Graduation is a time of joy and celebration. After 13 years of school, seniors don gowns and put on headgear they wouldn’t be caught dead in otherwise, to celebrate their achievements with family members who helped get them there.
If, that is, they’re lucky enough to score a ticket.
The Staples High School graduating class of 2025 is about 425 strong. (Very strong, even if a couple of them are scrambling to get to the finish line.)
Each graduate gets 4 tickets to the June ceremony at Paul Lane Field (the outdoor stadium). With parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles and aunts, that seldom covers everyone.
A concerned “06880” reader writes:
My nephew is one of the many seniors to graduate this year.
My family and I are exceptionally proud of his accomplishments and achievements, and so excited for his transition to college, and eventually “real life.”
Throughout his four years at Staples he has studied diligently, held a part-time job, completed an internship, and was accepted at nearly all the universities he applied to. In addition, he won a Student of the Month Award.
I was very disappointed to learn over spring break that only 4 tickets will be granted per family — including parents. This seems unreasonably restrictive to me.
Graduation, 2024.
When my siblings and I graduated from Staples, the ceremony was in the fieldhouse, rain or shine. More relatives were accommodated.
I wrote to “06880” expressing my frustration about this decision on behalf of my family, who will not all be able to participate in this milestone event in a young adult’s life .
Dan Woog reached out to principal Stafford Thomas, and received this reply:
Actually there were more seats in the fieldhouse than there are in the stadium. A family used to get 5-6 tickets, but with a graduating class of ~425 students and about 1,850 available bleacher seats/spaces if shoehorned in, even giving 5 tickets would clearly not work. Hence the 4 tickets.
It is true that more people have attended the recent outside graduations than they did in the fieldhouse due to the crowds on the hill and the standing room crowd around the perimeter of the stadium.
Unfortunately, the bleachers were built to hold the expected capacity of a much smaller school population at Staples (about 30/40 years ago). If they were built today, based on our current population trends, we’d easily be able to accommodate at least 6-7 tickets per family.
Bleachers are full, at Staples’ 2023 graduation.
The ceremony does not have to be held outside. If more people can fit in the fieldhouse, why not host it there? What if it rains? You’d have to move it there anyway.
I understand that Staples can’t accommodate every family member. But they could at least offer an additional 2 tickets. I respectfully ask that you reconsider this decision. Perhaps you could allow more people with tickets to stand along the perimeter.
In the fieldhouse, parents jostled for photos as graduates marched in.
This may be the first time anyone asked for graduation to be moved back into the fieldhouse. The ceremony was moved there (from outdoors) after it was built in the early 1980s. Each year there were complaints about how hot and uncomfortable the fieldhouse was; how hard it was to hear and see, and how brutal the competition was to get good seats.
Graduation moved back outdoors in 2021 (following the COVID-related “drive-by” ceremony the previous year). Attendees liked being outside; being able to see and hear — and not having to battle for seats.
There are ways to watch without tickets. As Principal Thomas noted, some people without tickets stand on the hill by Bedford Middle School. It’s not a great view, but it’s before the ticket checkpoint.
The only way to stand closer, around the perimeter, is with a ticket.
The event is livestreamed, for all those without tickets. Viewers follow the processional and speeches, and watch each senior receive a diploma.
For over 140 years, Staples has held graduation ceremonies. Each one has had challenges. If you’ve got a memory of your Staples graduation — or a relative’s — click Comments below. And if you faced a ticket challenge, add that story too.
The Class of 2024 celebrates.
