2008 NHS Commencement Celebrates Grads On A Journey

By Eliza Hallabeck

Make headlines, pack your bags, and step into the Volkswagen.

Newtown High School graduates were told many things by their peers, teachers, and community leaders at Tuesday night’s graduation ceremony, and more than 400 students of the Class of 2008 responded with laughter, applause, and balloons.

About 2,000 people gathered into the O’Neill Center at Western Connecticut State University to witness the blue and white gowns float across the stage and move their tassels.

“This community will celebrate your successes for the rest of your lives,” said Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson.

Dr Robinson urged the students to reflect on the morals they were taught in Newtown, and asked the parents, “Do you remember your child’s first day of kindergarten? Doesn’t it feel like just yesterday?”

Board of Education Chair Elaine McClure said she wants the students to go out into the world and make headlines, but “not in the police blotter or the tabloids.”

“You have been educated by the very best teachers in the State of Connecticut,” Ms McClure said to much applause from the graduates.

When class valedictorian Clair Ober reached the podium she admitted she was scared, but not because she was graduating or standing in front of people.

Claire recalled “the scariest moment of my life.” She was standing in a North Carolina airport frantically searching for her red duffle bag, she said, she kept thinking, “I need my bag.”

She had packed the bag carefully, Claire said, with things she needed for an important college interview. All she could do, she said, was picture showing up for the interview wearing a man’s golf clothes and apologizing for her appearance.

“I had carefully packed my bag with the things I needed,” Claire said and explained that throughout her life she had been packing her bag just like her fellow students.

Claire said each of the students waiting for their diplomas carry different things in the bags. Some have knee pads, books, or calculators, she said, adding, “The things we carry have been packed slowly over time.

“Let’s not forget the special people in our lives who have helped us pack out bags,” Claire said.

Two of the speakers for the class explained their feelings in ways that were slightly unconventional for a graduation ceremony. Lee Keylock, an English teacher at Newtown High School, performed a “semi-slam” poem for the students, and Elizabeth Hanna, a woman’s studies teacher at the high school, sang her feelings.

Mr Keylock said he was excited to be asked to speak for the class, until he realized he had to sum up the feelings of a graduating class with loud individual voices. He said he asked students what they wanted to hear and they said, “Mr Keylock keep it fun, but serious.”

He read furiously for weeks, as any English teacher would have done, he said. And he found a poem that he translated and added personal names and places with which the students could associate. Then the “semi-slam” began.

The poem had the graduates get into a Volkswagen and drive through the streets of Castle Hill and Main Street, through the streets of New Haven, Boston, and London. They continued on an epic journey until they eventually look back and are reminded by small things and large things, of flagpole sandwiches from the General Store and other Newtown memories.

“When we pack for good these Volkswagen Bugs, we must leave these doors unlocked,” Mr Keylock said, because future graduates of Newtown High School will need to be reminded of the possible journeys they have before them.

This year’s graduating class from Newtown High School may refer to itself as “the best class ever,” but it has also proven the statement.

Gabrielle Nastri, the class secretary, and Alexandra Clement, the president of Student Government, admitted they had difficulty writing their speech as they looked out over their classmates. They said summing up a class with such accomplishments was difficult.

School records were broken by this class, they said. Two award-winning scientists, an author, and a nationally recognized artist are just some of the accomplished students, they said, who were handed their diplomas this year.