Advertisement Many female classmates chose similarly obnoxiously colored frocks, while the guys put on collared shirts and khaki pants.
It was 1997, and coordinating with a graduation gown in Hilltopper purple was tough, but we managed to pull it off.
We were a good-looking group, prim and proper, dressed appropriately — by grown-up standards — to receive our high school diplomas.
Little did we know there was a minor thing called graduation dress etiquette lingering that could have prevented us from walking across the stage.
So, class of 2008, here is my advice to you: You’ve worked hard these past four years, and your parents want nothing more than to see you walk across the stage, receive your diploma and shake the hands of school administrators and school board members you likely have never met and may not see again. Don’t let a pair of ripped jeans and an offensive T-shirt under your gown prevent this from happening.
Picture your 86-year-old grandmother when she hears you were wearing a micro-mini with spaghetti straps.
Or having to explain to your uncle, the Rev. I’m Someone at Somebody’s Church, why a shirt and slacks couldn’t be worn on the most important day of your life to date.
“With 250 graduates each year, we always have a couple of students who push the lines,” Logan High School principal Scott Mihalovic said. “However, for the majority, our students have really met and exceeded our expectations.”
Logan asks its grads to don their “Sunday best” and ditch the tennis shoes — if they are able — for its ceremony May 31 at the La Crosse Center, he said. Teacher volunteers line up students before commencement to make sure they’re “all appropriate” under their red and white graduation gowns.
“We make these recommendations and we mail a letter home to parents expressing our specific expectations, as our ceremony is filled with pride and tradition of being a formal event,” Mihalovic said. “We are thankful that parents and students have shared our philosophy about the formality of this graduation ceremony.”
No one has had to sit Logan’s ceremony out, but that would be the consequence for inappropriate attire, he said.
Onalaska High School students, too, are asked to dress appropriately Sunday for what Principal Peter Woerpel described as a formal affair in the high school’s field house.
Boys don’t necessarily need a shirt and tie under their black gowns, he said, but a nice dress shirt and slacks are appreciated. Girls can wear dresses or pants to complement their purple graduation gowns.
Like Logan, Onalaska staff will be in the halls making sure the class is dressed appropriate. To date, they haven’t seen much of a problem.
“We have great parents, and parents have played a role in this and set standards of ‘This is what I would like you to wear,’” he said. “Our students have also chosen not to make a scene.”
To me, there still is something about being yourself at a time when every one is expected to be the same.
The dress was me when I was a high school senior. After hours of shopping with my mom, it finally was purchased while vacationing in Arizona and I knew it was the perfect fit the second I saw it.
Maybe that’s why, 11 years later, it’s still in my closet.
Autumn Grooms can be reached at (608) 791-8424 or agrooms@lacrossetribune.com.
