By Anthony Rifilato
Backstage, music teacher Anthony Marshall cued Pomp and Circumstance. "I had the privilege to work with really creative honor students, and this was the most talented class I've worked with," he said.
After the processional of 345 graduates took their seats, salutatorian Jennifer Lin Wong greeted her classmates. "We imagine ourselves finally being able to grasp the diploma in front of family and friends," she said.
If only it were an hour earlier. Baldwin's 2002 graduation was unceremoniously cut short about 20 minutes into commencement by drenching rain, thunder and lightning.
As valedictorian David Letzler began his speech following the salutatorian's reading, he joked at the possibility of electrocution when he touched the microphone, but continued in vain as it rained harder. A canopy of umbrellas popped opened in the bleachers, and Letzler was not even into his second paragraph when Principal Susan Knors interrupted and announced to the audience the decision to cancel.
Students lined up quickly and calmly to collect their diplomas inside the high school, and the crowd emptied the bleachers and field. Once people made their way off the field to the parking lot, the rain eventually turned to a drizzle, but the possibility of more showers ominously hung in the air.
With the safety of the students and audience in mind, the threat of lightning was the deciding factor in canceling the ceremony, and Knors said it would have been "bedlam" to try and move the event inside. For students and faculty, it was a disappointing end for such an important milestone.
"It's so sad it happened this way," said Knors. "I was really looking forward to it. This is such a terrific graduating class."
The graduates of 2002 have an impressive record, according to Knors, with 92 percent of the class continuing advanced studies and 70 percent receiving a Regents diploma, more than any class before. Of those, 58 percent graduated with honors, which means they received a 90 or better on all Regents exams.
The crowd did not get a chance to hear from the class of 2002's top student. After the first paragraph, Letzler's carefully crafted speech went unread.
Letzler had revved up the crowd with the thought of finishing high school once and for all when he boisterously recited Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Free at Last" quote. As the first ebullient cheers of the evening erupted from the graduates, Knors politely interrupted to say, "Congratulations, you are now graduates," which set off another wave of cheers and applause.
As a soaked Letzler left the stage, he said, "I also wanted to go on and say that freedom and independence are not the only important things about graduating, that you should do something that makes you happy."
Parents were less than happy that the culmination of four years of their kids' hard work and growing pains ended without typical graduation fanfare.
"It's a shame, it was really something to look forward to," said John Christiansen, whose son Mike graduated.
Bud Troise, waiting to watch his daughter Michelle cross the stage agreed. "It was disappointing. My daughter worked so hard, it's very anti-climatic," he said.
Other onlookers were just relieved to get out of the rain and the ceremony all together. Matthew Rosenberg, whose younger brother, Avi, was getting his diploma, said, "It was great. The best and shortest graduation I've ever been to."
