Megan Staner is a current senior at Edgewood-Colesburg Jr./Sr. High School. She was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome at a very young age. She is a beautiful, lively and intelligent young woman. Despite her condition, she has worked hard to strive through high school with the help of peers and her classmates. With determination and countless hours of studying, Megan completed and met the requirements to graduate at Ed-Co. However, because Megan is special needs, she qualifies for another year of school to transition into the "real world". The Administration at our high school is not allowing Megan to walk across the stage (with students she has collaborated with for over thirteen years of her life) at commencement this spring because she is not officially "exiting" Ed-Co. It was mentioned by the administration that they will allow her to attend commencement the following year with a class who has no chemistry or past with Megan. Since there is no official policy that states the proper procedure, other districts allow this particular situation to proceed with the senior graduating and returning the following academic year; but this isn't the case at Ed-Co. If Megan would choose to graduate with the rest of her class, she wouldn't be allowed to come back and attend school that would prepare her for the real world. Making her choose to be prepared or to dive in, head first, to the real world, is not fair. High School is suppose to prepare us for the real world and have a network of peers early in life, and not allowing Megan to graduate with her classmates of +13 years then come back to continue to prepare her for life would be cruel. Help us get Megan to attend commencement this year, sign our petition for Megan's March.