It seems red pride only goes so far.
At least, that’s the result after a recent movement to change the boys’ graduation gowns from navy blue to red.
It all started last year when senior Oliver Parr was working with former assistant principal Karen Hyde for college counseling.
“We were talking about traditions in Saratoga High and I was really curious as to why the robes were navy blue instead of red, since our school’s primary color is red,” Parr said.
According to Hyde, the graduation gowns used to be red but for some reason were changed to navy blue. The color remained navy from then on with the exception of only one year.
With Hyde’s explanation, Parr came up with the idea of reverting the gown color back to red this year.
“I just felt that if we’re going to represent red pride, we shouldn’t have navy blue gowns,” Parr said. “I wanted to be graduating in the same color I wear Friday nights to football games and the same color that the senior class wears to rallies.”
Parr shared his idea to the senior class Facebook group where he had received mixed feedback.
Seniors such as Sasan Saadat were open to supporting “red pride,” but simply preferred navy over the red.
“I thought navy was classy, understated, and it’s looked good in the past,” Saadat said. “When I think of red robes next to white ones, the first thing that comes to mind is High School Musical, and that wasn’t the image I wanted for graduation.”
Others such as senior Pranav Prabhakar replied enthusiastically to Parr’s Facebook post with much approval.
“I think blue’s been around for a long time, so it’s time for a change,” Prabhakar said. “We have the whole red pride going on, so we should have red gowns as well.”
After talking to principal Paul Robinson, Parr was instructed to hold a class vote. Initially, a vote held during tutorial resulted in the favor of changing the robes to red; however, the vote was deemed unofficial.
“I feel like red came out on top is because the only people that really cared enough to change it went to vote during tutorial,” Parr said. “The people that didn’t really care as much didn’t show up.”
To provide a fairer method of voting, ballots were distributed through senior English classes where all senior boys would have to vote. The result was a 82-64 majority in favor of keeping the robes navy blue.
“I was a bit disappointed because I thought a lot of people wanted red,” Prabhakar said. “On Facebook when it was first posted, people were all, ‘Red, red!’ so I was surprised when it lost.”
Although the class of 2013 has decided to remain with navy robes, the idea of having red graduation gowns has been revived. Perhaps sometime in the near future the idea of “red pride” will be reflected in a radiant red graduation gown.
“I definitely feel the next class has a chance [to change the robe colors],” Parr said. “It’s going to take somebody to talk to Mr. Robinson, and someone’s going to have to start it. It’s all up to the senior class and I do think that robes are going to be changed to red within the next couple years.”
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