- November 23, 2024
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Taylor Sawyer, one of the evening's speakers, was all smiles as she entered the stadium.
Spencer Iwanicki and Jack Goodman
Jasmine Sanchez, Susan Thompson and Mariana Rojas
Graduates file into the stadium.
Perry Johnson, Joshua Boatwright, Richard McLaughlin and Skyy Girard
Taylor Rivera and Courtney Seguin
Graduates meet up in the middle of the field before heading to their seats.
Johnnie Hayes, Simeon Waters, Robbie Peterson and Nathaniel Graham
Alicia Bacilio-Martinez, Michelle Bueg, Katlin Scott and Elizabeth Peters
One graduate couldn't help but smile as he entered the stadium.
Jesse Reyna, Blanca Salgado and Andrea Velasquez
Jacob Burr, Kaleb Combs, Luke Johnson and Eric Burgess
The band plays "Pomp and Circumstance."
Kirsten Verheul, Alejandra Villegas and Leslie Deharo
Jasmine McCobb-Pratt was the evening's student speaker.
One graduate's family held up letters spelling out her name.
Samuel Zelin and Hunter Burgin
Graduates wait for their turn to cross the field.
Seniors Keaton Smith and Nicholas Anthony sing the National Anthem.
Senior Adam Ortega leads the crowd in the pledge of allegiance.
As the sun set over the Charlie Cleland Stadium at Ihrig Field, 464 Sarasota High School graduates filed in, girls on one side, boys on the other.
They met in the middle of the stadium, waving and smiling at friends and families who wielded brightly colored signs and balloons.
After singing the national anthem and the school's alma mater, students reflected on their four years at the school.
The school speaker Jasmine McCobb-Pratt focused her speech on momentous school occasions from the past four years such as the opening of various new buildings, school spirit days and February 14, 2018 — the day of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
It was that day, McCobb-Pratt said, that made Sarasota High students scared to go to school. But, rather than sit in fear, McCobb-Pratt said students banded together to demand School Avenue be shut down, something the city is now considering.
"We are a generation ready to be written about in textbooks," she said. "We are ready to fight for what we believe in."
McCobb-Pratt encouraged her fellow graduates to take the lessons learned from their experiences at Sarasota High into their future endeavors.
