Irving Middle School eighth-graders signed small paper booklets Monday, instead of their newly bound yearbooks, while a two-page memorial to a student who died in November is removed because it violates LPS policy.
The decision angered some parents, who spoke out on social media, and is the latest such controversy that’s arisen in area school districts in recent years surrounding student deaths, including those who died by suicide.
Waverly High School officials recently reached a compromise with students who wanted to leave a chair empty at graduation for a classmate who’d died. Instead, they had a moment of silence and a bouquet of flowers on the stage in her honor. In 2014, East High officials decided not to allow recognition at a year-end concert for a student who’d died that year.
That decision followed district guidelines -- and those guidelines became the basis for a board policy enacted in November 2015.
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Lincoln Public Schools officials said that policy prohibits such memorials in an effort to keep the focus on the purpose of the event -- such as honoring student achievement, to avoid glorifying death and to be consistent.
“We want to make sure we’re consistent across all our buildings, as well as from student to student,†said Student Services Director Russ Uhing. “So we’re not doing this at one building and not another or doing this for one student but we may not be doing it for some others.â€
One exception, he said, is for students who die after completing all their graduation requirements. While the district doesn't allow empty chairs or other memorials, parents of those students can walk across the stage and accept their students’ diploma.
That option is available to the family of an East High senior who died over the weekend of an accidental overdose. The family hasn't yet decided whether to participate, officials said.Â
But yearbook memorials, which have happened in past years for staff or students, violate the policy.
Jason Shanahan, who is in his first year as Irving's principal, notified district officials about the yearbook on Friday after talking with other middle school principals who’d been dealing with student deaths.
During those conversations he realized that the yearbook memorial he'd previously approved violated policy, said Pat Hunter-Pirtle, director of secondary education. The printer is “professionally removing†the two pages at no charge. The district will pay the $1,000 to $1,200 cost of shipping.
School officials are trying to get back copies already distributed to a small number of students in the yearbook class.
Porridge Papers provided the booklets students signed on Monday.
The yearbook memorial included photos of Taylor Miller, 13, who died Nov. 12 after being hit by a car as she was crossing West O Street with a group of friends. It also included her name, that she was a part of the class of 2021 and a quote from Winnie the Pooh.
The school will host an event this summer for students to sign the yearbooks with the memorial pages removed.
One of the reasons district officials felt it was important to remove the pages is that they’ve already said no to other memorial requests this year, including one from the family of an eighth-grader at Schoo Middle School.
Family members of Hailey Schmidt, the 14-year-old Schoo student who died Dec. 20 from a blood clot in her lungs, had asked that school administrators read her name during an eighth-grade recognition ceremony.
“We just wanted something for her to be remembered,†said her aunt, Deb Maguire. “I think it’s part of the grieving process. ... We need to teach them it’s OK to celebrate these kids.â€
Board policy says “it is not the practice†of LPS to conduct memorial ceremonies in school or in activities or to publish memorials in print or online versions of LPS publications.
Policy does allow monetary gifts or scholarships through the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools designated for activities, departments or for plantings or furniture. Those monetary donations cannot include an agreement to name the activity in the person’s honor.
The policy formalized longtime guidelines the district wrote based on staff experiences and expertise, as well as nationwide best practices and research.
"We also want to make sure we do nothing that seems to glamorize or glorify death," said Brenda Leggiadro, who supervises district counselors. "That’s a concern we have for our students because we don't know how they’re processing that empty chair, that moment of silence ... when they came to be honored for graduation."
The district has a crisis team that helps schools deal with student deaths. Counselors talk to classes and are there for students and staff who want to talk. They also allow students to write sympathy notes or sign banners that are given to family members, said Ursula Vernon-Hansen, the coordinator of the district’s crisis team.