Disciplinary high school students do not take graduation for granted. They had to earn the right to attend.
By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published May 12, 2004
[Times photo: Donna Winchester]
Brandon Gipson, a Northeast High student assigned to Norwood Secondary School, waits Friday to plead his case. "I was hanging out with the wrong crowd," he said. "It's good that I got caught."
ST. PETERSBURG - The principal of a disciplinary high school almost called off a longtime tradition this week.
The students hardly minded.
Instead of celebrating graduation at an early-morning breakfast - as close as the students thought they would get to a real commencement - they learned Friday they will be able to walk in ceremonies at the schools they attended before they were reassigned to Norwood Secondary School.
Principal Cheryl DiCicco decided to hold the breakfast anyway, as an extra salute to the six seniors who hail from Tarpon Springs, Countryside, Largo and Northeast high schools.
Parents and faculty will still toast them with coffee and orange juice on Thursday in the school's cafeteria at 2154 27th Ave. N, but DiCicco expects the mood to be bright rather than bittersweet.
An additional seven seniors who were reassigned to PTEC-South Secondary School also learned they will be able to attend graduation ceremonies at their schools.
All 13 students took advantage of a new appeals process approved last year by the Pinellas School Board that allows them to return to their home campuses for graduation, something students reassigned during the second semester of their senior year for zero-tolerance violations, such as possession or distribution of drugs, unprovoked violence and possession of weapons other than guns, could not do in the past.
Each student had 15 minutes to present his or her case last week to a panel composed of three area superintendents, two directors for school operations and a parent.
DiCicco and Paul Summa, principal at PTEC-South, supplied information on the students' progress during their reassignments. Principals from the schools where the students hoped to return were given a chance to say whether they were willing to have the students come back.
One of the appellants was Brandon Gipson. The 18-year-old Northeast High student, who was reassigned to Norwood for marijuana possession, arrived at the Pinellas County Schools administration building a half hour early for his 11:15 a.m. appointment.
Accompanying him were his grandmother and legal guardian, Shirley Gipson, and his older brother, Antonio, who had come for moral support.
Brandon sat in the lobby and nervously leafed through a yearbook while he waited for his name to be called. Once inside Room E-111, he began his presentation simply, saying he was not there to make excuses.
"I was hanging out with the wrong crowd and I made some bad decisions," he said. "I can't point the finger at anyone but myself."
He explained that he was angry when he first went to Norwood and realized all he would miss - football games, prom, grad night - but said he was not angry anymore.
"It's good that I got caught," he said. "I probably would have kept doing what I was doing."
One thing he would regret, he told the panel, would be missing the chance to graduate with his class at Northeast.
"This is not just for me," he said. "It's for my grandmother also. I can tell when I look at her that I've disappointed her. I know my grandmother really wants to see me walk across the stage."
At that point, his voice broke. His grandmother, who sat beside him throughout the appeal, handed him a tissue. Then it was her turn to speak.
"I've had Brandon since he was born, so I'm prejudiced when it comes to him," Mrs. Gipson began. "I'm not disappointed, but I am hurt."
She paused and took a breath.
"I'm glad Brandon got caught," she continued. "He has never been denied anything. Now he knows that if you do wrong, if you break the law, you're going to pay for it."
When the family returned home, they found a phone message waiting for them from school operations director Nancy Zambito. Brandon had won his appeal.
"I'm so happy I get to walk with my class," Brandon said after hearing the news. "It's a blessing."
Not all of the calls Zambito made by day's end on Friday brought good news. She had to tell a few of the 44 seniors who had appealed and who have been attending teleschool that their appeals were denied.
"It wasn't as much the offense," she said. "If there was a continued lack of cooperation, a lack of academic effort, that would cause us to believe the appeal should not be granted."
DiCicco, the Norwood principal, was thrilled to learn that all of her students will be graduating with their classes.
"Graduation is a family event, a life event," she said. "The kids have worked 13 years for it. I don't think they should be deprived because of one mistake."
