Two high school students in Lakewood, Washington, gearing up for graduation spent the last weeks of matriculation arguing with their local school district about wearing Black pride-themed stoles during commencement. After sharing their concerns with the administrators, the decision was reversed, and they were granted permission to celebrate their culture.
At the top of June, the Clover Park School District administration was adamant that graduating seniors Shadae Ingram and Diane Veness, could not wear stoles that reflected their cultural pride, despite the school permitting students to customize their graduation garbs to express themselves, the News Tribune.
Years prior, all graduates in suburban Tacoma school wore identical gold-colored stoles over their graduation gowns.
Albrecht said in a statement about the change why the decision was made for 2022 grads.
“We recognize the unique challenges our students face in earning a high school diploma, and we celebrate their important achievement,” she wrote. “In designing this celebration, our focus is on wearing an item that represents a student’s culture or connection to school clubs that are tied to culture.”
The culture was the operative word for Ingram and Veness. The Clover Park High Schoolers had stoles made out of Kente cloth, a traditional Ghanaian fabric.
The meaning of Kente cloth in Africa is rich with each patchwork’s color symbolizing attributes a wise person should want for their lives: gold = status/serenity, yellow = fertility, green = renewal, blue = pure spirit/harmony, red = passion, black = union with ancestors/spiritual awareness. American students have adopted wearing Kente stoles at graduation to present a visible sign of their connection to West Africa as descendants of those brought to this land during Maafa, James Padilioni Jr states.
That is exactly the reason why Veness said she wanted to wear the fabric.
“Maybe it’s just clothing to other people. But this is one way we can represent being African-American, being that strong woman,” she said according to KIRO 7.
Ingram and Veness took the symbolism of the Kente a step further, adding personal inscriptions that were monogrammed on the pieces. Ingram had “Black Grads Matter” stitched on her’s and Veness reads, “Black Girl Magic.” The young ladies submitted the designs to the school for approval before the June 3 deadline but were crushed with the initial response.
On the evening of Saturday, June 4, the principal of the school called Ingram’s dad to share their disturbing decision.
“Our head principal told my dad that it was too liberal, can’t wear it,” Ingram said. “[He said] it doesn’t fall within the standards of our school.”
Veness also received a call with the same disappointing news. The two both were offended that schools not only rejected the stoles but their symbols of identity.
“I felt kind of like, ‘Wow, we can’t represent us. We can’t be ourselves,” Veness said. “Because that’s what it means to us. That’s our culture.”
The girls didn’t take this sitting down but made noise about the slight, even getting coverage on a local news station.
In response to the coverage, Albrect sent a statement on behalf of the district saying, “While we fully support the Black Girl Magic movement, its relevance, and symbolism, for this year’s graduation ceremonies the focus was not to feature wording tied to a movement and instead focus on a student’s culture or connections to student clubs tied to culture.”
The girls believed this was a form of discrimination and potentially stained the last moments of their high school years.
“For it to be just us because we’re the only ones who can’t wear it. That should say something about the school,” says Veness.
Their dreams were not dashed for long.
But three days later, after pressure from the public and press that pushed the story, the scholars were told to meet with officials at the school district the next morning. Neither was told why they should be there, or with whom they would be meeting.
Tuesday evening, after KIRO 7 published its story on Ingram and Veness, they were informed that they should attend a meeting at the school district office the next morning. Neither senior was told whom the gathering was with or what it would be about.
They found out on Wednesday morning, the meeting would be with the superintendent Ron Banner, their vice principal, and was going to be about graduation and their stoles.
Ingram said the meeting was amicable, and the superintendent wanted them to know early on they were not in any trouble.
The administrator allowed the two seniors to share with him why the stoles meant so much to them and after they spoke and sprinkled some of their Black girl magic out on all in the room, he agreed with their mission.
“He said he is willing to talk to his school board and get them to understand even if they’re not necessarily on board,” Veness said.
Banner kept his word and advocated for them to wear their stoles and the board reversed the decision.
The district director of communication Leanna Albrecht wrote in a statement, “After further review of the instructions provided for graduation, there was some confusion in the approval process.”
“The students discussed the cultural representation of their stoles directly with the superintendent,” she further wrote. “As a result, we have made a special exception for the stole requests that were received by the deadline of June 3.”
The school district will also clarify the graduation stole guidelines for the upcoming year, hoping to circumvent conflicts like this in the future.
One member of the community commented, “Graduation is a time to celebrate, the beginning of a new chapter in the graduates’ lives. I applaud these about-to-be grads for speaking their beliefs. I also applaud Supt. Banner for taking the time to hear them.”
Both ladies were able to walk donning their Kente and exemplifying all that the fabric and their inscriptions represent in Africa.
Ingram remarked, “African-American graduates, who actually can walk across the stage are very much overlooked because we’re never the majority. But when our voices are heard, the way we were heard today and over the past couple of weeks, that’s when it really matters.”
Veness agrees. As the first person in her family to graduate high school, the triumph of getting the diploma and standing up for herself is evidence that she can break “generational curses.”
“I’m breaking the generational curses and chains in my family,” she said. “It may be tough, and you may want to give up, but you just got to keep going.”
Ingram and Veness are the epitomai of Black girl magic and why Black grads should always matter.
