The Shelton school district’s decision not to award a honorary diploma to a fallen member of the Class of 2016 at the Shelton High graduation ceremony touched off an emotional confrontation with friends of the dead student’s family at the board’s meeting Wednesday.
The school board instead plans to award honorary diplomas to Eddy Conklin, who died in a traffic accident Feb. 28, and also to Kristjan Ndoj, who was shot to death in March 2014, at the graduating class’s Senior Awards Night ceremony on June 2.
Had they lived, both of the teens would have graduated next month. The crash that killed Conklin is under investigation. Ndoj’s murder remains unsolved.
The board’s alternative plan didn’t sit well with dozens of people who showed up to support Ed and Barbara Conklin’s request to have their son’s name read at the graduation ceremony June 10, and also to express their displeasure at the way the couple was treated by the board.
Here is a video report on the issue from NBC 30:
During Thursday’s meeting school board member Kathy Yolish proposed adding an agenda item to discuss presenting honorary diplomas to Conklin, Ndoj and another student who died in 2012, at the Senior Awards event, and to read their names at the graduation ceremony, but her motion failed.
The Conklins and their supporters left the meeting even angrier than they had arrived.
“At this point, I can’t believe they could be so cold-hearted,” Barbara Conklin said. “This is not what I would teach my children.”
Click here for a previous story for more background.
Since the school district denied the Conklins’ request, the matter has exploded on social media, with angry parents writing barbs aimed at Board of Education Chairman Mark Holden on Facebook.
Nearly 8,000 people have signed an online petition urging school officials to reconsider.
Holden was the target for most of the ire directed at the board Wednesday, but a number of critics pointedly threatened to seek the defeat of most of the school board in the 2017 city election, excepting a few members they viewed as sympathetic to their side.
“You have enraged this community,” Shelton resident Pat Carey told them.
“Shelton has never been this broken. Don’t make it worse,” said another parent.
Mayor Mark Lauretti was out of town Wednesday, but during the public comment section of the meeting, Board of Aldermen President John Anglace read a message from the mayor asking the board to grant the Conklins’ request.
“This is the time for common sense to prevail,” Anglace said, quoting the mayor.
At one point, members of the audience erupted with angry jeers of “hypocrites” and “you work for us.”
Eddy Conklin’s parents appeared angry, but mournful, as they spoke in favor of recognizing their son at the high school graduation.
They told how he was a good student, enrolled in Advanced Placement courses, a varsity basketball player, and had been accepted at four of the six colleges he had applied to, receiving commitments for $80,000 in scholarships.
Later in the meeting, Holden tried to respond to the critics during the Chairmen’s Comments item on the meeting agenda, but was interrupted with another emotional outburst from the audience.
Angry people called the board a “disgrace” and vowed to vote the members out of office next year.
Holden finally concluded: “Agreements are reached by reasonable people, and we could use more of them in the future.”
But by that point, most of his detractors had stormed out of the meeting room.
Board member David Gioiello said he was disturbed to hear Holden say that the board had decided to present honorary diplomas at the Senior Awards ceremony next week. He questioned whether the decision adhered to state open government laws.
Gioiello said the topic had been discussed in executive session, but Freedom of Information Act rules prohibit voting on motions in executive sessions, and no vote had been taken in an open session.
At that, Holden cut off Gioiello and ruled him out of order because the matter was not on the agenda.
Holden later told the Valley Independent Sentinel that although no vote had been taken, the consensus during the executive session was to award the honorary diplomas at the June 2 senior class event.
