“Please stand as you join one another in the milestone of turning your tassel from the right to the left… and as you uncover your cords from beneath your gown.”
Doesn’t have a nice ring to it, does it?
Year after year, graduating seniors voice their grievances concerning what graduation cords they are and are not allowed to wear at the graduation ceremony.
Year after year, the students are told they may still receive cords from various clubs and co-curricular organizations; however, they can only wear the approved cords across the graduation stage.
As a senior writer on The Central Times staff, I will inevitably receive the lovely teal and purple journalism cords come graduation season, as will my fellow seniors on the yearbook staff, yet none of us will walk across the stage presenting them.
Currently, Hardin County Schools permits students to wear cords, medallions, or stoles earned from work ethic certification, GPA honors, Magna Cum Laude, Summa Cum Laude, German National Honor Society, military honors, EC3 Academy, HCS pathways, and Beta Club.
“We [the Hardin County high school principals] line up, we get together and compare notes, because we want to be consistent,” CHHS principal Tim Issacs said. “It was decided several years ago that we would stick to these cords crossing the stage. You can wear whatever cords you want before or after, but going across the stage we ask that you only wear the approved cords.”
So why are some clubs approved, like Beta Club, while others, such as Y-Club, FBLA, and FCCLA, are not?
“Beta has an academic standard, you have to have a certain GPA to get into that club,” Issacs explained. “It would violate many clubs’ national charter to have a GPA requirement, or set an academic standard for eligibility.”
The question arises: Where would we stop? If every club, pathway, co-curricular, and class for that matter, introduced a cord, students would soon be shielded in them. What would be our stance?
“It comes to a point where it takes away from the robe, and the distinguished nature that the ceremony is supposed to be. What’ll happen next if you start opening it up to all of the clubs, then the cords are going to get louder, and everybody is going to try to make their cord the one that stands out, because that’s what happens, these things continue to grow,” Issacs said.
To make it clear, the administrators are not subsiding the importance of these organizations or their deserving of recognition in the slightest. The verdict is simple: students are encouraged to take pictures with all their cords and display them as they wish before and after graduation, but during the ceremony, they are asked to adhere to the current guidelines.
“If anybody deliberately did something [not permitted] at graduation, the reality is you’re done,” Issacs said. “What I would do, if I felt like it was deliberate, you wouldn’t be at Project Grad and you’re probably not welcome back on this campus.”
With all of that being said, seniors, and soon-to-be seniors, what is your stance? Where should the boundary be established? Would we truly be diminishing the integrity of the graduation ceremony by accommodating various cords?
