Pasadena Unified’s Class of 2026 celebrated for ‘resilience, empathy’

Pasadena Unified School District celebrated its class of 2026 this week with five graduation ceremonies held inside the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

The Center for Independent Study and Rose City High School along with Blair High School ceremonies were held Wednesday, June 3. John Muir, Thurgood Marshall and Pasadena high schools had their ceremonies on Thursday, June 4.

Later this month, PUSD will host a graduation ceremony for Twilight Adult Education.

Marshall and Blair were the two high schools included in potential merger scenarios that emerged from an exploratory consolidation process that last week came to a halt.

In the face of immense public backlash led by parents and students from those two schools, the Board of Education voted against receiving a equity analysis report on potential mergers effectively ending the process that had been ongoing since January.

Both schools’ ceremonies did not dwell on a spring of intense meetings and fear over their schools closing. Students were greeted with raucous applause and cheers from the packed auditorium.

“Class of 2026, we made it,” Blair High School Valedictorian Lesley Chee said. “That might sound cliché for a graduation speech but there were definitely moments where that felt statistically unlikely. Through global pandemics, devastating fires, the at times terrifying political climate we faced and talks of school consolidations, life has constantly reminded us that nothing is guaranteed and yet somehow we still made it here tonight, together.”

The next day at the Marshall ceremony, Principal Lor Touloumian also commended the class of 2026 for weathering the storms of, “the disruption due to COVID closures, the devastation and impact of the Eaton fire or concerns surrounding school consolidation.”

“You consistently demonstrated resilience, empathy, leadership and strength,” Touloumian said.

All PUSD ceremonies were livestreamed on the KLRN Pasadena YouTube channel.

Correspondent Sam Mulick contributed to this report.