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High School Graduations Go Big Time for Crowds

Posted on: Friday, 16 June 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Sara Perkins, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Jun. 16--Weary of complaints about capacity and weather, more school divisions are moving their graduations off campus, into bigger event centers.

Chesapeake schools moved graduation to the Ted Constant Convocation Center at Old Dominion University last year, and they aren't going back. The 10,000 -capacity center has ample parking and is safe from sudden downpours and punishing temperatures, said Thomas Cupitt, school division spokesman . "This is just a lot more comfortable," he said.

Schools still will give out a limited number of tickets to each student. With Chesapeake graduating classes of about 600 , Cupitt said, it isn't outside the realm of possibility that big families would fill the Constant Center .

Still, although many divisions have to give out tickets in the single digits per student, Indian River High School senior Reuben Gillium got 20 tickets for his graduation today at the Constant Center. Most students, he said, got 15 and could ask for more.

Meanwhile, schools will videotape graduation to widen their audiences and keep parents from jostling for that perfect camera angle when their child accepts his or her diploma. Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Suffolk high schools will sell tapes or DVDs to families after graduation, and several divisions will broadcast the events on local cable stations.

In Hampton Roads, only Suffolk has remained on school grounds for graduation, but its three high schools have abandoned open-air events. Left frazzled by a "logistical nightmare" rain plan, the division moved the ceremonies under cover for good a few years ago, schools spokeswoman Bethanne Bradshaw said .

Now, students get color-coded tickets. At King's Fork High School on Saturday, white tickets will admit family members to the gymnasium ceremony. A yellow ticket, meanwhile, will route other relatives and friends to the school auditorium, where they can watch the ceremony on a big screen.

Students and families know in advance about how many tickets they will receive, Bradshaw said. Students can apply for more because tickets that aren't needed are redistributed.

"We've often had kids ask, 'Why can't we just move to a bigger place?' " she said.

However, Suffolk doesn't have an appropriate facility, and Bradshaw said the school board rejected a move outside the city limits. "That would be un-Suffolkian," she said.

* Reach Sara Perkins at (757) 222-5132 or sara.perkins@pilotonline.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Virginian-Pilot

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