Parents are being a light and an example to us all this graduation season.
Days after Richard Collins III’s father accepted his son’s diploma, and weeks after a New Jersey son followed his father across the stage, we learn that Lezley McSpadden shared a big day with her daughter today.
That’s right, McSpadden, who you may know as Michael Brown’s mother, earned her high school diploma today alongside her daughter, Daysa.
McSpadden had Michael while she was a junior in high school, and like so many teen parents, faced a hard choice: to leave the care and raising of her son to others as she completed her education, or to leave school, find work and raise her child herself.
As you all know, McSpadden chose the latter, and thus never received her diploma, nor was able to go on to pursue higher education.
After Brown’s death, McSpadden dedicated herself to her son’s foundation. Part of the organization’s work involved education, and she would often take meetings with the superintendent of her local public school district, Art McCoy.
McCoy learned that McSpadden had never had the chance to finish schooling, and told her “that we had to get her educated and get a diploma,” the St. Louis Dispatch reports, “What better way is it to honor your son than to get the degree he got?”
The school district had plans for an adult high school education program, and felt that McSpadden was a perfect candidate.
She, along with one other adult, enrolled in the program, which saw the both of them attending school weekday afternoons.
Both McSpadden and the other participant successfully completed the program.
“We’re super excited,” McCoy said of the McSpadden’s success.
And thanks to her hard work, the adult education program has been deemed a success as well.
McCoy says the district will be “growing it slowly” while making sure “we’re keeping our core student population graduating.”
Benjamin Crump, one of the Trayvon Martin case lawyers, was quick to join in the chorus of congratulations coming McSpadden’s way:
And to his, we add our own.
