When Heber Springs High School's class of 2016 graduates tonight, two chairs will remain empty for the commencement ceremony, a memorial that hundreds of people supported through an online petition drive.
One chair will be in honor of Toby Leonard, and the other in honor of Robert Woods. Both died in unrelated accidents a few years ago. Robert drowned at age 13 in 2012; Toby died in a wreck at age 14 in 2011.
Senior Tyler Cathey said she and classmate Cat O'Neil came up with the idea to start the petition drive on the online advocacy site care2.com.
Cathey said she believes that effort is what prompted administrators to reverse course and allow the memorials. A similar situation at the school happened a few years ago "and nothing changed their minds" then, Cathey said Thursday.
"We just had some school administration that really wasn't too fond of the idea," Cathey said of the current class's plans. "They didn't want to dampen the mood ... by bringing [the deaths] up."
The petition drive started May 6, and administrators "decided over the weekend to reconsider the idea," Cathey said.
The petition had gathered 749 supporters as of Thursday, including 529 from Arkansas, the online site said.
The petition, under Cathey's name, begins, "Two of my classmates passed away and my class wanted two empty seats left for them at graduation. Sadly some school administration is not allowing us to do so. So this petition is to give the school evidence that people want this to happen. If you believe we should be allowed to have two seats for them, please help with your support."
High school Principal Bret Brown gave a somewhat different account of developments Thursday. Brett said he had told the teenagers to get the permission of the parents of the deceased children.
"I didn't want to dredge things up that would hurt the parents," Brown said.
One problem was that the students did not initially bring that permission to him, the principal said. He said he had been unaware at the time that one of the parents had bought a memorial in this year's yearbook.
Another factor, Brown said, was that the memorials for students who died before they were seniors would set a precedent.
"We realized when we did this we'd be opening a door," he said.
Once Brown was sure the deceased children's parents and other administrators approved of the memorial, the school approved the students' request last week, Brown said. Brown described the school district's superintendent as being "very supportive" of the memorial.
"We finally got it cleared with everyone," Brown said.
Brown said he thought the petition drive was "great."
A woman who identified herself online as Donna Simpson wrote on the petition comments area, "I am [Toby's] grandmother, I only wish I could see my grandson at this graduation, but the lord had other plans for him, please open your hearts [and] let these children have the chairs they want to honor [and] to remember their classmates."
Brown said classes already have been honoring students who died during their senior year.
State Desk on 05/13/2016