Crowd reacts to pro-Great Auditorium comment
Text by Charles Layton, Photos by Paul Goldfinger
Neptune school officials met with more than 200 parents, students and residents Wednesday night to discuss the ACLU’s threat to file suit over use of the Great Auditorium for this year’s high school graduation.
School Board President John Daniels opened the meeting. Standing at a podium on the floor of the high school’s auxiliary gymnasium, Daniels told the crowd that the board “is one hundred percent behind the cause of this event … to continue at the Great Auditorium.”
Superintendent David Mooij then explained the issue and took questions from the audience. But the meeting ended as a kind of pep rally, with people expressing mutual support along with anger and sadness over the possibility that a court might not permit the class of 2011 to graduate in the Great Auditorium, as previous classes have done for at least seven decades.
Neptune Township School Superintendant David Mooij
In addition to the anger and sadness, however, was the obvious sense of the pride the people of Neptune take in Ocean Grove as a place for their seniors to celebrate graduation. One woman said her daughter would be the fifth generation of her family to graduate in the Great Auditorium. Another spoke of the emotion she felt when the American flag lights up behind the auditorium stage. Mooij spoke of the auditorium’s unique historical significance.
Chante Reeves NHS '11
Chante Reeves, a member of the class of 2011, told the crowd, “We’d rather be in the Great Auditorium than any other venue.”
Not a single person rose to defend the ACLU and its client, who are challenging the use of a place of worship for a public school event. (For background on the ACLU’s objections and the school’s response, go here. For a timeline of events, go here.)
Mooij emphasized that no suit has yet been filed. The ACLU and the school board are still negotiating, and the board continues to plan for graduation in the auditorium, he said.
In answer to audience questions, he said the ACLU still had time, before graduation, to file for an injunction to block the use of the auditorium. Should an injunction be granted, he said, “We do not have a backup plan yet,” but he promised that the seniors would have a good place to graduate no matter what. He ruled out holding the graduation outdoors because of the possibility of bad weather. Asked where the school board would get the money to fight a law suit, if it came to that, Mooij said no such money was allocated in the budget but that the board “will do what they have to do in case of a legal challenge.”
He said the administration has considered a few other venues, including the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park. But no other place will have nearly as much seating capacity as the Great Auditorium. Using the auditorium allows the school to distribute from six to eight tickets for each of the 320 graduating seniors, versus three to four tickets per senior at any alternative site, he said. He also made clear that the board would not give up the auditorium unless forced to do so by court order.
He announced that the date of the graduation, originally scheduled for June 20, has been moved up to June 17, which is a Friday. (This had nothing to do with the ACLU dispute.)
Before opening the meeting to audience questions and comments, Mooij asked that everyone “observe decorum” and respect differing opinions. For the most part, the audience members did so. However, emotions ran high, there was much enthusiastic applause at people’s comments, and one woman broke into tears as she tried to describe how much graduation in the Great Auditorium meant to her.
Mooij urged people to make their voices heard by writing letters to the Asbury Park Press and speaking out in other forums. But he also noted that, in the event of a law suit, “it’s the legal arguments that will dictate the outcome” rather than public emotion and rhetoric.
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