More fair by the dozen

By GINA KINSLOW
Glasgow Daily Times

GLASGOW April 19, 2008 11:49 am

— Barren County High School seniors will be allowed to invite 12 people each to their graduation this year.
Limiting the number of people per student who can attend is a new regulation for the school and was something school officials felt they needed to do to ensure students’ parents had a seat for the event.
The school’s gym will safely seat 4,000 people, and in order to accommodate that number, said Keith Hale, principal, some actions had to be taken.
“Each of the 300 plus seniors will receive 12 tickets. We will have between 200 to 300 district employees and then the 300 plus seniors. Calculating this amount will have us reach our potential for occupancy,” said Hale.
BCHS is graduating one of the largest groups of seniors in the school’s history.
“Several students have indicated that they will not use all 12 tickets and those tickets will be dispersed to the other seniors that require extra tickets,” Hale said.
A waiting list for additional tickets will be available the week of graduation.
School officials did consider holding graduation elsewhere, such as the Cave City Convention Center and the football field at the school, but both venues would have allowed students to invite less people to their graduation, Hale said.
This marks the second year for the school’s commencement exercises to take place in an air-conditioned gym.
BCHS’ graduation is set for May 29 at 8 p.m. and is expected to last two hours.