HOLLIS – The family of Hollis teen Nicole DeMarco is reeling this week after the Bonny Eagle school board’s policy committee decided Monday not to grant the student’s request to take part in Friday night’s commencement ceremony.

DeMarco, 18, spent much of her high school career home sick with serious illnesses such as mononucleosis, pneumonia, migraines and a stomach ulcer, and as a result she didn’t have the credits or attendance record required for her high school diploma. Her mother, Lisa DeMarco, home-schooled her much of this past school year, allowing the younger DeMarco to earn her GED three weeks ago through Bonny Eagle Adult Education.

Since DeMarco had attended Bonny Eagle schools from kindergarten, played sports when she wasn’t ill and has many friends within the class of 2013, Lisa DeMarco asked administrators that her daughter be allowed to participate in the high school’s graduation ceremony instead of the adult education commencement.

There is a policy in place that bans students with GEDs from taking part in the regular commencement ceremony. But the DeMarco family sought an exception after learning of a student from last year’s graduating class who had similar issues but was allowed to walk in the high school procession. That student, Lisa DeMarco said, received a blank piece of paper rather than a signed diploma while walking across the stage.

DeMarco’s request was denied, however, and the family is now claiming discrimination. School officials have set a meeting for Thursday night, after the Lakes Region Weekly’s deadline, to discuss DeMarco’s request.

DeMarco’s family welcomes the meeting. The family says the student last year was allowed to walk because a family member worked for the school district. As a result, the DeMarco family recently hired Beth Maloney, a Kennebunkport-based attorney specializing in education law, who is hoping to reverse the district’s decision prior to Friday’s graduation.

“Nicole worked hard and earned her GED, the family thought it was going to be resolved,” Maloney said. “And they only contacted me over the weekend when they found out their daughter was going to be treated so differently from this other student. Both girls earned GEDs, the only difference is one girl’s mother worked for the school system. Other than that we can’t figure out what the difference is. And no one has even tried to explain it to us.”

When contacted for comment, Superintendent Frank Sherburne said he was unable to discuss the matter due to confidentiality constraints. He would not address the exception made at last year’s graduation ceremony, as claimed by the DeMarco family. When asked why DeMarco’s request was denied, Sherburne said, “First of all, the community needs to know the administration at the high school and the board’s policy committee have reviewed this concern several times. This wasn’t a hasty decision … we met and we discussed this concern several times.”

Sherburne went on to say there is a policy in place, and that he is bound to enforce the board’s policies, and that he couldn’t discuss last year’s situation.

“I can’t get into any specifics with regard to the individual or the facts of the case … And where this is a student matter, confidentiality does come into play so the family’s education rights to privacy does come into play here,” he said. “And you’ve heard one side of the case and because of confidentiality the district cannot lay out its case publicly. That would be a violation of federal law. There are two sides to the story but the district is never able to tell its side of the story because when we’re dealing with employment matters and student matters there are federal laws that govern confidentiality.”

Sherburne said students who have not earned a Bonny Eagle High School diploma but have completed the GED requirements, as DeMarco did, are afforded the right to walk in the adult education program’s commencement ceremony.

“We have that commencement specifically for those individuals who have taken that pathway. It’s a great event. I actually went to it last week. There are a lot of individuals of a similar age range that attend those graduations and it’s a great ceremony,” he said. “It’s a celebration of learning that certainly I would recommend anyone who goes through that pathway attend because it’s a tremendous celebration, and it’s unfortunate when people choose not to.”

Sherburne said he receives few requests from those attaining a GED wishing to walk in the high school’s commencement ceremony.

DeMarco said she feels no connection to the adult education program at Bonny Eagle since she only attended long enough – a half-dozen hours in total – to take the requisite tests to attain the graduate equivalency diploma.

“Most of my family wasn’t going to be able to make it, plus I didn’t really feel I knew any of the people I was going to be walking with,” DeMarco said of the adult education ceremony. “The big part for me of walking at graduation is that I know everybody and it’s the thing to do with a group of people I’ve been with forever. I literally spent maybe five hours [at the adult education program] taking the tests and other than that I didn’t know anyone.”

Deeper issue

There is another factor in play in the DeMarco’s claim against the district. Upon reviewing the case, Maloney informed the family that the daughter should have received district-provided tutors during her high school career under the Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which requires school systems to provide tutors for children unable to attend school due to illness or disability.

“When a student is not able to come to school, the school has to provide for their education, which means they have to be sent a tutor at home,” Maloney said. “That was never done for Nicole. Her parents didn’t know that she was entitled to that, and the school system was obligated to let her parents know that.”

When asked about the Section 504 stipulations and how Maloney’s charge that the district failed to follow the law, Sherburne said he couldn’t get into specifics but that “as far as any discrimination claim or 504 claim, there is not one and we believe there really isn’t a story here. There may be a dispute and an interpretation but from our perspective we certainly have spent a great deal of time on this issue to try to come to a resolution.”

Maloney has sent a letter detailing the situation to several state-level associations including the Maine Department of Education, Maine Principals’ Association and Maine School Superintendents Association, in hopes that the Bonny Eagle school board’s decision can be reversed in time for Friday night’s ceremony, which takes place at the Lewiston Colisee.

Maloney said the family was ready to forget the failure of the school district to provide tutors for their daughter if she was allowed to walk in the commencement ceremony. If that doesn’t materialize, Maloney said, she’d likely file a lawsuit on behalf of the family based on the district’s non-compliance with the federal law.

“My idea was she walks in the procession … You know, let’s just let the whole thing go away with a very simple solution. And the answer was no,” Maloney said. “I’m shocked frankly. And I was very clear. I said, well, we’re not just going to walk away from this. And I can’t imagine the school system would rather do damage control and pay legal fees than just letting an 18-year-old girl walk with her graduating class. I truly don’t understand it.”

While she said a last-minute deal allowing her to walk across the stage probably won’t materialize by Friday, Nicole DeMarco said she and her family will probably attend the graduation ceremony anyway, just to be part of the celebratory scene.

“It was something I really wanted to do, something I was really looking forward to being able to do,” DeMarco said. “I’ve known these kids forever. Most of them I’ve gone to school with since kindergarten, and I played sports with some of them. And I know all of them really well.

“So, even though I’m probably not going to be able to march, I’m still going to go the graduation ceremony and support all of them and see all of my friends get to walk up on stage even if I can’t.”

Nicole DeMarco