At the end of four, long years of high school, the least amount of stress for any student should be during graduation; it’s the end of the year, college is only a few months away, and most stress has been replaced with a little thing called ‘senioritis.’ However, for some, graduation can be more than a little bit awkward when it comes to dressing in the infamous cap and gown to finally leave the last four years behind. It may not seem like a very big problem, but students around campus have been complaining about the school’s ‘blue for the boys’ and ‘red for the girls’ graduation gown dilemma.

Graduation from high school is supposed to be about recognizing the accomplishment of the student body, from academic achievements to art scholarships. Yet, when segregating the sexes like that, it forms a mental disconnect between the students. As previously stated, we are one student body, why do we graduate as a segregated school? If anything, it would be reasonable to separate students who are graduating with AP credits versus the students graduating with on-level courses; for example, giving seniors different cord colors could be something to look forward to. But separating simply on the basis of ‘girl’ and ‘boy’? Really, a dumb idea.

With the use of this tactic, it can also isolate some students due to the fact that gowns are separated on the basis of sex. Not all students necessarily conform to normal gender identities, and not to mention the school’s transgender students, graduation could be a whole mess of awkward. Are these students allowed to choose what color they wear? Or is everyone simply assigned which color to wear? Not that high school is all about the comfort of the students, but shouldn’t the last ‘hurrah’ of the year be somewhat of a relief?

Most high school graduating classes in Arizona all wear the same color in their ceremonies, as do the major in-state colleges. NAU, UofA, and ASU graduates all walk across the stage proudly in their university’s colors, as do graduates from Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.

If there are to be different colored gowns at graduation, students should be able to choose what they want to wear to be comfortable, or there should only be one color for the sake of unity in the graduating class. Why is there the need to make us feel separate?