COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – The on-again, off-again graduation saga for one local high school is back on less than 24 hours before the ceremony.
Friday afternoon, Victory Preparatory Academy in Commerce City made a recorded phone call to parents and students telling them the charter school’s graduation ceremony was a go, and would be held at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park at 10 a.m. Saturday.
That’s just 30 minutes before the ceremony organized by the community and the Rathad Mohamedbhai law firm.
“We felt compelled to act. We are really proud of these kids and we thought that they deserve — and they do deserve — to celebrate this accomplishment,” said Nick Lutz with the Mohamedbhai firm. “There was a lot of confusion about what was happening today, and that’s understandably hard.”
Many parents said they’ll skip the school’s ceremony in favor of the community one.
“It is creating a little conflict among the kids. They’re a little argumentative. They’re snippy with each other,” said Joslyn Medrano, whose son is graduating. “It’s creating a very high-stress environment for them, which I don’t think is fair. This is supposed to be a monumental time for them, not stressful.”
That stress started earlier in the week.
Recently, students had asked the school for more tickets for their families for the graduation ceremony. Then, the school sent home a letter stating the ceremony was canceled and cited security concerns.
FOX31 reached out to Victory Preparatory Academy Friday and Saturday, but did not receive a call back.