GILROY—Moved by a centenarian grandmother’s story and prompted to act by the deaths of high school seniors weeks before graduation, Gilroy school trustees have adopted a new policy to award honorary high school diplomas.
Ironically, the grandmother whose family’s request helped inspire the policy is ineligible under criteria approved Sept. 3 by the Gilroy Unified School District Board of Trustees.
But her granddaughter, Carla Salas, of San Jose, said it’s still an honor for her grandmother, Jennie Vasquez, 101, of Gilroy, to have been partly responsible for the new policy.
“I believe she would be very tickled and happy to realize that her life story had a part in helping others,” Salas, 47, said Tuesday.
In was last year when Salas first sought information about an honorary diploma, believing that her grandmother’s life of hard work and dedication to family and education—she and her siblings all are college graduates—was deserving of the award.
“My grandmother stopped attending school in Texas when she was in approximately third grade,” Salas told school trustee Heather Bass in an email. “Her family had a nomadic lifestyle following work with the railroads…The one thing she has regretted in life is not getting her H.S. diploma,” Salas wrote.
Vasquez moved to Gilroy 75 years ago and had four children. In the 1970’s, she attempted to earn a GED but did not finish, according to Salas.
Bass told the Dispatch the idea she suggested to the school board came from Vasquez’s family, who wanted to honor her “commitment to the education and betterment of her children and grandchildren, although she herself was never provided the opportunity to complete her education.”
She added, “Sadly, this family was not able to be included in the honorary diploma program as it is set up, however, I do feel it is a step forward to honor the contributions of our community and valuing those who have pursued education in their adult lives.”
The district has awarded a few such diplomas in the past, to adults in their 70s and 80s and to a senior who passed away from illness. The new policy officially spells out what’s required for future approvals.
It was on May 11, after Salas’ initial request came in, that three high school seniors were killed in an auto accident that also took the life of a young father, Joseph Vasquez Flemate, 24.
The driver, Antonio Imbronone III, 23, of Gilroy is charged with felony driving under the influence and four counts of felony vehicular manslaughter and is awaiting trial.
The seniors, all 18 and on track to graduate, were Yesenia Mendoza Pina and Yolanda Jimenez of Mt. Madonna High School and Sara Jean Williams of Christopher High School.
By “executive decision” their families all were awarded honorary high school diplomas, Gilroy Superintendent of Schools Debbie Flores said.
When the decision was made to move forward with a board policy, research showed that statewide “It’s not common at all, there were only two,” Flores said.
Flores and Bass reviewed those and several from other states in drafting Gilroy’s policy, she said.
Flores emphasized that an honorary diploma is not a ‘real’ diploma, which means it cannot be used in applications for college admission or other official uses.
High school diplomas can only be awarded if all graduation requirements are met; honorary diplomas “…are totally different circumstances,” Flores said.
Under the new policy, honorary diplomas can be awarded to deceased students, war veterans or their families “who failed to receive diplomas due to an interruption of their education by service in the armed forces, and to foreign exchange students (as permitted by the California Education Code).
Nominations for honorary diplomas can be made for other reasons, too, as long as several conditions are met. They include that the person lived in the district at the time he or she would have graduated and that at least 50 years have passed since that graduation would have occurred.
Nominations for honorary diplomas should be sent to the superintendent. They are reviewed by the executive committee of the Board before going to the full board for action.
