Melissa Chan Jamaica High School senior Akime Gordon scrawled “Out With a Bang” on his graduation cap. There is no going back to their alma mater.
The last graduating class of Jamaica High School donned their caps and gowns and received their diplomas during a weepy, final commencement ceremony Thursday as the storied school began its pass into history.
“It’s emotional,” said senior Akime Gordon, 19, at Antun’s, a catering venue in Queens Village where the graduation ceremony was held. “It hurts because there’s nothing for us to go back to.”
The closing bell rang last week for the struggling school’s last batch of 24 graduating seniors after the city announced its closure in 2009 due to failing progress reports and low graduation rates.
Despite multiple rallies students held to save it, the 122-year-old school began its phase-out in 2011.
“The school might close and everything might change but all our memories will still be the same,” said Gordon, who scrawled “Out With A Bang” on his graduation cap.
The ceremony was shadowed by “loom and doom,” said principal Enric Kendall, as the teens and their leaders lamented their long fight to rescue Jamaica from the chopping block and hugged each other goodbye.
But the small group of scholars, instructed by teachers to walk down the aisle “slowly and proudly,” was also applauded and awarded for their accomplishments.
“If you can make it through a phase-out school, you can make it anywhere,” Kendall said during his final principal’s address.
In its heyday, Jamaica — which opened in 1892 — was named the best secondary school in America in 1985 by the U.S. Department of Education.
Among its students were columnist Art Buchwald, director Francis Ford Coppolla, ‘50s doo-wop group The Cleftones and Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley.
“This is the end,” said longtime teacher James Eterno, a 28-year veteran of the school, while choking up. “It’s bittersweet. It’s a celebration, but it feels like a funeral.”
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