Great Grads: Unique way to celebrate grad at Inglewood Secondary

WEST VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — One high school in West Vancouver has a unique way of congratulating its grads every year.

Graduating students of the Alternative program at Inglewood Secondary School get to ring a bell on their final day of school.

“We generally do it on the last day of school when there are other students here, but obviously because of the present situation that we’re all in, we really wanted to make this special and unique for the kids,” says Stefan Huskilson, a teacher at Inglewood.

Teachers were determined to keep the tradition going during the pandemic.

For most of the students, Huskilson says they’ve been able to ring the bell while still following public health orders.

“When a student would graduate from their online learning, we’re having families come to Inglewood and we did a social distancing bell ringing outside,” he says.

To keep the tradition going, teachers even made the trip to a student living on Bowen Island.

“[Huskilson] came to me on the ferry just so I could ring it. That felt pretty meaningful to me,” says graduate Chai Graham.

Decked out in his graduation robe on a sunny day, Graham rang the bell on Bowen Island as a small group cheered from a distance.

“We thought it would be really unique and fun. We have another teacher, Mrs. Turner, who lives on Bowen Island, she came up with the idea. I just grabbed the bell one day, threw it in my truck, drove, got on the ferry and went over,” says Huskilson.