Katie Couric, Barbara Walters, Sally Ride, Sandra Day O’Connor, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Tipper Gore, Grace Kelly. President Gerald Ford, Steven Spielberg, Ross Perot, Sam Walton, Neil Armstrong. Pat Hickman, chairman of the board of Happy State Bank; Mark White, managing partner of Sprouse Shrader Smith; Ron Boyd, owner of Duncan & Boyd Jewelers, and Ny Lynn Nichols, news director for KAMR Local 4 News and Fox 14 News.

What do all these people have in common?  They are all either Girl Scout Gold Award or Boy Scout Eagle recipients. 

·        There are 73.7 million children that are school aged in the US.

·        3.7 Million of these children are to graduate in the year of 2020

·        Only  5% of these individuals have been in scouts

·        1.8 Million Are Girl Scouts.

·        2.3 Million are Boy Scouts

·        5.4% of Girl Scouts earn their Gold Award annually

·        6.01% of Boy Scouts earn their Eagle Scout award.

Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts help young women and men develop physically, intellectually, socially, and spiritually. It helps develop them to their full potential, relating to others and increase understanding. It helps develop values to guide their actions and provide a foundation for sound decision making   Scouting is all about building confidence and self-esteem, learning important life skills and leadership skills, team building & community involvement.   Scouting helps produce our future leaders of America.  Scouting has been an important organization in our country for well over 100 years.

Scouts volunteer numerous hours throughout their scouting career to many organizations & schools in our community.   Girl Scouts is also a part of our middle school PE programs here in Amarillo, giving all girls the opportunity to be a part of the scouting organization.

During High school, girl and Boy Scouts can earn their highest award, The Gold Award and the Eagle Award.  Each of these awards require numerous hours of dedication to a project that benefits an organization in their community.  Their project must be sustainable.  They must fund raise, get approval for and carry out their project.  Once completed these projects must be accepted and approved.  These projects can take anywhere from 3 months to 4 years. 

These awards are highly recognized by the majority of Universities in the United states and throughout the world, the military and businesses.  There are also scholarships available to Gold and Eagle recipients at the city, state and national level.  Many colleges too offer scholarships to these winners.

Although Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts are not a High school club or sport, it is a significant part of their academic career.  High school graduation is not only an opportunity to be proud of one’s academic accomplishments, but it is a time to be proud of the contributions they have made to our community. The commitments they have made to organizations outside of Amarillo Independent School should not be discounted because they weren’t directly school-related. When these scouts graduate, they will not only be representing themselves as an Amarillo graduate, they will also be representing themselves as a member of this community.  We feel that Amarillo School district should allow Gold and Eagle award recipients the same respect and recognition that all of their peers receive for all of their service, whether or not it occurred at school or in our community at large.

After carefully reviewing the Amarillo school student handbook and website, we were unable to locate any information in regards to graduation rules nor any rules stating that any cords other than specific school graduation cords were not allowed.  We are simply asking that the Amarillo School Board reexamine their policy, if any, on honor cords and allow All Boy Scout Eagle recipients and Girl Scout Gold recipients to wear their honor cords at Graduation.