It is one of Los Angeles’ most renowned stages. And on Wednesday afternoon, 740 graduates from Parisa Des Charter High School had the opportunity to cross it.
The student said he was honored to move his graduation to the Hollywood Bowl after being hit by a Palisade fire that seriously injured his high school. However, the venue that hosted the Beatles Franklin D. Roosevelt and Aaron Copland wasn’t long at their beloved stadium, and the opening ceremony location.
Palisades High Pamela Magee will congratulate students at Palisades’ High Graduation Ceremony held at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday.
(Carlin Steel/Los Angeles Times)
However, Pali High students and staff learned to coordinate. The January fire disturbed their lives and destroyed the homes of many students. Some teachers and members of the school’s board have also lost their homes.
Students initially returned to school online and resumed in-person classes in the Santa Monica building, which later housed Sears. After months of redoing, the seniors’ graduation ceremony on the stage, reserved for the stars, serves as a capstone and shows their resilience.
Prior to the ceremony, senior Cash Allen said it was “bittersweet” to graduate in the bowl instead of a stadium at the sea where he played for the Paris soccer team.
“I had so many memories, so it’s definitely sad that I won’t be able to finish my four years of high school in that field,” Allen said. “But I think everyone is grateful for the opportunity to walk in the Hollywood Bowl.”
“I can’t even imagine the adversity you faced – there’s clearly a January fire that brought us here,” said Steve Kerr, a Paris alumnus coach with the Golden State Warriors, who spoke at the graduation. “This is a pretty great alternative though.”
As alumni fill in high-end box sheets, the ceremony featured comments from several students and videotape messages from Gov. Gavin Newsom. He thanked his students and urged them by saying, “The future is more than just an experience, it is something that appears.”
Showbiz speaker Billy Crystal, a longtime Palisade resident whose house burned out in January, joked about students closing the school year with an “abandoned Sears building” that “previously bought a washing machine dryer.”
Students line up at the Pallisard High School graduation ceremony at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday.
(Carlin Steel/Los Angeles Times)
Turning to the more serious notes, Crystal said the Pallisard fire provided students with important life lessons because of all its “confusion and tragedy.”
Valedictorian Annalisa Hurd recalled that she was once very certain about the future. But now she realizes that “unexpected” turns are not necessarily “fraids.”
“Focusing on lasers on only one route means you missed other routes that could take you to a faster, better scenery, or completely new destination,” she said.
Principal Pamela Magee said that the administrators are on the venues and lists in LA, a bowl owned by LA County and run by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Maggie said the Philharmonic board learned about the school situation, just as the words of Paris’ interest traveled. The organization offered to “gift” to the high school in the bowl, she said.
“The people we spoke to were ultimately bowl people who gave permission and lease,” Maggie said. “They talked to other people who said, ‘We want to do this for your school.’ ”
Maggie said the school paid the venue only a “small fee.” “It’s a gift as to what the regular rental will be like,” she said.
Other parts of the program came together organically with Nick Melboyne, a member of the Los Angeles school board, to help secure a portion of the speakers, including the crystal.
“People were trying to make it work,” Melboyne said.
Nancy Fracciola, a Parisian theatre teacher who has long produced school graduation events, said the ceremony had special meaning to her. Fracchiolla lost her home in a fire and retired at school after 13 years.
The bowl created a thrilling send-off for Fracchiolla, even if it was a neutralised change.
“It made me feel a little daunting,” she said. “Because it was like I was thinking: ‘Oh, that was my last year. I locked and loaded this graduation thing. No, you don’t. You really don’t!”
The ceremony took place in normal traditions, including student music performances, an arrangement of speakers celebrating the alumni, and calling of names.
Some families of the alumni were pleased to call the celebration “normal.”
“I think they feel the same way as other high school graduation classes. It’s everything that most of these kids have experienced and the most beautiful thing they can have.”
Guests had limited time to absorb the picturesque atmosphere of the venue.
Fracchiolla said Bowl staff members told them that graduation attendees needed to be promptly vacant as staff members had to prepare for Thursday’s concert by soul singer Leon Bridges.
“Because when they leave their graduation, there is something else to Marquee.
Rashad Rhodes, assistant coach of the Paris Hai junior varsity football team and alumni father, said it was evidence of the motto of “parist long” as the school community reunites for the celebration. Graduation “indicates that people will stay here,” he said.
Senior Allen said his middle school graduation took place in 2021 at a soccer field in Paris. Because outdoor venues allowed social distancing events during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now he weathered two initiations that respond to the change.
“This class has passed most of it,” he said.
And finally, like seniors everywhere, the alumni threw mortar boards into the air, and the crowd cheered for Paris’ high-class 2025.
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