High School Student with Disability Felt 'Robbed' After Having to Sit in Audience for Graduation

"It felt like we were watching our classmates graduate rather than us graduating with them,” Kennedy Lee tells PEOPLE

• Kennedy Lee says that she and the two other graduating Greenfield High School students were relegated to sitting in the bleachers with the audience instead of with their peers

• “It felt like we were watching our classmates graduate rather than us graduating with them," Lee tells PEOPLE

• In a statement shared with PEOPLE, Weakley County Director of Schools Jeff Cupples said that all district "graduation ceremonies are planned to ensure the safety of all participants"

A Tennessee student with disabilities is speaking out after commencement left a bitter taste in her mouth.

Kennedy Lee says that she and two other graduating Greenfield High School students were relegated to sitting in the bleachers with the audience, instead of with their peers at their May 17 graduation ceremony.

“It does make me very emotional, not just because it did happen to me, but it did happen to people that I care about,” Lee, who has postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) as well as a functional neurological disorder, tells PEOPLE. “It makes me emotional for future students that could be treated this way.”

In a statement shared with PEOPLE, Weakley County Director of Schools Jeff Cupples said that all district "graduation ceremonies are planned to ensure the safety of all participants."

“Weakley County Schools does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, disability, national origin, gender, age, political affiliation, or beliefs,” the statement concluded.

Lee says that up until the last day of classes, she assumed she would have a normal graduation with the rest of the students. Then her mother received a call from the principal.

“She told us that we would be using a wheelchair and we would not be able to walk and we would not be seated with our classmates,” Lee recalls. “Of course, my mother was very upset about hearing this. I was very upset about hearing this, and so we did what we could to fight that.”

Related: Students Denied High School Graduation Due to COVID May Miss Out Again amid College Protests

On May 16, the school held a graduation practice and Lee told the principal that she received a doctor’s note that cleared her to be able to walk during the event. In turn, she says the principal told her "we would see how practice goes."

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“So from my understanding, I thought that seeing how practice goes meant that I would get to practice graduation just like everybody else," she says. "But I was very, very wrong.”

"Whenever the graduation practice came, we were told to sit on the bleachers and our classmates would sit on the chairs, which felt very degrading in the moment because we were seated looking directly at our classmates,” Lee says. “It felt like we were watching our classmates graduate rather than us graduating with them.”

Afterwards, Lee says they were told they would have to sit in the bleachers for the actual ceremony, and couldn't walk to pick up their diplomas without a nurse present.

And despite her best efforts, that's exactly what happened on graduation day.

Related: 11 Sets of Twins to Graduate from Same Pennsylvania High School Together

Lee says that she did consider boycotting the ceremony, but ultimately decided against it.

“It really hurt that I was not given these same opportunities as my other classmates, and my entire high school career has not been normal," she says. "So I just wanted one night to be a normal student and be treated like a normal student, and that was robbed of me.”

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In response to the district’s statement, Lee says that she could understand the move as a safety precaution. However, she adds, “They simply could have sat us with our other classmates and had a nurse sit beside us. They did not have to segregate us from our other classmates…They could have done a much better job."

She says the reason she is publicizing the issue is to prevent this from happening to another student. “Everybody deserves the same opportunities,” Lee says. “Graduation is a very big thing, especially for students that do have disabilities. It's a big achievement and they deserve to experience graduation just like any other student.” 

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