketball standout, died in December 2000 from encephalitis; football quarterback Priest perished the following April in a car accident.
The students also remembered Richard Toller, a classmate killed by a driver in February 2001, four months after he left Ridgewood to be homeschooled by his grandmother.
"We miss you and will never forget you," said senior Matthew Laliberte. "You will always be in our hearts."
Several seniors said the tough times pulled the class together. As sophomores, they were among the first students to take the all-important FCAT test; by senior year, they were watching their older friends go off to war.
"Together, we handled each of these events, one by one," said Dan Sagendorf, who shared valedictorian honors with Ramil Lim.
Chris Halkitis was the class salutatorian; classmate Cathy Kelly was named Ridgewood's outstanding student.
Among the school's 354 graduates, 27 finished with grade point averages above 4.0. The class also boasted the school district's outstanding social studies student (Karina McCabe), the Pasco County high school student of the year (Jennifer Beebe), and a graduate who had missed only one day of school (Samantha Simmerman).
And in case there was any doubt, a short video projected on giant screens showed some of the seniors breakdancing, proving these kids can party, too.
The graduates who filed onto the stage Friday night in their sapphire robes and orange-ribboned medallions shared another distinction: the last class to get their diplomas from retiring principal Dr. Arthur O'Donnell.
"Thirty-five years and I finally graduated from high school," O'Donnell quipped. "You took four years. I took a little longer."
