Students, alumni want to keep traditional red and white gowns for commencement exercises
OCEAN CITY – Students and alumni want to keep a tradition alive at Ocean City High School. They are hoping the school district will change its mind about changing the red and white graduation gowns.
The traditional gowns for graduation have been red for boys and white for girls during commencement exercises. That is what members of the Class of 2022 were wearing at the most recent OCHS graduation in June.
The district announced plans to change the gowns early this year, but at an Ocean City Board of Education meeting in February, a parent – wearing a white graduation gown for emphasis – and a member of the Class of 2022 stood up and asked that the school keep the longstanding tradition.
While they and others thought the matter settled, that changed when members of the Class of 2023 and their parents received a notice at the beginning of last week.
The letter, from Acting Principal Dr. Wendy O’Neal, told them about the first session for senior portraits that will start on Aug. 1. The portraits are for yearbook photos and may be purchased.
“As approved last year, all students will be wearing red gowns with white stoles this year. These will be provided by the photographers at each photo session,” O’Neal wrote.
That caught the attention of rising senior Grace Oves of Ocean City, her mother, Donna, and others who had hoped after the appeal during the February Board of Education meeting that the tradition would remain.
Now they are pinning their hopes on an informal promise by school board members that a survey will be taken of the seniors and that if the majority want to maintain the tradition, the district will stick with the separate gowns for boys and girls.
An appeal in February
At the school board’s February meeting, 1987 graduate Jennifer Bowman of Ocean City came to the podium during public comment and said the OCHS Alumni Association was against changing the graduation gowns. Bowman made her plea wearing a white graduation gown.
Then-senior Natalie Argento also spoke up, saying, “It has been tradition to have the boys in red and the girls in white, however this year the graduation committee took it upon themselves to change that. I believe this decision was made with good intent but the decision was made by taking the easy way out. Students who identify as male, female, non-binary or whatever they prefer should be allowed to continue this tradition by allowing the seniors to take a survey of what color they prefer to wear at graduation.”
Bowman, contacted over the weekend, said although she doesn’t have a senior in the Class of 2023, the alumni association remains opposed to changing the traditional gown.
This has been an unusual past year for the school district in that there was an interim superintendent of schools and interim high school principal because of two retirements last August. Dr. O’Neal, an assistant principal, became acting principal late in the spring after the interim left his position at OCHS early to take another job.
The parents questioned whether such a big decision should have been made with so many administrative positions in flux.
A petition and a hope
After getting the letter from the acting principal and then talking to fellow members of the OCHS Class of 2023, Grace Oves decided to start a change.org petition to get a sense of how her classmates felt.
“When I found out they were going to change it to all red (gowns), I started talking to friends in my grade and asking what they thought about it,” she said in a phone interview Sunday evening. “Everyone kind of seemed upset.” She took it upon herself to initiate a change.org petition to hear from more of her classmates, their parents and alumni. Doing that online, she figured, would be easier than trying to pass around an actual petition. She said over two days, with only a bit of sharing among friends, who then shared it with others, the petition had amassed a “decent” number of signatures.
As of Monday, the petition, showing support for the traditional gowns and against the red gowns for everyone, had 74 signatures. For perspective, OCHS graduating classes have around 300 students. (At change.org, search for “Changing OCHS graduation cap and gowns.”)
Oves said she wanted to keep the tradition because her freshman year was when the COVID-19 pandemic started.
“The Class of 2023 hasn’t had a normal, typical high school experience,” she said. “As simple as it is, the tradition of the cap and gown colors really mean a lot to kids in my grade and changing it would be really upsetting.”
Oves said she never pictured herself initiating a petition. Although her friends wanted something to be done, no one else was stepping forward. “I figured if no one is going to do it, I might as well because if I want change I’m going to have to put something towards it.”
Bowman and Donna Oves said they talked informally to school board members who were concerned about the way the decision was made and agreed the district would do a survey about the gowns with the members of the Class of 2023. The contact was informal because by policy individual board members cannot answer questions about board actions.
“I believe what we were told was that a survey was going to go out asking the kids’ opinions on the change,” Donna Oves said. “If the students want to keep the traditional red and white gowns, then the school board is going to go with that. It’s a majority rules situation, which is exactly what we wanted. The kids just want a say in what they’re going to be wearing for their own graduation, which they worked four years to earn that moment, that ceremony.
“It’s great the board acted right away,” Donna Oves added. “We’re expecting those emails. We don’t know exactly when.”
She and her daughter said the board members acted “within a day” to answer them.
“That’s great because that’s why I started the petition,” Grace Oves said. “They were generous and giving us a say in it.” She said they’ll be watching to see that the survey gets sent out.
Although the actual graduation for the Class of 2023 is almost a year away, the timing matters because students will have their senior photos taken in their gowns starting next month and they would like those photos to match what they’ll be wearing next June.
Grace Oves said she and her classmates who have older siblings enjoyed seeing the white and red gowns at those graduations and the girls would be upset if they couldn’t wear white to follow in their sisters’ footsteps.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff