Cloquet seniors petition school board to customize grad caps

May 23—CLOQUET — As Cloquet High School prepares to graduate another cohort of students into the world, seniors from the Class of 2024 hope to leave a legacy by challenging policy through collective action.

The seniors, with the support of the wider student body and some teachers, challenged the school's policy regarding graduation regalia for their right to customize their graduation caps when they graduate Friday, May 24. The board did not vote before the Class of 2024 graduated, however.

The effort was led by senior Madyson Babineau, who drafted a petition and collected nearly 400 signatures.

"I thought, you know, why not shoot my shot and just see what happens?" Babineau said. "So I started a petition."

The reaction so far has been overwhelming. Initially, Babineau expected to get maybe 200 signatures, at the most. So when she ended up garnering nearly 400 signatures, she was completely blown away.

Babineau got the idea to customize her mortarboard after attending her sister's graduation from the University of Minnesota Duluth, where her sister and her friends all decorated their caps. From that moment, Babineau wanted to decorate her cap when she graduated. So when she learned that decorating her cap was against school policy, Babineau decided to do something about it.

"This was very out of my comfort zone," she said. "I'm very non-confrontational."

Decorating her graduation is an opportunity for Babineau and her classmates to express themselves, she said. For many of her classmates, this might be the only graduation they get to experience, and she believes it should be their right to make the most of it and express themselves how they wish.

Babineau created the petition with the help of some of her teachers who supported the effort. She initially sought the signatures of her graduating class, from whom she received nearly unanimous support, according to Babineau. As enthusiasm grew, she started canvassing the cafeteria to collect signatures from sophomores and first-year students.

The petition received the support of social studies teacher Chris Swanson, who teaches students the history of social activism and how to make change by being an involved citizen as a part of his curriculum. He consulted with Babineau about the logistics of how to successfully petition a policy and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, even as a high school student.

"This just seemed to kind of bump into all of those different features of the class," Swanson said. "And the truth is, I kind of happen to agree with these kids, too."

Swanson said the district maintains the right to run the commencement ceremony how it wishes; however, he believes the students have a strong argument for decorating their caps based on their constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression.

Babineau and Swanson brought the petition to the Cloquet School Board on May 13, and Babineau presented her case.

"The document symbolizes our unified desire to start a tradition that has the potential to enrich our graduation ceremony of freedom for graduating seniors to decorate their caps," Babineau told the board. "Now with this tangible representation of our shared thoughts. I stand before you to advocate for the popular tradition."

Superintendent Michael Cary told Babineau that although the board didn't vote on changing the policy before this year's graduation, it doesn't mean the petition won't change policy for future graduating classes.

"Trying to get some kind of change implemented before our next board meeting and our next board meeting is after graduation," Cary told Babineau. "The timing of this is a bit problematic."

Though Babineau accepts that her efforts to change the policy won't directly impact her graduating class, she takes pride in trying to reform graduation policy for future classes. She plans to pass the petition to a junior student before she graduates.

For Swanson, watching the senior class galvanize over this issue and exercise their democratic rights to change a policy is unlike anything he has seen in his over 20 years of teaching.

"I'm a civics teacher, so I'm interested in seeing them actively engage," Swanson said. "And this is one of the good examples, or one of the best examples of that, in the current senior class."

Swanson believes this issue opened the class's eyes to the possibilities collective action can bring and is hopeful that the graduating class will carry this lesson with them as they prepare to embark on the rest of their lives.

"It gives me a little bit more hope," he said. "For the future, of course, and as a civics teacher, as a government teacher, it's really important to sort of pass on those values."

Regardless of existing policy — and perhaps in the spirit of civil disobedience — Babineau already decorated her cap. It reads "CHS 2024," with purple and gold flowers and butterflies.

"I can't really take it off now because I glued it on," Babineau said. "So I guess we'll see what happens."