It is high school graduation season in the state of Tennessee. It is also the season of rain, as graduates of Centennial High School found out the hard way.
The Cougars held their ceremony in a torrential downpour.
I don’t know if the high school did not have a backup plan or if it took a gamble that did not pay off, but the weather was… less than ideal. All of the graduates and their families got absolute soaked.
Where is Centennial High School?
Established in 1996, Centennial High School is located in the Nashville suburb of Franklin, Tennessee. It enrolls ~1,400 students in Grades 9-12. It is a public school. The student body is approximately 57% white, 23% Hispanic/Latino, 11% Black, 4.5% multiracial and 3.2% Asian.
The average ACT score hovers around a 24. More than 90% of every freshman class graduates as seniors and more than 80% of them go on to attend a four-year college.
That includes the ceremony on Thursday night. The Cougars held their graduation on the football field, which proved to be a terrible idea. The weather did not cooperate. It was pouring rain.
Graduates, in their caps and gowns, walked across the stage as they were pelted by water from above. They were drenched to the bone. Not a single person managed to stay dry.
Don’t worry! According to one parent whose child graduated from Centennial on Thursday, the diplomas were sealed in plastic. The piece of paper did not get wet. Everything else did.
Why did the graduation take place outside in the rain?
If you have ever spent time in Middle Tennessee in May, you know how this goes. It is almost guaranteed to rain for at least a few minutes every day. You’ll probably get a torrential downpour two or three days a week. Those storms could last for five minutes or they could last all night.
Thursday was somewhere in between.
Rain was in the forecast throughout the entire day. It was going to rain at some point in time between 4:00 and 9:00 p.m. but you can never quite know exactly when.
Centennial obviously wanted to hold its graduation outside. The administration decided to gamble and moved forward with the outdoor ceremony. The gamble did not pay off. They got wet.
Here is where I have my questions.
Was there not a backup plan in place? The forecast was pretty clear that it was going to rain. At what percentage chance would the administration have moved things inside? I saw somewhere around 70%.
At what point does it become a safety issue? Was Centennial not worried about what could happen if someone was to slip and fall— either while walking the “stage” or in the bleachers? Especially with the girls who wore high heels. That seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
Fortunately, I have not seen anyone who had that issue. And, if we’re being honest, the graduation in the pouring rain will be a hilarious story to tell for the rest of those kids’ lives. My high school graduation is not something that sticks out to me. I remember it well, but it isn’t a core memory. This one is!