05/30/2025
Saginaw Students DESERVE More Than Five Graduation Tickets.
As graduation season approaches, many high school seniors across Saginaw should be preparing for one of the most important milestones of their lives — walking across the stage in front of the family and friends who supported them along the way. But instead, students are dealing with disappointment, frustration, and confusion after learning they will only be given five graduation tickets per student.
This isn’t just about a ceremony. It’s about honoring the effort, the sleepless nights, the resilience through pandemic-era schooling, personal challenges, and academic pressure. To tell a student they must choose which loved ones can attend and who will be left out is heartbreaking and unfair.
One student expressed what many others feel: “It’s important for us to have more than five graduation tickets because we have family members coming from out of town to celebrate this milestone with us. To tell them they can’t attend because of the tickets we received is very heartbreaking.”
This is especially painful in light of the fact that the school district recently invested a substantial amount of money into building a brand-new high school — combining two historic schools with deep community roots. While modernizing our facilities might have been intended as a step forward, many students are now left wondering: If you can combine schools and spend that much money, why can’t you invest in something as meaningful as a proper graduation for all of us?
It’s not just about bricks and buildings. It’s about people, values, and priorities. If we can hold BASKETBALL games at the Dow Event Center, then surely we can host a once-in-a-lifetime celebration like graduation there too. A larger venue makes more sense for a larger student population. It allows room for all families to attend, cheer, and share in the pride of their graduates’ accomplishments.
The decision to limit students to five tickets sends the wrong message about what we value as a district. It suggests that logistics matter more than people, that ceremony matters more than connection. That’s not the message we want to send to the students who have spent their entire high school careers proving their worth, their work ethic, and their desire to succeed.
Graduation is not just a school event — it’s a community event. It’s a celebration that should reflect the hard work of students, the sacrifices of families, and the support of teachers and mentors. We urge the Saginaw Public School District to reconsider this policy and find a solution that honors every graduate — and gives every family member a seat in that room.
They’ve worked too hard to be left clapping from the parking lot. Highlights