MARIETTA — The Cobb County School District has revised a rule guiding graduation ceremonies after a Sprayberry High School student with Down syndrome was excluded from her graduation in May.
Ashlynn Rich and five other Sprayberry students with disabilities were placed behind the stage during the 2024 graduation ceremony, unable to enjoy the festivities alongside their general education peers or see any of the speakers.
They received their diplomas in a quick precession ahead of their peers and were escorted out of the building before the turning of the tassel — and before some of their family members knew to look at the stage, pull out their cameras and clap for their graduate, according to Linda Ramirez, Rich’s mother.
“I’m disappointed about sitting in the back of the stage,” Rich told the Marietta Daily Journal in May. “I wanted to sit in front.”
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale issued a personal apology to Rich and Ramirez at the June meeting of the school board. He told them the Sprayberry incident was “not a failure of policy,” but personnel.
“The district has had processes in place … when followed, (they) ensure every Cobb student has access to the same graduation opportunities. What occurred in this instance was not a failure of policy, but appears to be the decision made by an individual employee, perhaps with the best intentions, that should have been made by a parent,” Ragsdale said in June.
Some, like Democratic board member Becky Sayler, wanted to see the board adopt a more inclusive graduation policy in response to the incident.
But Ragsdale and the district pushed back on the idea, instead promising to amend the graduation process to require students with disabilities to have graduation plans approved by parents and placed in writing prior to the ceremony.
“The issue in this case was not a policy issue, but an employee seemingly misunderstanding what was desired and substituting their judgment for that of a student and her family,” the district wrote in an August email to the Marietta Daily Journal.
“As Superintendent Ragsdale stated in June, our amended process ensures participation discussions with parents in advance of the ceremony and ensures their desires and decisions are in writing, which should eliminate any future misunderstandings.”
The board was notified the amended process had been put into writing a few weeks ago. According to Ragsdale, the rule has already been communicated and placed in the graduation ceremony handbook.
The revised language guarantees students of all abilities who have met graduation requirements be given the opportunity to “fully participate” in commencement ceremonies.
It also requires all students with a “temporary or permanent impairment or disability” to have a participation plan, which will include the location they will be seated in for the ceremony. That plan will be communicated to and signed off on by a parent prior to the ceremony.
Sayler said she was happy with the change, and saw it as meeting the same end goals of her proposed board policy.
“I’m thrilled with it, I think this gets across the exact goal of what I was trying to accomplish with what I suggested, exactly what families have been asking for and I think this is going to be a really positive thing,” Sayler said. “It doesn’t have to be the exact way I envision it, I think the end result is going to be the same.”
Credit: Marietta Daily Journal
Credit: Marietta Daily Journal
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