Scouts permitted to wear honor cords

By Kevin O’Brien

Four Eagle Scouts will be able to wear honor cords recognizing their achievements as Scouts at Marathon High School’s graduation ceremony later this month, after the school board approved an exception to the practice of only allowing academic-related cords during commencement.

At a special board retreat this past Sunday, the board voted to allow members of Boy Scout Troop 458 to wear cords honoring their status as Eagle Scouts after their scoutmaster, John Kindlarski, made the request at the board’s regular meeting on April 10. Voting for the motion were board members Beth Seubert, Jodi Debroux and Lia Klumpyan, and voting against it was Ted Knoeck. Board member Paula Vesely, who is the mother of a Scout, abstained.

The board made the decision with the understanding that other requests to wear nonacademic honor cords would have to be approved or denied on a case-by-case basis.

Historically, superintendent Rick Parks said the district has only allowed honor cords for academic honors, membership in the National Honor Society or completion of

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dual-credit courses at Northcentral Technical College. However, he said there is no written policy in place.

Parks said he reached out to a number of other school districts and did some more research about the issue before Sunday’s meeting, and found a listing of high school honor societies, each with their own cord colors.

“This is not an unusual situation,” he told the board.

Parks said he also spoke to an attorney about the request and was warned that the board’s decisions could result in a legal battle in the future if a consistent standard is not applied to different requests. However, since the Eagle Scouts have their own honors society, he said the board could limit the wearing of cords to those involved in similar societies.

Debroux said she spoke to a scoutmaster who informed her that an Eagle Scout wore honor cords to graduation a few years ago, and no one even noticed.

“That’s how insignificant it is to the general public, but it did mean something to the student,” she said.

Parks said he likes the fact that the Boy Scout troop came and asked the district for approval to wear the cords, since it allowed the board to have a discussion about what it allows.

With the board’s decision on Sunday, Parks said the Scouts won’t have to come to the board and make similar requests every year, but other groups would be expected to do so at this point.

“I think we’ve done our due diligence,” Debroux said. “We’ve researched it, we’ve listened to all parties and it feels right to me.”