Hello to my fellow seniors, friends, and family that have students that go to Shawnee Mission North, East, West, South and Northwest. 

As most of you may know the seniors are only getting 6 tickets to graduation this year. This is upsetting to a lot of the seniors family and friends. We feel that especially how this year has gone, with it not being the ideal “senior year” for all of us. The least they could do is not limit the number of people to attend.

We feel that because we will be outside and everyone will still be masked that there shouldn’t be a limit to who can attend. Shawnee Mission North just hosted North Relays and had 40 plus schools attend as well as unlimited visitors. This just doesn’t seem fair with how important graduation is. There are even students with immediate family members who have over 6 people. There are a lot of seniors who have underclassmen friends who would love to be there. This years sports also had limited spectators and that was heartbreaking enough to some, yes they live streamed it but you had to pay for that and besides it’s not the same experience. 

I understand that there may be parents or even students who aren’t comfortable with this idea but I know that majority would be okay with it. As for the teachers possibly being worried, they will be down on the field. Plus 44% of people in Johnson County are vaccinated and majority of teachers are vaccinated if they wanted to be. Grade school, is 17% of the johnson county percentage that leaves 62% left for people who are not yet fully vaccinated. If worst comes to worst and someone gets the virus, there would be only two more days left of the school year. 

When said to a high school administrator that we feel we should have more tickets, this was their response. “What it would take to have our graduation allow unlimited guests, at least regarding family members – A LOT!” Not saying it isn’t possible just that we are not worth it. 

We made this petition to see how many people agree with this issue and would like it changed. After we send this out we will be trying to get in touch the school district themselves because we feel that we should have a say in issues like this and know we can make a change. We need to make them understand that this is our graduation and we are worth it.