The 9th Graduation Ceremony of Danwon High School was Held in Private

The graduation ceremony for the 83 Danwon High School student survivors of the Sewol Ferry Disaster was held on January 12, 2016 – but it was held in private, at the request of the survivors’ parents. The school had originally offered honorary graduation certificates for the 250 student victims of the disaster. However, the parents of the students who lost their lives in the disaster rejected this offer, claiming that the 250 student victims could not legitimately graduate, while some of the victims remained missing.

Meanwhile, a congratulatory message to the Danwon High School graduates, written by the parents of the victims, was disclosed to the public via a Facebook page entitled 4.16 Families of the Sewol Victims. This Facebook disclosure said that when they had asked the school whether they could deliver a congratulatory message at the graduation ceremony, the school had rejected this request, saying that the parents of the student survivors were against the idea.

Here is a translation of a portion of that congratulatory message from the Facebook page of Mr. Ryu Gyungguen, chairman of the 4.16 Families of the Sewol Victims:

“Your graduation is not a sad one.

We used to think we were just average parents who would see our own children finish their 12-year school lives and become adults with both the pride and the worries that this entails. However, we all became the parents who envy this graduation.

Nevertheless, we have all started to wish – from some time ago – that all of you, all the 83 graduates that survived the disaster, will grow like our own children. Thank you all for hanging in so bravely on such a sad and harsh path for these last 637 days. We all, mothers and fathers, are aware of what this society has done to you – you who barely escaped from the disaster that the adults themselves created.

We know that all of you have been doing just fine and hope you will carry on with your own lives and never become discouraged. Face your own lives proudly, honorably and confidently. We will seek to find the truth behind this disaster – the disaster that claimed the lives of your friends, teachers and neighbors. Please keep in your memory the need to support these mothers and fathers.

Congratulations on your graduation and may God bless all of you.”