A Colorado mother was outraged to find that the name of her son -who is currently serving in the Army- was not real aloud with the name of his peers during their high school graduation ceremony.
According to KJCT8, when Fruita Monument High School failed to mention her son -Private Kyler Wittwer, who was watching via live stream from his barracks- during the graduation ceremony, Jodi Bryant Wittwer reached out to the local station to express her disappointment.
“I am appalled that the principal of Fruita Monument did not announce ALL of the seniors who could not be present, due to them actively serving in the military,” she wrote. “My son, who graduated early in (December) so he could enlist in the Army, did not get his name called. He is sitting in his barracks, watching the “live stream” of graduation (and) waiting for a moment to hear his name called. He is defending the very ground you walk on Mr. McClaskey. He graduated with higher honors- presented the blue cord, and serves our country.”
Updating her post, she later said that “this is why I’m heartbroken, here’s something my son wrote prior to his graduation: ‘Even though I will not be able to make it for my high school graduation today, I am glad I was still able to get my diploma and my red white and blue tassel. And even though I might not make it home anytime soon and might be deploying to Afghanistan in the next couple weeks, I want to wish everyone from my class the best in their future endeavors. Class of 2k16.”
When reached out for comment, school district communications specialist Emily Shockley claimed that his name was read “during the part of the ceremony where they recognize students going into the military or currently enlisted. That would be the case for any student serving in the military who couldn’t make it to the ceremony.”
When the statement was disputed by PVT Whittwer’s mother, Shockley later stated that she received incorrect information from a secretary at the school.
“The information I got yesterday was from the high school department secretary, who thought he had been mentioned in the military section,” Shockley wrote. “Turns out he was not, but his name is in the program.”
The school district will now be making special accommodations for the Private and the principal called the graduate yesterday to explain why his name was not called during the ceremonies.
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