It's graduation time again here in Bladen County and high school seniors are busy getting ready for this special event in their lives. East Bladen's graduation ceremony will be held on Friday, May 20, at 8 p.m. at the Football Stadium. At West Bladen, the ceremony is set for Saturday, May 21, at 10 a.m. also at the Football Stadium.

In the event of rain, the ceremonies will be held in the gyms of the respective schools.

While seniors are attending to last minute details to ensure they are prepared, school officials are preparing to ensure that the ceremonies at each of the county's high schools are "sophisticated, dignified events." With this in mind, strict guidelines have been issued governing the ceremonies.

The guidelines issued to each graduating senior include a strict dress code for the ceremony.

According to those guidelines, male students must wear white or light-colored dress shirts with a collar, dark ties, dark dress slacks, dark dress shoes and dark socks. They may not wear jeans, tennis shoes, sandals, thongs, flip-flops, earrings, or jewelry that rests on the gown.

Female students are required to wear dresses, dark skirts, or black or dark navy slacks and tops with dress shoes. The white collar that comes with the gown must be sewn or basted into place. As with male students, female students may not wear jeans, shorts, tennis shoes, sandals, thongs, flip-flops, or jewelry that rests on the gown.

In addition, no graduating senior will be allowed to chew gum during the ceremony.

Graduating seniors must arrive one hour before the ceremony with their cap, tassel (worn on the left), stole and gown.

"We ask that family and friends attending the ceremony remember the dignity of this important event and conduct themselves accordingly," said School Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Dinkins. "Applause and verbal celebration should come only after all graduates have received their diplomas. This allows parents to hear every name that is announced as the students cross the stage."

Dinkins said that disruptive behavior that interferes with the procession of the graduates, presentation of the diplomas, or acknowledgement of honors will be addressed. Violators will be asked to leave the program.

"We wish to afford every senior a moment of respectful recognition for this accomplishment and discourage parents from audibly acknowledging individual students during the ceremony," Dinkins added.

He added that parents and students will have ample opportunity to celebrate with applause and verbal affirmation following the ceremony.

Admission to either graduation ceremony will require a ticket, according to school officials. However, the tickets issued to each student will differ depending on their school.

West Bladen seniors will be allowed three gold tickets for reserved stadium seating for parents, 10 purple tickets for general seating in the bleachers, and four white tickets for gymnasium seating in case of rain.

If the ceremony must be moved to the gym, each student may combine the three gold tickets and four white tickets for a total of seven tickets.

At East Bladen, graduating seniors will receive two blue tickets for parents to use on the football field or in the gymnasium, three white tickets for general admission to the football field or the gym, and five gold tickets for general admission tickets to the football field only.

At this point 132 seniors are scheduled to graduate from East Bladen and 171 from West Bladen.

Though there will be no keynote speaker at either ceremony, students will participate in the program.

At West Bladen Principal Rick Helms and Dr. Dinkins will make brief remarks. At East Bladen, a graduating senior, Charles Tedder Jr., will address the graduates.

There will be a total of 49 honor students at West Bladen, of which 28 are graduating summa cum laude. At East Bladen, 16 students will be graduating with honors, nine of them summa cum laude.

The nine students graduating summa cum laude at East Bladen will be allowed to sit on stage. They are Kimberly Beavers, Shannon Brown, Tambra Grange, Alexander Hunt, Stuart Murphy, Ursula Richardson, Justin Spivey, Miller Taylor and Charles Tedder Jr.

At West Bladen, Summa Cum Laude graduates include Mindy Alambis, Ashley Allen, Marlow Artis, Courtney Bledsoe, Marcus Bowen, John Campbell, Daniel Cihanowyz, Amber Corcelius, Latrel Drye, Leanne Edwards, Shana Fields, Joelle Guyton, Megan Inman, Martina Johnson, Kathryn King, Christopher Kinlaw, Josh Marano, Kelly Marsh, Brandy McLemore, Brandi Melvin, Mirna Morfin, Mark Owens, Megan Rains, Laureen Rhoden, Amber Schallert, Charles Swepson, Jessica Trutenko, Jessica West and Marajo White.

Students must achieve a cumulative grade-point-average of 4.0 or higher to graduate summa cum laude.

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