Lacey Kirkbride is set to graduate from Aiken's Horse Creek Academy on June 1 but, right now, she can't walk through the halls of the elementary school she attended and celebrate her graduation with younger students.
The Aiken County Public School District implemented restrictions last year on which graduating seniors could participate in the senior walk tradition at the district's elementary schools, District Communications Director Merry Glenne Piccolino said Wednesday afternoon.
A senior walk is a tradition in which graduating seniors return to their former schools and walk through the halls in their graduation regalia, receiving high-fives and encouragement from the students at those schools.
These restrictions mean that seniors graduating from Horse Creek Academy, like Lacey, and Fox Creek High School can't go back to the Aiken County elementary schools they attended.
Though it is located in Edgefield County, Fox Creek also serves students from Aiken County — primarily North Augusta — as well.
Lacey attended the East Aiken School of the Arts from first through fifth grades, her mother, Kim, said.
"She wanted to go back to East Aiken to celebrate with some of her teachers and even some classmates that she went to school with in elementary school that are graduating from the other public schools," Kim said Wednesday morning.
Lacey does have the ability to walk at Horse Creek, she continued.
"But, she didn't go to elementary school at Horse Creek Academy," Kim said. "She didn't have those teachers. It wouldn't be the same if she's just walking the halls of somewhere she didn't attend."
The restrictions caught the attention of the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives from Aiken County.
S.C. Reps. Bill Clyburn, Bill Hixon, Bill Taylor, Bart Blackwell and Melissa Oremus, the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives from Aiken County, sent a letter to District Superintendent King Laurence on Tuesday asking for the restrictions to be removed.
"We … are confused by a recent Aiken County Public School District decision to deny Fox Creek High School seniors visitation rights to their respective elementary schools to celebrate their graduation with younger students, who in turn, will be the seniors visiting that school six years hence," the delegation members said in the letter.
The seniors at Fox Creek and Horse Creek have been educated with federal and state tax dollars, too, the delegation continued.
Charter schools are funded using federal and state tax dollars. Public school districts receive those funds, too, but also receive revenues from local property taxes.
Oremus said the ban was "not OK."
"Aiken County really!!!??!!!. These are the same kids and same families!!!," she continued on Facebook.
In the letter, the delegation suggests the district implemented the restrictions because the seniors' parents elected to continue their child's education at a charter school.
"They were being denied I assume because we chose a different path for our child's education," Kim said.
"We, too, celebrate the accomplishment of all graduates, whether or not they complete their K-12 academic journey in our district’s schools or elsewhere," Piccolino said.
Piccolino said the senior walk tradition began "organically" a few years ago when a group of high school principals planned them in collaboration with elementary school leaders.
"It’s grown considerably to a district tradition that all of our district’s high school seniors have the opportunity to participate in," she said. "The growth in participation necessitated our district’s adoption last year of parameters to ensure the safety of the events on our elementary school campuses and accountability for our high school senior participants."
The school district is open to including "partner high schools' students" but wants to do so in "collaboration with their charter/private/home school district leaders to ensure the safety of the event and its participants, including high school students traveling to and from our elementary campuses," Piccolino said.
Laurence has reached out to leaders of local charter schools, private schools and home school associations to accommodate "their desires concerning the celebration of their graduates," Piccolino said.
