El estadio de Pali High se quemó. Su graduación de Hollywood Bowl es agridulce

Es una de las etapas más famosas de Los Ángeles. Y el miércoles por la tarde, 740 graduados de personas mayores de Palisades Charter High School tuvieron la oportunidad de cruzarlo.

Después de un año académico dividido por el incendio de Palisades, que dañó gravemente su escuela secundaria, los estudiantes dijeron que fueron honrados de trasladar su graduación al Hollywood Bowl. Sin embargo, el lugar, que ha sido sede de los Beatles, Franklin D. Roosevelt y Aaron Copland, no era su amado estadio junto al mar, durante mucho tiempo el sitio de las ceremonias de graduación.

Pero los estudiantes y el personal de Pali High han aprendido a adaptarse. La conflagración de enero volcó sus vidas, destruyendo las casas de muchos estudiantes, algunos de los cuales dejaron la escuela. Algunos profesores y miembros de la junta directiva de Pali también perdieron casas.

Los estudiantes inicialmente regresaron a la escuela en línea y luego reanudaron clases en persona en un edificio de Santa Mónica que anteriormente albergaba a un Sears. Después de meses de hacer, la ceremonia de graduación de los adultos mayores en un escenario reservado para estrellas sirvió como una piedra angular, ilustrando su resiliencia.

Antes de la reunión, Cash Senior Allen dijo que era «agridulce» graduarse en el tazón en lugar del estadio junto al mar, donde jugó para el equipo de fútbol de Pali.

Los estudiantes de Pali se encuentran durante la promesa de lealtad y himno nacional.

«Simplemente ha habido tantos recuerdos, por lo que no poder terminar los cuatro años de la escuela secundaria en ese campo es definitivamente triste», dijo Allen. «Pero creo que todos también están agradecidos de que tengamos la oportunidad de caminar en el Hollywood Bowl».

Persevering a pesar de la tragedia fue un tema resonado en varios discursos pronunciados el miércoles.

«Ni siquiera puedo imaginar la adversidad que enfrentaste, obviamente los incendios en enero que nos trajeron aquí», dijo Steve Kerr, entrenador de los Golden State Warriors, un alumno de Pali que habló en la graduación. «Aunque esta es una alternativa bastante buena».

Con los graduados llenando los asientos de cajas de alta gama, la ceremonia presentaba comentarios de varios estudiantes y un mensaje grabado en video del gobernador Gavin Newsom. Agradeció a los estudiantes y los instó a seguir, diciendo: «El futuro no es solo algo para experimentar, es algo para manifestarse».

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1. Alanah Chamberlain fixes her cap in the mirror before walking on stage. 2. A Pali student walks toward the entrance of the school’s graduation ceremony. 3. Pali High students take photos together. 4. Students wait in line to go on stage. 5. Itati Pelayo, left, and Daisy Lopez make a TikTok post before the Palisades High graduation ceremony.

Comedian Billy Crystal, a longtime Palisades resident whose home burned down in January, joked about the students wrapping up the school year in an “abandoned Sears building” where he “once bought a washer-dryer.”

Turning to a more serious note, Crystal said the Palisades fire, for all of its “chaos and tragedy,” offered the students important life lessons: “Out of pain comes growth; out of loss comes wins; out of despair comes joy.”

Billy Crystal speaks at the Palisades High graduation ceremony.

Valedictorian Annalisa Hurd recalled how she had once been so certain about the future. But now she understands that “unexpected” turns weren’t “necessarily a downside.”

“Sometimes being laser-focused on only one route means we miss out on the other ones that may be faster, more scenic, or take us to a completely new destination entirely,” she said.

After the fire, Principal Pamela Magee said school administrators talked to venues across L.A. in an effort to find a new location for the graduation. Among those on the list was the Bowl, which is owned by L.A. County and operated by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Palisades High Principal Pamela Magee congratulates students at the school’s graduation ceremony at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday.

As word of Pali’s interest traveled, Magee said, the Philharmonic’s board of directors learned of the school’s situation. The organization offered to “gift” its time at the Bowl to the high school, she said.

“The people that we spoke with, ultimately, were folks at the Bowl who do the permits and the leases,” Magee said. “They talked with others who said, ‘We want to do this for your school.’”

Magee said the school paid only a “small usage fee” for the venue. “For what the normal rental would be, this is a gift,” she said.

Other parts of the program came together organically, with Nick Melvoin, a Los Angeles school board member, helping secure some of the speakers, including Crystal.

“People were trying to make it work,” said Melvoin, who spoke at the commencement, joking in his speech that the Bowl could be dubbed “Pali East.”

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1. Andjela Malisich crosses her tassel. 2. A student wears a decorated tassel.

Nancy Fracchiolla, Pali’s theater teacher who has long produced the school’s graduation event, said the ceremony carried extra meaning for her. Fracchiolla lost her home in the fire, and she is retiring after 13 years at the school.

The Bowl made for a thrilling send-off for Fracchiolla — even if it was a discombobulating change.

“It was a little daunting,” she said. “Because it was almost like I thought: ‘Oh, it’s my last year. I’ve got this graduation thing locked and loaded.’ Nope, you don’t. You really don’t!”

The ceremony proceeded with the usual traditions: student musical performances, an array of speakers extolling the graduates, the calling of names.

Pali students watch a video on the Hollywood Bowl’s jumbo screens.

Some families of graduates were content to call the celebration “normal.”

“I think that they’re feeling just like any other high school graduating class, which is — with everything that the majority of these kids have been through — the most beautiful thing they can have,” said Isabelle Rust, the sister of two graduates.

Guests’ time to soak up the atmosphere of the picturesque venue was limited.

Fracchiolla said she was told by Bowl officials that the graduation attendees needed to vacate quickly as staff there needed to prepare for a Thursday concert by soul singer Leon Bridges.

“They said, ‘Just make sure you tell your seniors to take their photos beforehand, because when they leave graduation, there’s going to be a different thing on the marquee,’” she said.

Rashad Rhodes, assistant coach of Pali High’s junior varsity football team and father of a graduate, said seeing the school community reunite for the celebration was surreal — and proof of the motto “Pali Strong.” The graduation, he said, “shows that people are here to stay.”

Students celebrate at the Palisades High graduation ceremony.

Allen, the senior, said his middle school graduation was held at Pali’s football field in 2021 because the outdoor venue allowed for a socially distanced event during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, he’s weathered two commencements buffeted by change.

“This class has been through more than most,” he said.

And finally, like seniors everywhere, the graduates tossed their mortarboards into the air and the crowd cheered for the Pali High class of 2025.