Two different goodbyes to a phase-out school’s seniors
As students shimmied and wobbled on perilously high heels across the stage at Bayard Rustin High School’s graduation today, teachers commented on what a difficult year it had been.
The Chelsea high school began phasing out last fall when it opened without a new ninth grade, and it will close for good in 2012. In October four Bayard Rustin students attended a Harvard Black Alumni Society panel on the dropout crisis and confronted Chancellor Joel Klein about his decision to close their school.
At the time, Klein made the students a bet: if they graduated, and would like him to, he would speak at their