A Single Graduation for Everyone, At Last
For as long as the current Culver City High School students have been enrolled, the Senior Graduation Ceremony has been two separate ceremonies, held on-campus at the Jerry Chabola Stadium. This year, big changes have been made.
CCHS seniors can now expect one joint ceremony, together with all of their classmates at 11:00 a.m. on June 12th. Additionally, the ceremony takes place off-campus, on the football field of the neighboring West Los Angeles College. These changes mean over 500 students will have their graduation ceremony at the same time and place, as opposed to being split apart.
Benefits for one ceremony are the excitement and togetherness of celebrating with one's entire class as well as streamlined efficiency for the administrators and staff who must attend the ceremony. Culver City Unified School District board members must attend the high school ceremony in addition to the elementary and middle school graduations.
Prior to the pandemic, CCHS had always hosted a single graduation ceremony. The idea of two separate ceremonies was brought into conversation around 2010. A citation from a marshal at the fire department warned CCHS administration about the dangers of having such a largely populated ceremony in the school's small stadium, leading to the suggestion of two ceremonies. Nevertheless, CCHS continued with a single ceremony until 2019.
In 2020, COVID-impacted graduates had their own unique circumstances. After a world-wide quarantine forced students to finish the school year by remote education, a standard graduation ceremony was out of the question. Therefore, the idea of a drive-through ceremony became a reality. Set up on the site of Farragut Elementary School, graduates drove in through the middle school gate and up to Farragut to receive their diploma from a makeshift stage. Only the graduate was allowed to come up to the stage, and they had to immediately return to their car. Each car came decorated and contained each graduate's family and friends.
The following year, 2021, was another outlier, with a whopping four graduation ceremonies over the course of two days, each spanning an hour and a half. Ever since, CCHS maintained two separate ceremonies, until this year.
Once the choice was made to combine two ceremonies into one for 2026, the next decision was on the best venue. The school board opted for West LA College’s campus, which could provide the space for the large graduation class and their invited guests.
In addition to the class-wide graduation ceremony, many CCHS clubs put together school-sanctioned ceremonies in larger venues that recognize their attendees’ academic achievements and traditions. These ceremonies include the Kente Ceremony on May 21st, the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Ceremony on May 27th, the Lavender Graduation on June 2nd, and the La Fuerza Graduation on June 3rd.
The Kente Ceremony, started by teacher Fallon Perdue-Smith, began the trend of these additional annual graduation ceremonies five years ago. Before then, students and clubs had been limited to small celebrations within a classroom during club time on school days, which meant little to no family and guest participation.
This year’s Kente Ceremony, organized by CCHS’ Black Student Union and the Black/African American Parent Affinity Group, was held in the Robert Frost Auditorium. The ceremony was highlighted by award recipients receiving scholarships, students conducting performances for the audience and graduates receiving stoles.
A Kente is a hand-woven cloth dated to 12th century Africa, in the country of Ghana and the Ashanti people, and it now represents the history, philosophy, ethics, and moral values of Ghanaian culture. According to Loyola Marymount University, a “Kente Grad Ceremony is a rite of passage that commemorates the academic and personal achievements of our graduating students who wish to celebrate their achievements within the context of African and African American cultural traditions.”
Next on the calendar was the AANHPI Graduation, organized by CCHS’ Asian Cultural Union, Korean Cultural Club, South Asian Culture Club, Fil-Am Arts & Culture Club, and Mixed and Interethnic Xperiences Club. This is their fourth annual event, held at the Robert Frost Auditorium. Local AANHPI businesses generously helped fund the event, and guest speaker Ann Kaneko and a musical performance from graduating seniors brightened the night.
Coming up on June 2, the Lavender Graduation was brought to CCHS by Counselor James Smith and Dr. Keao Tano in recent years as well. This year's ceremony is to be held at the Wende Museum, and will honor CCHS’ LGBTQIA+ graduates.
According to the Lavender Graduation Legacy Project, “Lavender Graduation was created in 1995 at the University of Michigan, founded by Dr. Ronni Sanlo, after he witnessed the exclusion of LGBTQ+ students from traditional honors and ceremonies. He created this ceremony to honor the lives of LGBTQ graduating students and their academic achievement. It was designed to show LGBTQ students that they mattered to the university. Lavender Graduations have been hosted at colleges and universities for the past 30 years.”
The next day, CCHS’ La Fuerza has their graduation ceremony. Inspired after attending the first Kente Ceremony five years ago, the club decided to create their own celebration. This event is designed to celebrate students and families of Latinx or Hispanic Heritage and will be hosted in the Robert Frost Auditorium. The club is raising money to provide a mariachi band, playing the traditional genre of Mexican folk music.