“It’s a good addition because it encourages people to express themselves and not to be traditional, it’s a good idea, something that was needed,” said senior Arianna Armiger about the new policy allowing personal graduation regalia. She believes that the new freedom of being able to decorate and express herself through her graduation attire is something that many students at Steilacoom really wanted.
Senior Issy Pancho is aiming to represent and honor her culture, her family, and her loved ones by decorating her graduation cap using a Philippine flag, a purple ribbon pin for fentanyl awareness (in honor of a friend), and special embroidery in memory of her uncle, “I love it, I’m so happy because I get to wear my cultural memorabilia and represent my culture. I had a friend who passed away and an uncle too so I think I’d like to decorate it in a way that represents and honors them.”
Although senior Rebecca Pyun hasn’t put much thought into her decorations, she fully supports the opportunity for others to express themselves and their values in creative ways, “I think it’s great, it’s good for people for are especially adamant about representing and sharing their culture or artistic abilities.”
Senior Jaylynn Dobbs has a lot planned for her decorations and can’t wait for graduation, “I’m honestly excited, I feel like it’s a bit of freedom and creativity for us to show who we are as students. It’s also kind of like a way for us to show what we want in our futures and maybe parts of our past. I’m going to use some green colors, foresty stuff, adventure-ish, and I want to do a SZA quote.”
SHS librarian and graduation coordinator, Stefani James has talked to many seniors about their decorations, “There will be a form for seniors to fill out if they are interested in decorating their cap and gown. It will be added to a list where the admin can review it just to make sure everything is appropriate. It’s a really exciting opportunity, they couldn’t do this before so it will be super fun to see everyone’s decorations. I’ve seen lots of people do things like favorite saying, a quote, the school they’re going to, cartoon references, song lyrics etc.”
SHS principal Jake Tyrrell believes that this new policy is something good and fun. “Yes it is a new policy, I thought it would be something fun, working up to graduation is a lot of work so it’s pretty neat and it gives students an opportunity to express themselves and what they’ll do after school. As about-to-be graduates, we should be able to trust you to make good decisions. Most students wouldn’t even want/care to jeopardize this opportunity. No big deal if there’s inappropriate stuff on caps we can just ask them to remove it or leave,” he said.
