Schools

Graduation Keep Away Tradition Continues

Beachball count goes up from 2010.

The annual graduation game of keep away continued Thursday night as tossed out beach balls in an effort to keep them bouncing away from the faculty for as long as possible.

With graduation rules prohibiting the tossing of beach balls during the ceremony, teachers continuely remain on the lookout for the inflatable toy to take away from the students, in the last minutes the faculty have jurisdiction over the students. The tradition continues annually, with the students aiming to keep the beach balls afloat.

The Class of 2011 started tossing beach balls early in the ceremony and continued as names were being called. While no statistics are available for how many beach balls were taken during the evening, unofficial counts have the numbers higher than last year. WHS records show that the Class of 2010 thrown Class of 2009, who were also in the Armory.

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WHS teacher Bev Torok, who was on beach ball duty, reported that a beach ball she had taken and stowed under her seat was taken back by the students and found it's way back in the air. Other teachers said the students were aiming to recapture the beach balls from the teachers, before the faculty started deflating the captured beach balls.

By the end of the diploma roll call, and in the final seconds of their jurisdiction over the students, the faculty seemed to give up on the beach ball patrol, letting them bounce around the graduates. Beach balls could also be seen bouncing around during the cap toss at the end of the ceremony.

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