Hudson High Grad May Be Allowed to Wear Dress Blues at Graduation

Mac Hamlin may be able to wear his Marine Corps dress blues during the Hudson High School graduation ceremony on June 15, after all.

The Hudson School District Board of Education approved a new high school graduation dress-code policy, 6-0, on Tuesday requiring all seniors who wish to participate in the graduation ceremony to wear the traditional cap and gown—with the exception of students who wish to wear their U.S. military dress uniform. Board president Tom Holland was absent from Tuesday's meeting.

The policy came about after the school district received a request from Hamlin, a member of the Class of 2013, .

Hudson High School Principal Laura Love told him that he wouldn't be allowed to wear a military uniform. At that time the Hudson School District responded with a statement, which in part reads:

(Principal Love) has responded based on long standing past practice and what the high school ceremony represents - a culminating successful accomplishment of required work during the high school years.

Looking back at about 25 years of history, Superintendent ‪Mary Bowen-Eggebraaten said Hudson School District had not received a request from a student who wanted to wear a military dress uniform.

Prior to this issue, the board has not had a specific written dress code for the high school graduation ceremony, Deputy Director Nancy Sweet told the board members. It has been based on tradition. There is written specifications in the high school handbook, but there has been no formal policy.

For that reason, Bowen-Eggebraaten recommended that the board consider the issue not as an individual request, but as a policy-decision to be used into the future.

The policy was vetted through a couple of committees and ultimately recommended for approval by the Learning and Program Development Committee.

The only exception to wearing the traditional cap and gown is for a student who wants to wear his or her U.S. military uniform, and meets these four conditions:

1. The student or parents of that student must submit a request to wear a U.S. military uniform in writing to the principal.
2. The student must have successfully completed basic training and have active duty status.
3. The student must submit written permission to the principal from his or her commanding officer to wear the military uniform.
4. The student must wear a dress uniform, not the utility uniform or military fatigues.

In doing research for the policy, Student Services Director Cory McIntyre said the committee reached out to 31 school districts in the area and learned that 28 of them do not allow military dress at graduation.

Staff has also spoken with commanding officers at the recruiting center in Twin Cities who said they were aware of this situation due to media exposure and regretted that the Hudson School District was facing this kind of situation.

“They were very clear that the issue of what is worn at a graduation is at the discretion of the school district and the school board and they really did not have any interest in affecting that decision,” McIntyre said. “If they need to deal with a decision they handle that privately, but were very clear this is your decision to make as a school board.”

This is going to happen very rarely, School Board Member Brian Bell said prior to the vote. The cases where there is even an option for this is a handful of times each year.

“I’m in favor of this in general as a board member,” Bell said. “But personally—serving in the U.S. Military and I went to the Air Force Academy—this is not something I would do.

“I think being in the military is all about fighting and winning as a team—and the team uniform for graduation is wearing the cap and gown,” he said. “Being in the military, and maybe this young man hasn’t quite understood this yet, is about I’ve got your six and you’ve got mine and we’re in it together. It’s not about you as an individual.”

There’s a lot of discussion in the community about this, Bell said. There are former service men and women on either side of this issue.

Sandy Gehrke said she liked the policy, and commended the committees that put so much work into this policy.

“It’s a nice compromise between saying no you can’t wear a uniform and saying yes, we will let you do that,” she said. “I especially like the condition about the dress uniform, because I simply cannot imagine a high school graduation in fatigues.”