Maya McFadden Photos
Principal Johnson, at center, at her final Cross commencement.
A day of goodbyes commenced at Wilbur Cross High School for the graduating Class of 2022 and their beloved principal, Edith Johnson.
While spirits were high for this year’s graduating class of 291 students, the overcast weather Thursday afternoon reflected the dual emotions of happiness and sadness students and staff felt while closing a chapter of their books of life.
A crimson sea overflowed Wilbur Cross’s Barbarito/Marone field Thursday as families gathered to watch their students walk across the stage, say goodbye to friends and mentors, and receive some final departing advice.
Graduates Nina and Shaleigh Laverty sing the National Anthem.
Johnson, who has led Cross since 2013, was promoted to the school system’s director of professional learning and leadership development and will start the new role July 1. A month ago John Tarka was selected as her successor for next year.
Thursday celebrated Johnson’s final graduation send-off as principal. She described the past nine years as a rollercoaster of emotions, which she compared to the many rollercoasters she has encountered in the hallways of Cross. From finding love to broken hearts, Johnson said, she has thrived off the strength of her students.
Her farewell advice to her students: “Keep going” no matter how bad things are or how stuck you feel she said.
She added that she learned over the past years from her students to “always be proud of the skin you’re in” and reminded a final time to never forget that.
Salutatorian Rhea McTiernan Huge recalled on the years of student activism carried out by New Haven students and advised her peers to “foster collectivism.”
Valedictorian Katherine Van Tassel spoke to her graduating classmates about theories of time — how it moves both way too fast and in slow motion at times. She advised they recognize that the present is in fact a gift to cherish, and how the Covid pandemic demonstrated that.
Gabriella Xavier dedicated and sang the song “Beautiful World” by Michael Bolton to her classmates and Johnson:
“We gotta love like we never been hurt /
We gotta rise like we’ve never been burned /
And after all of the lessons we’ve learned /
We’re gonna make this a beautiful world.”
Redmond's cap honors lost close friend Tyriek B. Keyes.
Hussain Redmond with mom Tenequa Dailey and grandmother Michelle Gary.
Graduate Hussain “Ricky” Redmond celebrated his close friend Tyriek B. Keyes, who was murdered in 2017, with a cap honoring his “lit” memory.
Redmond, a basketball and track athlete, celebrated his own accomplishments leading up to reaching the finish line Thursday. He said his friend Keyes would be dancing in celebration watching him cross the stage.
After the passing of his friend, Redmond said, he was determined to pull himself through and graduate for them both.
Redmond’s graduation cap read “We did it” and featured several pictures of Keyes, with whom he grew up. He recalled his friend, who was a jack of all trades, as a motivation for him to play basketball for Cross his freshman and junior years.
“Him and my family kept me here,” he said.
Next year Redmond will move on to attend Gateway Community College, where he is considering majoring in business.
Frank Brady.
Keynote speaker Frank E. Brady, a poet, educator, and youth specialist, also bid his farewell to Cross after starting around the same time Johnson did.
He advised students to be lifelong learners and use YouTube as a learning database.
“If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere,” Brady said.
