The 2023 Mt. SAC ECA senior graduating class is petitioning against the decision to graduate at West Covina high school rather than Mt.SAC Campus. The second graduating class got wind of the plans to move the graduation from the original idea of the college campus of Mt.SAC to be instead moved to West Covina high school. 

This decision not only affects the graduating class but all future generations graduating. As discussed with many MECA students, if they have an opinion on it, in the end, there were close to One hundred and fifty signatures on the petition. 

As the graduating MECA Senior, Nick Galicia, started the petition says, “My reasoning for the petition was when we found out that the graduation was gonna be at Thyberg field (west covina high school football stadium) me and my friends were really upset because we wanted the graduation to be at Mt. SAC like the previous year had been.”

He goes on to explain that after talking with friends he went on to do the petition “So I decided to start a petition so that they could, the district could know that… we did not want to graduate at Thyberg Field at West Covina [high school].”

After all the prep Nick finally went to the board meeting, giving his speech, and discussing with the members. He explained that in the end, the seniors are still graduating at Thyberg Field.  “No, I don’t think we accomplished what we were going for, but I think we accomplished something greater, which is them knowing that our voices will be heard if we don’t like something about it …that we should be represented.”

He continued to explain why he did the petition “I didn’t really mean to make a change this year, cause I thought the decision was made but I like wanted to fight for other classes cause they feel the same way” 

Not everyone Agreed with the petition I asked Nick what he thought “I feel like, I meet people that don’t care where they graduate they just want to graduate.”  He explains more” I respect their decision, and many of us feel that we should graduate at the college that we are affiliated with like in our name cause we do say Mt. SAC in our name so we should graduate there.”

Even though the petition didn’t change the place they are graduating he explains  “I’m actually glad that I did it cause no one really spoke out, no one really wanted to and im kinda glad that I did, get my voice heard and let them know that we matter and that we’re not just a small school in the district, that we actually deserve to be heard and represented probably.” 

After everything happens the graduation will still take place on June 6, at Thyberg Feild West Covina Highschool.