Graduation once appeared as an impossible dream for a group of 25 seniors at Blue Peak High School, but they became the first high school students in Tooele County to receive a diploma in 2016.
Blue Peak’s graduation ceremony was held Monday evening in the Community Learning Center’s gym.
As Tooele County School District’s alternative high school, Blue Peak students are referred to the school by counselors at other high schools in Tooele Valley because of a lack of attendance and credits for a timely graduation, according to Mat Jackson, the school district’s special education director.
Jackson likes to dispel the myth that the alternative high school is for troublemakers.
“Blue Peak students aren’t pregnant mothers, smokers, criminals, or drug dealers,” he said.
Nate McMahon, student speaker at the graduation ceremony, described how he came to Blue Peak.
“I didn’t feel ready at all for high school,” he said. “Towards the middle of my ninth grade year, I started to have some rough times. My grades dropped and I missed much more school than I really wanted to. As a result, I lost a lot of my friends. With all these bad things happening, I knew I had to do something.”
McMahon said he came to Blue Peak at the beginning of tenth grade with his head hanging down.
“I thought things would not be much different,” he said. “I was very wrong. I had heard that this school was for the failures. That is not true. It is for kids that have had rough times in their lives and need a helping hand. Throughout this school you will find amazing people, amazing people that help you change your life.”
McMahon said he now holds his head high with big expectations.
“Dare to excel,” he challenged his fellow graduates. “Go the extra mile. Lend a helping hand. Make your mark on the world.”
Lori Baessler, who started her teaching career three years ago at Blue Peak, told the graduating class that they had been her teacher.
“You have helped me and taught me so much,” she said. “You have helped me to be a better teacher and a better, more understanding, human being. You taught me to think outside of the box. You taught me that just because you follow a different path, it doesn’t mean you are lost. …
“Show the world what you can be,” she added. “Your success is inevitable if you do the best you can. Your mountain is waiting, get on your way.”
Deb Bushek, the school district’s curriculum, instruction, and assessment director, was the final speaker for the graduation ceremony.
She described her own graduation from an alternative high school 41 years ago in Davenport, Iowa.
“My graduation did not take place in a fine building like this, which seemingly radiates with the un-ignorable climate of learning,” Bushek said. “Rather it took place with very little fanfare in a city park with nine other classmates.”
While Bushek’s high school experience may have varied in size and facilities, she said the two schools had one thing in common: teachers and staff were “star-polishers.”
“They buffed and polished each of us,” Bushek said. “They saw beyond the outward appearance of our circumstances and beyond our lapses into poor judgment. Instead, they saw bright, strong and worthy young men and women with dreams for the future and the potential to reach them.”
Bushek told the graduates that their dreams for the future will have a better chance of being fulfilled having now received their diplomas.
“Dream until your dreams come true,” she said.
High school graduations continue this week with Wendover High School’s graduation on May 24 at 7 p.m. in the Peppermill Concert Hall.
Dugway High School’s graduation is May 25 at 4 p.m. in the school’s auditorium.
Grantsville, Stansbury and Tooele High schools will hold separate graduation ceremonies on May 26 at the University of Utah’s Jon M. Huntsman Center.
Tooele High’s graduation ceremony will start at 1 p.m. Grantsville High’s will follow at 4 p.m. and Stansbury High’s begins at 7 p.m.
Tooele County High School graduations end Friday with Tooele County School District’s adult education graduation program at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Learning Center gym.