As many may know, Brandon Thomsen passed June 2019 due to asthma complications. We had a lot of support from our local community including the high school that myself, Brandon’s sister, went to, Brandon himself, and our little brother who’s now a sophomore. We had multiple people from the school tell us that they’d save him a seat, and recognizing him as a student they had. They even commented on his obituary stating they’d save him a seat. The time has come where it’s the year Brandon would be graduating and we reached out asking what their plan was for Brandon so we could let family know. Unfortunately we got the response of that they wouldn’t be doing anything for him and that they “never have in the past” and that it’s in their policy that they don’t do memorials. They also mentioned that it may stir up emotions that “may effect the rest of the day” for others even if it’s a sense of calm for us. Little do they know that I myself as someone who attended the school for four years, saw a couple memorials at graduation myself, along with my husband who had a class member pass in his grade. I also read the district administrative policy book, knowing that they had memorials in the past, and just curious as to why Brandon wasn’t special enough to go against that policy like many others. Unfortunately I found out that that was a lie and that there’s no policy against memorials at graduation. I get Brandon wasn’t a star athlete or someone that was popular within the school, but he loved his friends, teachers and attending school. We’re not only wanting to do this for Brandon, but any other families who may go through the loss of a child and have their child not be recognized as apart of the schools and students lives. So I’m wanting to make the change.