In a few short weeks, this year’s graduates will take their turns walking across a stage to receive their high school diplomas in front of family, friends, and community members.
Those ceremonies—typically gatherings of joy and celebration—are often large events that pose unique logistical challenges for school districts, from navigating traffic to monitoring for threats to preparing for potential weather-related mishaps, safety specialists said during a recent webinar hosted by ZeroNow, a think tank focused on school safety.
Such gatherings can occasionally lead to tragedy. Education Week has tracked at least eight shootings connected to on- and off-campus graduation ceremonies since 2022.
“Everything that you can think of, Murphy’s Law will occur when you have these big things, so … we have to make sure we’re prepared,” said Jason Stoddard, director of safety and security for Charles County schools in Maryland.
Stoddard and others discussed common problems at graduations and how to prepare for them, as well as the importance of establishing unified command teams with a wide variety of members to manage ceremonies.
Those teams should be established well in advance and include representatives from local police, fire, and emergency medical services departments, Stoddard said. They could also include people from affected neighborhood associations and local highway officials.
Those team members should monitor the weather and law enforcement activity in the area, he said.
Graduation ceremonies are often held outdoors in the middle of the day and can draw in large numbers of elderly people, Stoddard said, so it’s important to ensure there are cooling stations equipped with water and air conditioning or fans for people who overheat. His district sometimes parks school buses equipped with AC outside of the venue.
And the school system should ensure the closest hospitals know when the ceremony will happen so they can be prepared for all potential circumstances—whether heat-related illnesses, injuries, or a larger-scale disturbance like shootings.
“Don’t just limit [planning] to your school system,” Stoddard said. “Make sure that you’re very expansive to include everybody that’s going to be involved and affected.”
Districts need a plan to manage graduation audience size
The panelists recommended districts allocate a specific number of tickets per graduate to distribute to family or friends. That number should depend on the venue’s capacity, said Doyle Batten, the former safety director for Anne Arundel County schools in Maryland.
If districts are hosting multiple ceremonies in one day at the same location, they should consider reducing the number of tickets per graduate so the venue is under capacity for each event. That’s because many people will arrive early or linger afterward, which could cause crowding problems if each event is at maximum capacity, Batten said.
The same logic applies for parking passes—each family should get a limited number that ensures there is room in the parking lot for overlap between ceremonies.
“We have our first event at 9 o’clock, and you’re having people show up at 6:30 in the morning,” Batten said. “It’s not a problem in the first one, but in subsequent events, it really can be.”
Even if one high school in a district with multiple high schools has a smaller graduating class than others, panelists recommended allocating everyone the same number of tickets to avoid concerns about equity and fairness. Each person attending should require a ticket, and no special exceptions should be made for young children, panelists said.
Schools may also want to consider using digital ticketing with unique QR codes for entry so people can’t produce counterfeit tickets, Stoddard said.
Clear and consistent policies help prevent problems on graduation day
Districts should be clear and consistent about policies for graduation ceremonies, including the number of people admitted per graduate and prohibited items, Stoddard said. All volunteers should be people who are comfortable saying “no” to prevent problems about inconsistent application of those policies, he said.
Some schools that don’t allow people to bring in outside flowers or balloons have opened their own stores for families to purchase those items after they enter the venue and get through security, he added.
Kelly Martin, executive director of safety for Seminole County schools in Florida, suggested districts consider creating guides to share with families with information about parking, prohibited items, safety protocols, the venue’s layout, and parking details.
Still, regardless of how much work districts put in on the front end, it’s likely that the information won’t reach everyone. Parents may not share the details with grandparents or other family members who don’t interact directly with the district, for example, Batten said.
Ushers, greeters, and “wayfinders” stationed outside and throughout the venue could help share those details with people who didn’t get them previously, he said.
Other steps districts can take to prepare for seamless graduation ceremonies are:
- Collaborate with communication experts to temporarily boost cellphone coverage in the area where the ceremony is happening to serve large crowds.
- Ensure security personnel at the venue know which members of law enforcement and emergency services will be present so there are no problems when they arrive and attempt to assist in an emergency.
- Designate somebody to provide a safety briefing before the ceremony starts, sharing rules about prohibited items and activities, how to identify law enforcement or other security staff, and how to report suspicious behavior or problems. The briefing could also be recorded or shared over the loudspeakers, Stoddard said.
- Make sure there is ample parking for people with disabilities. Districts should consider adding additional ADA-compliant spots by marking them with traffic cones or ensuring traffic control staff help people who need them to find them.
- Make a plan for rideshare or dropoff traffic, which can reduce the amount of parking needed at the venue.
- Draft a plan for severe weather. If the event is outdoors, leaders should have a plan for how to get people indoors if needed. Officials should closely monitor the weather for potential disturbances on the day of the event, Batten said.
