Kaila White

The Republic | azcentral.com

A Mesa Public Schools task force will review graduation policies after administrators refused to allow a student with leukemia to wear a cap and gown and sit with his peers during graduation.

The district's governing board directed the superintendent to form a task force of community members, district staff and high school administrators that will begin work in August "with the goal of providing any recommendations mid-semester so any needed board action can be completed by the end of the calendar year."

Dobson High School in Mesa became the subject of criticism and debate last month because of a decision not to let the student body president participate in the school's graduation ceremony.

District officials denied senior Stephen Dwyer's request to wear a cap and gown and sit with students at their graduation, citing district policy. Dwyer has leukemia and withdrew from classes his junior year to receive a lifesaving bone-marrow transplant to treat the high-risk disease, according to a post he penned on Facebook that has been shared more than 2,500 times. He was 2.5 credits short of meeting the requirements to graduate.

Support for Dwyer

Dwyer was so admired at school that he was elected the student body president. Upon returning for classes his senior year, he added an “A-hour” class before first period to help catch up on credits. Dwyer ultimately earned a 4.2 GPA his first semester back.

"I never asked to receive a diploma and am even okay with not walking across that stage or having my name called, " he wrote in the Facebook post prior to the May graduation ceremonies. "I just want to be a part of the ceremony as one of my peers would be. I want to sit on the field in cap and gown, walk in the same line and throw my cap in the air as we all celebrate what we have accomplished."

Instead, he ended up leading the graduating class to their seats on the field and then leaving to watch graduation from the stands.

Hundreds of people expressed anger and frustration on social media, wondering why officials opened their rule book instead of their hearts.

Considering a change

Now district officials say they are willing to consider adjusting those rules.

"As you’re well aware, there were concerns that came up with Dobson High School graduation," governing board President Steven Peterson said during a study session Tuesday night. "There wasn’t enough time to modify the policy to be able to be fair and equitable to all of our students across the district."

Peterson said the district offered Dwyer "various compromises," including letting Dwyer sit with the speakers instead of the students.

"The request, as I understood it, was more being able to wear a cap and gown, and that was one that was fairly clear in our guidelines — that was reserved for those who had met requirements for high school graduation," Peterson said.

Peterson said there hadn't been time to address the issue before Dwyer was impacted.

Dwyer wrote the Facebook post less than 48 hours before graduation. Arizona has an Open Meeting Law that requires a notice for all governing board meetings to be posted publicly 24 hours in advance. By the time the board realized it needed to reassess the issue, "there wasn’t time for us to do anything," Peterson said. Even if they had met the morning of graduation, they didn't have enough time to change the policy and tell all schools and affected students about it fairly, he said.

The board will hold two public hearings on the topic during the fall semester and is expected to make a decision on possible policy changes by the end of the calendar year. The public hearing dates were not yet available.

"There’s too many emotions wrapped up at this point to comment" about it on a personal level, Peterson said. "It is what it was. Let’s deal with this positively going forward and move forward with it."