Petition protests Burrell School District making graduation caps and gowns all blue

More than 1,700 people have signed a petition on change.org protesting Burrell School District’s decision to use just one color for graduation caps and gowns.

Traditionally, Burrell’s ceremony has featured both of the school’s colors: senior boys wearing blue caps and gowns with girls donning white.

But the administration recently changed the colors for graduating 2022 seniors to all blue.

Burrell senior Haylee Shultz of Lower Burrell started the petition last week.

“We have looked forward to wearing white caps and gowns our whole school career,” Shultz said in her change.org statement. “We are proud of being female. We are not boys. We refuse to wear the color of the cap and gown the boys wear for graduation at Burrell.”

Of the 1,700 signatures as of late Monday, Shultz and her mother, Katy Shultz, said at least 40 were from current Burrell High School seniors, which accounts for at least 30% of the graduating class. There are 133 Burrell seniors, according to district officials.

Superintendent Shannon Wagner said there are reasons for changing graduation gown colors.

“At a time of extreme division and polarization both locally and nationally, we believe it is appropriate to showcase the Class of 2022 as one unified graduating class,” she said.

Shultz’s petition says the administration’s decision to change gown colors is because “there is more than one gender for the nonbinary students and that they were offended by the tradition.”

Wagner said the district’s decision was “not based on any single thing.”

Some high schools throughout the country have been scrapping gender-based graduation colors, opting for a single color or giving students — some with nontraditional gender identities — a choice.

Most recently, Shaler Area School District began discussions last year to alter the colors graduates wear — coincidentally, also blue for boys and white for girls. The district decided to maintain the two colors, allowing students to choose the color they prefer.

Shaler officials plan to explore more color options chosen by students for graduation next year.

“We are by no means attacking the nonbinary group and LGBTQ community,” Shultz said. “It’s more about tradition than anything.”

Shultz’s petition calls for students to choose whether to wear blue or white, which she said would accommodate all students.

Shultz took issue with the district’s decision to change the graduation colors to just blue to display unity.

“This decision undermines the tradition of wearing blue and white,” Shultz said, “which current, past and future seniors, along with community members of the district, desire to honor demonstrating more unity than the animosity the notion of this change provoked.”

Shultz said she plans to continue garnering support for her petition.

Wagner said of the upcoming graduation, “We are excited to celebrate the accomplishments and academic grit that the class of 2022 has shown.”