A plan to use artificial intelligence to read off the names of graduates at Washington-Liberty High School received pushback at last week’s School Board meeting.
June Prakash used the Board’s public-comment period to decry a partnership with a company that uses AI to correctly pronounce students’ names and read them off at a consistent rhythm during graduation ceremonies.
Prakash said there was nothing wrong with the way the school has done things for the past 99 years — using faculty and staff members to read off the names of their students as they cross the stage to receive diplomas.
“Who asked for this?” she inquired.
“Graduation is one of those most meaningful moments in a student’s academic journey,” Prakash said. “Turning that moment into an AI moment makes this feel standardized, impersonal, rather than authentic and human.”
Prakash serves as president of the Arlington Education Association, but was speaking in her personal capacity.
“We should be investing in practices that strengthen relationships, not replace them,” she said, asking for School Board members to intervene and reverse the Tassel partnership.
The W-L graduation will be held on June 13 at 9 a.m. at EagleBank Arena on the campus of George Mason University. Wakefield’s graduation ceremony is slated to follow at the same location at 2 p.m.
Yorktown High School will hold commencement exercises on June 10 at 3 p.m. at DAR Constitution Hall. Specialized county schools and programs will hold graduation ceremonies at a variety of venues from June 5-13.
APS asked to ‘stay the course’ on current calendar
Earlier in the public-comment period, Washington-Liberty educator Joshua Folb asked Board members to ignore recent criticism from Arlington Parents for Education, which contends the school system does not have enough five-day-in-class weeks for students during the school year.
“The calendar is a balance — there’s tradeoffs,” Folb said, pointing to increasing training requirements, and days off for a wider array of cultural holidays, as reasonable reasons students cannot always be in class five days straight.
Folb, a frequent public-comment participant at School Board meetings, said students were not being unnecessarily negatively impacted by the existing calendar.
“To say that it harms [students] … strains credibility,” he said, urging Board members to “stay the course and avoid the noise.”
As is their custom, School Board members did not immediately respond to Prakash, Folb or others who spoke during the public-comment period.
Medical Society donation supports Wakefield grads
The Arlington County Medical Society recently presented a $16,000 donation to the Wakefield High School Education Foundation.
The funding will be used to support Wakefield graduates seeking careers in health care. Since beginning the partnership in 2016, the society’s support has provided more than $75,000 in scholarships, raising funds through donations and special events.
Jim Jones, a 1986 Wakefield graduate and head of the association, shared remarks at the presentation ceremony that underscored the need to support students heading into healthcare careers.
“As the husband of a nurse, and somebody who just reached his one-year bilateral lung transplant anniversary, I have a special appreciation for medical professionals,” he said. “I also have a special appreciation for those who help high school students achieve their dreams of attending college. Our foundation truly appreciates the donations that your organization has made over the last 10 years.”
