CASTRO'S COMIC-BOOK BEHAVIOR MARS GRAD'S CEREMONY

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

The 2019 graduation ceremonies will be  a bittersweet memory for a woman and her daughter.

Although none of those present at the graduation ceremony for students at the Brownsville Early College High School may have been aware of it, they had to overcome many obstacles, including personal family tragedies and an overzealous administrator intent on enforcing her personal dress code.

Then, to add insult to injury, one of the board members at the graduation ceremony showed up wearing a comic-book character's medallion.

The mother had cervical spine surgery during the school year and ended up coming out of surgery with a labral tear which left her right arm paralyzed and had to undergo another surgery to repair it.

On a personal level, the woman's husband had left the household for a younger woman and the load of caring for her fell upon her daughter, who was taking college courses at the BECHS at the same time. 

While the mom struggled to recover from her health and personal ordeal it still proved a difficult time for both of them. 

Throughout that time, her daughter stuck by her mom's recovery. So when the girl asked her to help her to add some colored highlights to her hair for the high school prom, the grateful mom gave her permission to do it but it resulted in unsightly blue and purple highlights that principal Aimee Garza-Limon found objectionable. Several times, they said, Garza-Limon ordered the girl to remove the highlights.

Yet, despite spending more than $100, the color would not budge. The principal's persistent objections to the girl's hair lasted into graduation morning when she called her out about it on graduation morning in front of her peers. 

The woman's mother said the principal told her daughter she would not allow her to walk in the graduation ceremony if she didn’t put her hair up to cover the highlights. Upset at the persistent scolding, the mom confronted Ms. Garza-Limon and tried to explain to her everything they had gone through to reach the moment of her graduation. 

Confronted, the principal did apologize to her daughter, but that hardly made up for the unnecessary tears and distress they had endured, the mother said. With the lighting at the ceremony, it was barely even noticeable.

"During the ceremony, I was disappointed to see that there was another student with colored hair and nothing was said. Then I noticed that board member Erasmo Castro was disrespecting the collegiate regalia by idiotically donning the Marvel Doctor Strange Eye of Agamotto Replica Necklace as part of his regalia."

Now, she asks, why was her daughter subjected to public ridicule in front of her peers and forced to adopt the whims of the principal while others weren't, and a board member chose to appear at this once-in-a-lifetime event wearing a comic-book medallion? 

"This is blatant disregard to be a role model in our community," she said. "After all we had gone through I feel the students and their parents deserve a little more respect for their achievements."