Thanks to the Montgomery County Board of Education, all county high school students graduating this spring have the option of decorating their graduation caps.
At its May 9 meeting, the school board deliberated about a resolution that would allow Montgomery County Public Schools seniors to decorate their mortarboards “within the parameters determined by the school principal in collaboration with their graduation committee.” The new rule begins with the class of 2024.
The resolution, which was offered by board member Rebecca Smondrowski (Dist. 2), passed with a 7-1 vote.
School board member Shebra Evans (Dist. 4), who voted to pass the resolution, said she understood students’ desire to decorate their mortarboards and believed the district could allow more flexibility. Before the resolution, mortarboard decoration rules had been set by individual schools. Some schools have allowed cap decorating while the majority have not.
Evans said that when her daughter was graduating, she had to compromise. Her daughter, who is an artist, painted a cap that could be worn for photos and had an unadorned cap for graduation.
Evans also acknowledged concerns about allowing students to decorate their caps. “We’re in a heightened time right now where you just don’t know what people are going to do,” she said. “But at the same time, our students have limited opportunities to celebrate this momentous occasion.”
Board President Karla Silvestre voted against the resolution, saying she was concerned about implementing a new rule so close to the upcoming graduations. Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring is scheduled to hold the first MCPS graduation on May 29.
“I would like to respect the work that the committees and principals have done at their individual schools rather than changing it last minute to implement the will of the board,” Silvestre said.
Smondrowski said she had spoken to principals about the proposal and heard “very mixed” results. That’s why, she said, she included language in the resolution that would allow principals to determine the parameters and rules of cap decorating.
Peter Moran, chief of School Support and Well-Being at MCPS, agreed with Smondrowski that the consensus around allowing graduation cap decoration was mixed.
“There are students who believe it’s a distraction from the graduation ceremony,” he said. “There are concerns out there regarding the use of this to display political things and the principals’ ability and their teams’ ability to monitor, in some cases, upwards to almost a thousand students’ graduation caps on the day of graduation.”
Interim MCPS Superintendent Monique Felder said the rule change raises an equity issue in the district if students are allowed to decorate their caps at one school but not at another.
According to Moran, 17 out of the district’s 25 high schools have said they would prefer not to allow graduates to decorate their caps. Moran did not share the names of those schools.
MCPS spokesperson Chris Cram and school board communications specialist Christie Scott did not immediately provide the names of the schools that permit or do not permit students to decorate their caps.
Smondrowski said she understood the concerns surrounding inappropriate or politically-oriented decorations. Principals would be able to set parameters to make sure decorations are not “hurtful, harmful, political,” she said. In addition, she said principals would have the authority to remove a student’s cap if it doesn’t follow the guidelines.
Student board member Sami Saeed, who will be graduating from Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville this spring, said he supported the resolution but was concerned about schools having different decoration guidelines.
School board member Grace Rivera-Oven (Dist. 1) offered that her son, who graduated from MCPS, decorated his cap with the logo of the fire department where he volunteered despite school rules that prohibited cap decorations. When the principal saw the teen’s design, he showed appreciation, she said.
Rivera-Oven said she was conflicted about the proposed resolution, but wanted to support students as they express themselves.
“I am very torn on this,” she said, noting “this is a graduating class that has been through a lot too. They started [high school during the COVID-19 pandemic] online when they were freshman. I think sometimes we side on the side of fear of what could happen rather than what might be best for our students.”
