Graduation Perspiration Inspiration

Another round of graduations has come and gone.  I am so proud of all the young men and women who crossed the stage and got their diplomas, and of the parents, grandparents and siblings who supported those students in this achievement.  For some grads, it was a pretty easy trip, with enough money and support for cars, clothes, tutoring, grad parties, etc.  For others, the trip was not so easy.


I heard about a student at Morton Ranch High School who must have had a rough road getting to graduation.  I'm filling in blanks, here, because I only know about his arrival at the graduation ceremony, and am imagining the path that got him there.  I'm told he arrived dripping in sweat, without a dress shirt.  He was at first chastised for not dressing appropriately, but when the circumstances were known, Herff-Jones fashioned a man's "shirt" collar out of a ladies' collar, a staff member lent a tie, and he walked across the stage and got his diploma.  Why did attitudes change?  Because they learned that the young man is homeless, and in order to get to graduation, he JOGGED there.


I'm sad that this student did not have the family support that the vast majority of our students do, but he certainly had the support of someone at Morton Ranch, which I learned a little bit about when I followed up with Mark Grisdale, MRHS Principal.  Apparently, the young man had a falling out of some sort with his family several weeks before the end of school, and felt he had to drop out to work.  Someone helped him see that with so few weeks left, it would be possible to graduate and he'd never have to do it again, if he just worked through the end of school.  It took a lot of cajoling and follow-through, but he made it to enough classes to graduate, and passed them.  He could have so easily fallen through the cracks, but he was "caught" by someone at Morton Ranch.  Another cool side note: Mark didn't know about this and had to track down the story for me, which means he is lets his people handle problems on their own and doesn't feel the need to micromanage. The best leaders hire great people and then get out of their way.  Kudos to him!


I'm THRILLED this student moved a mountain to get to graduation, and am wondering what fabulous Morton Ranch teacher, class, or experience with his peers or campus staff inspired this perseverance?  What inspired this young man to jog for miles in 90+ degree heat to get to the ceremony?  It must have been powerful...  But not surprising.  There are thousands of terrific stories in our schools of someone making a difference in another's life.  It could have been something like the teachers at another High School who worked till the wee hours of the morning with students who barely missed the mark to help them make the KOLA requirements so they could graduate with their peers.  It could have been like the community member who organized a fund-raising campaign to help a group of Miller Career Center students travel to a national competition because he knew they had no "booster club" to help make that happen.  We are so lucky and blessed to live in a community where these types of stories are common.  Sadly, we don't really have a "news source" willing to cover those stories.  The traditional newspapers don't cater to the entire district geographically, and the internet "news" pages are all about generating "hits", so the tear-down stories are preferred over the feel-good.  Closest thing is a Facebook page called "IHeartKISD".  Not enough people know about it, though.


In addition to being proud of the graduates and their families, I'm particularly proud of the people of our school district, and especially those wonderful folks at Morton Ranch who did not let this young person fall through the cracks.  Katy ISD is a terrific school district, where wonderful things are happening, and we need to shout about it more often.  Tell those wonderful stories!  Anywhere and everywhere!