LPO grads head into the future
(Photo by KYLE CAJERO) LPOHS senior Kayla Miller receives her diploma from LPOHS principal Geoff Penrose during graduation on June 6.
(Photo by KYLE CAJERO) Csarena Driggers hugs Luke Childers after receiving her faculty tribute during Lake Pend Oreille High School’s commencement ceremony on June 6.
(Photo by KYLE CAJERO) Lake Pend Oreille High School graduate Jordyn Owens (right) hugs David Suswal after being presented with her faculty tribute during LPOHS’s graduation on June 6.
(Photo by KYLE CAJERO) Abby Daily adjusts her cap before walking onstage to receive her diploma at Lake Pend Oreille High School’s commencement ceremony on June 6.
(Photo by KYLE CAJERO) Math teacher Ed Welch addresses the crowd after giving Caitlyn Haskins his fishing vest as her faculty tribute gift.
(Photo by KYLE CAJERO) Lake Pend Oreille High School students watch as math teacher Ed Welch (not pictured) puts on a shock collar for, in Welch’s words, “in case he speaks too long” during LPOHS’s commencement ceremony.
(Photo by KYLE CAJERO) Isabelle Peterson (left) and Kaylee Brown (right) laugh as art teacher Randy Rosencrans shares anectodes about Brown’s tenure at LPOHS.
(Photo by KYLE CAJERO) Trevor Stickler approaches the podium to receive his faculty tribute during LPOHS’s commencement ceremony on June 6.
(Photo by KYLE CAJERO) LPOHS teacher Bret Johnson (left) shares a humorous story about Dalton Turley (right) during Lake Pend Oreille High School’s commencement ceremony.
(Photo by KYLE CAJERO) From left to right, Hunter Hendrix Kayla Miller and Hunter Sutton await their turns to receive their faculty tribute speech during LPOHS’s commencement ceremony on June 6.
(Photo by KYLE CAJERO) English teacher Bret Johnson (left) finishes his heartwarming speech about Abby Daily (right) during Lake Pend Oreille High School’s commencement ceremony on June 6.
SANDPOINT — To borrow a line from physical education teacher Scott Victorson’s faculty tribute speech, sometimes it takes a village of faculty, classmates, family and friends to raise a class.
Lake Pend Oreille High School’s graduation ceremony on June 6 was embodied this axiom and then some.
Although the 39-member class of 2019 might have taken different paths to LPOHS, each struggling in other schools, the students put their finishing touches on their high school years with a three-hour ceremony that featured every emotion. But the one constant throughout the funny memories retold, thoughtful gifts given from faculty members to students and wisdom imparted on the graduates was that LPOHS was more than a school to the graduating seniors. It was a family.
“The atmosphere of the whole building and the people in it were completely different anything I’ve experienced,” LPOHS graduate Mason Deal said in his speech. “This school is a family. The teachers acted more like parents and my classmates were more like siblings. I’ve lost a lot, but this school helped me gain a sense of purpose.”
The class of 2019 was not only second-largest in school history, but also included a pair of students from the now-defunct Lake Pend Oreille Middle School: Csarena Driggers and Dalton Turley. Yet these feelings of closure weren’t only for the 39 students who finished the chapter of their high school lives: Longtime — and, if the cheers from Ed Welch’s speeches weren’t indicative enough — beloved faculty members Ed Welch and Sarah Wood experienced their last LPOHS graduation as well.
Unlike most high school commencement ceremonies, the graduation traditions at Lake Pend Oreille High School are more personal, allowing teachers to bless a handful of pre-chosen students with an uplifting speech and several symbolic gifts — some requiring more inside jokes than others. All in all, these thoughtful touches make LPOHS’s commencement ceremony a bit longer than most, yet the payoff was worthwhile given how important the teachers are to their students.
“LPO is the best school you’re ever going to find in northern Idaho,” LPOHS graduate Samuel Olson-Thompson said. “The teachers here actually show that they care.”
That care Olson-Thompson referred to manifested itself in different ways throughout the ceremony. During both Deal’s and Jordyn Owens’ graduation speeches, the students emphasized how the faculty at LPOHS goes above and beyond to show genuine care, concern and encouragement for their students — some of which endured more physical, emotional and mental trauma than the average teenager.
“The school itself, a converted elementary school, is a bit unassuming,” Owens said. “The classes are small, and while there aren’t many sports, there’s a sense of community and pride that comes with being a student at LPO...There’s a connection that simply doesn’t exist at any other school, and that’s what makes LPO so special.”
Yet throughout the ceremony, the LPOHS showed that it truly was a village albeit a close-knit one where people look after one another, where teachers invite a group of seniors on rafting trips, workouts or painting classes. Even though the diplomas signified the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next, the relationships between LPOHS faculty and the class of 2019 have just begun. The class of 2019 will disperse into a wide variety of jobs, ranging from nurses, to teachers, to property managers, to aspiring restaurateurs. Yet village needs all of these things to exist.
Until then, for one final night as a group, the village celebrates.
Kyle Cajero can be reached by email at kcajero@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KyleDailyBee.