(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Palmer High School seniors in Colorado Springs staged a silent protest during their graduation ceremony this year against a new academic recognition policy from District 11. The policy recognizes students with a 3.75 GPA or higher with different colored gowns and front-row seating, which some students felt created division.
Some of the graduating students, including senior class leaders, swapped their gold academic gowns for brown ones after the tassel turn to express their stance on the district’s decision.
District 11 implemented the new policy as a method to acknowledge academic achievements without the use of graduation cords. However, some students and parents raised concerns that the change fostered division within a ceremony intended to celebrate the entire graduating class as a unit…