These Lynners not your typical grads

LYNN – Principal Maura Durgin-Sully acknowledged that the 24 graduates from Fecteau-Leary Junior/Senior High School who received their diplomas Thursday are not typical graduates.She said about a third of the graduates are already parents and others had faced incarceration and gang violence, some with little or no family to support them.Superintendent Catherine Latham noted how the issues the graduates face during her speech at the ceremony in the Lynn Memorial Auditorium.?You have overcome challenges that many other people have not had to overcome,” said Latham in her address. “You can find success when you put your mind to it. Remember the first step is just to show up.”Students of the city?s alternative high school expressed gratitude for the support they had received while earning their diplomas.Chutsamone Hem, burst into tears while apologizing to her mother during her speech “for all that I put her through ? thank you, Mom, I made it.”Hem also thanked “the people who pushed me everyday,” including her 1-year-old daughter.Though there were only 24 students graduating Thursday, it?s the largest class Fecteau-Leary has had after becoming an “alternative” school in the fall of 2008, Durgin-Sully said.The first half of the theater closest to the stage was full of friends and families clutching bouquets of flowers and shiny “Congrats Grad!” balloons, some with infants and toddlers in tow, who were the sons or daughters of the graduates.Also in attendance was Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy flanked by the members of the School Committee, and several probation officers that came to support the graduates.School Committee member John Ford, a guest speaker, said not that the graduates were adults, they must take responsibility for their actions, calling it “the gloomy side of growing up.”As a politician, he stressed the importance of the right to vote in making a difference, saying, “You need to be part of the process to get results. Become a part of the solution, not the problem.”Ford also candidly said he married young and skipped college to get a job at General Electric, and wouldn?t have returned to school if it wasn?t for his father pushing him. Ford shared that he had only received his master?s degree in 2000, showing that it?s never to late to finish.After receiving their diplomas, the Class of 2011 moved their tassels at the word of their guidance counselor Erica Campbell and turned to face their friends and family, waving and smiling at them for the first time as graduates.The graduates ranged in age from 17 to 21 because of the gaps when they switched schools or dropped out, only to find a place at Fecteau-Leary. “Everybody comes with their own problems,” said Durgin-Scully, adding that the students “are very accepting” of each other. “There?s just so many stories in this class.”Scully said one student had dropped out and was home playing video games when he saw an address by President Obama emphasizing the importance of education.The next day, the student showed up at school claiming he wanted to continue his education because “Obama told me to.”Despite their past hardships, 20 of the graduates will be going on to higher education at schools like Bunker Hill Community College, North Shore Community College and Marian Court College.The other four have secured full-time employment, of which Kennedy said, “That in itself is no easy feat in this economy.”