Wendell \u201cWoWo\u201d Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.<\/a><\/p>\nFor years, Long Beach Polytechnic High School\u2019s graduation ceremony has been held at Veterans Memorial Stadium at Long Beach City College. This year, Vets hosted the largest graduating class in all of Long Beach, as nearly 1,000 Jackrabbits walked the stage as a part of the Class of 2026 in what was the final graduation ceremony at Vets before its demolition and reconstruction starting in the fall.<\/p>\n
One of the most integral parts of the ceremony is the reading of the graduates\u2019 names. Poly is known for its immense diversity, resulting in a wide range of unique pronunciations that echo throughout Veterans Memorial Stadium as each graduate crosses the stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cGraduation is a great moment in any student\u2019s life,\u201d said Poly teacher Mr. Alexander, who didn\u2019t read names this year but had previously done so for the past 20 years. \u201cAs a person who has read names, I always took it seriously, because you only get that one moment. It\u2019s the last time that all of that class is together and this is the last time I\u2019m going to see 95% of these people. I just want to hear your name right.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Poly boasting a lasting legacy throughout the city of Long Beach, the pressure of reading names for so many graduates is no small feat. CIC teachers Mr. Knapil and Mr. Pluton were the readers for Poly\u2019s ceremony this year. Knapil, who grew up in Long Beach, understands the significance of graduating, and especially the importance of correctly pronouncing names on the big stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe baton was passed to us,\u201d Knapil said of he and Pluton reading names at graduation. \u201cWe\u2019ve only done it a couple of times. We\u2019re learning how we want to do it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With plenty of complicated factors at play under the bright lights of the ceremony, mistakes are bound to happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to do my best,\u201d Knapil said, stating that he always tries to \u201csay it as true to the name as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with the largest graduating class in Long Beach, Poly\u2019s graduation ceremony was the shortest from start to finish, a testament to the Jackrabbits\u2019 staff and everyone involved in making the event run smoothly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy of Jonathan Evans. The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-364678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}