They didn't get to walk.
They were all dressed up and ready to graduate, but the location in the pic is the public sidewalk outside school. We had a Sidewalk Celebration to honor them, since the heartless Governing Board and administrators were intent on not allowing them to be honored in the actual graduation ceremony.
Yep, the school really did it. On June 2, 2022, Granada Hills Charter actually went through with the historic, colossally stupid and cruel denial of graduation to students based purely on CV19 v@x status. Here is a small group of our brave and committed conscientious objectors. These are our critical thinkers, our liberty defenders, our leaders of tomorrow. They all will have bright futures ahead, with GHC in their rearview mirrors!
We got amazing last-minute support: Grant Stinchfield taking the story national on Newsmax, and US Rep Mike Garcia, a Granada Hills native, contacting the Board to urge them to be reasonable, allow negative Covid tests, don't intentionally injure these students. But the petty tyrants of GHC held firm: their policy was for the "health and safety of everyone," even as we watched the ticket-takers fail to check for the vax status of attendees, like they'd sworn they'd do, and even after other students were required to provide negative Covid tests, but ours were not allowed to provide a test to enter.
And speaking of the petty tyrants, GHC isn't sorry at all. When we protested outside school on May 31, a concerned parent called the school. The parent had been unaware of the discrimination against the unvaxxed students, and demanded what the school would do in response to all the protests. I am told that the female administrator who took the call said "They can protest all they want," then laughed and hung up. No shame. No compassion. No intelligence.
And this morning, June 3, GHC denied 8th grade culmination ceremonies to the unvaxxed middle schoolers. The GHC leaders are that hellbent on supporting their indefensible policy that they will punish deny 8th graders this important transition into high school. Guess which high school those kids have suddenly decided not to attend!
This fight against GHC is not over. Please keep sharing this petition! We now have many claims to file and lawsuit(s) to draft. If one charter school in California is allowed to get away with this, then you could be just a zip code away from this same idiotic and devastating discrimination. Thank you for your continued support! The parents thank you! And most of all, the students thank you!
PS - Watch for New West Charter in LA to attempt this in a couple weeks. NWC and GHC were the only schools who did this in all of California.