Some time last week Mr. Estrella sent an email to all Senior students’ parents reading: “Graduation Update:  Seniors it is still our goal to have in-person graduation with limited guests (most likely 2 per graduate).  We are still waiting for approval.” Upon reading this many of the seniors where extremely upset. One Sahuaro senior that chooses to stay anonymous said, “It doesn’t make sense, how are we allowed to have sports with spectators but only 2 guests per senior for graduation?”

One Sahuaro Senior, Tina Castro, took matters into her own hands, and started her own petition in order for TUSD to hear out Seniors and parents in their demands. “It was actually a friend that encouraged me to start the petition,” she admits. “And I can’t believe I’ve received this much support!” she adds. Tina started this petition because she, along with many others, felt it was so unfair that “Seniors can only have 2 guests after the year of no motivation and support given.” Tina add that “TUSD could’ve done 100% more. I understand it’s the biggest district but look at the class of 2020, TUSD was on that as soon as COVID hit. TUSD is flat out lazy , they don’t want to try with us and that’s the sad part. They could’ve supported us, kept us updated all the time, given us motivation by reassuring us. They didn’t do any of that. Only 2-3 meetings have been held which have all been last semester and that’s it. Barely no contact with the students. TUSD honestly failed us this year and expect us to stay motivated in the final stretch? And after all of this doing school online/hybrid only 2 people can go? No TUSD can do better and figure out how to do better.”

On the other hand many seniors agree that signing the petition may not be the best idea. “I believe we should just let TUSD  handle the situation because after all, they do decide what’s going to happen with our graduation,” said one Sahuaro Senior.

It seems as though TUSD has heard the complaints and was able to accommodate with everyone’s needs. “For Graduation, our commencement ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, May 27 at 7:00 pm at the stadium field,” began the email sent by Principal Estrella on April 6th. “Based on the current local health conditions, there is a strict 4-person guest limit per graduate to allow for social distancing.  We will let everyone know if this changes” concluded the email.