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It could have been any graduation ceremony in any American town.

It was a perfect, breezy spring evening, so breezy that students at times had to cling to their caps, which glinted with bronze tones thanks to a perfect sunset. The band played "Pomp and Circumstance," fighting to be heard over the cicadas. Graduates marched across a high school track, girls’ high heels slowly sinking into the turf as they stepped toward the end zone. Young men wore too much cologne. Speeches were given, diplomas handed out, yelps came from the stands against strict orders from the principal. Finally, caps were thrown skyward.

But a careful eye, or a careful ear, could discern that this ceremony was something very different.

The band instruments -- many were borrowed. The girl's dresses -- some were donated. And nearly all these students started their year at another school. As the year began in September, very few believed they'd be graduating tonight at Bay Field.

Valedictorian Casey Maria Dedeaux

Like valedictorian Casey Maria Dedeaux. She began her senior year at a school in Tampa, Fla. But there she was, standing on a stage under a goal post, water tower towering over her emblazoned with the words “Bay St. Louis, a place apart,” talking about her fellow students and their future.

"I don't want to talk about the same things you always hear at graduations," she began. She didn't have to look far for more original material. "I really didn't want to talk about Hurricane Katrina. But then I realized you can't talk about the class of 2006 without talking about the storm."

If you dropped in on this ceremony, on this perfect spring night, you'd notice absolutely nothing different about the field, the students, or the school. Very little was out of place, including the students. The class should have had about 130 students graduating tonight; instead, 125 graduated, and two students who moved away were allowed to participate in the ceremony. That's remarkable given the twin towns of Bay St. Louis and Waveland are still missing nearly half their residents. But these students wanted to graduate from this school this year, said Principal Marca Boyer-Alexander. Some even moved in with friends, while their families remained away from town, in order to resume their senior year.

"The resilience of these kids is amazing," she said.

You had to listen close to even hear evidence that something was amiss at Bay High School graduation. Dedeaux was even able to make light of it all in her talk.

"We know we can handle anything thrown at us, including debris," she said.

That this graduation happened at all is a minor miracle, given just how much debris came to rest on nearly every home in this community. Back in September, in the days following the hurricane, principal Boyer-Alexander said there was "tremendous doubt" that students would be able to graduate from the school this year. But emergency refurbishing, donated books, and a lot of spit and polish got the building open for business Nov. 1. Then, some creative scheduling added more classes for the students, enough to allow each one to earn the required hour credits by graduation night.

"We wanted to make sure the storm didn't punish these kids," she said.

Not that there wasn't punishment. No senior died in the hurricane, but another student at the school did -- so did dozens of family members and friends, who should have been here tonight. Others faced -- and still face -- the long road back to normalcy.

"I watched men and women cry as they stood in line for water and food," superintendent Kim Stasny reminded the students. "I saw mothers begging for shoes and diapers for their children. ... we were stunned, we were speechless, we were broken."

There were plenty of reasons to quit. But they did not; and tonight, like every other high school senior in America, the talk focused -- not on death and destruction -- but on escaping from classrooms, on achieving dreams, on getting rich. On hope.

Today, Bay St. Louis and Waveland are at a critical juncture. Cleanup is about two-thirds done, and now, the rebuilding has begun. But there is a hanging question in the air. "Are you staying?" With hurricane season around the corner, many are facing the choice to stay and rebuild, or to go.

Almost without exception, the students of Bay High School had long since made that choice. And because of that choice, tonight, for one evening, in one place, they were normal teen-agers. And they were all home.

Two dozen graduates of 1956 -- 50 years ago -- were honered at the ceremony. One was Larry Bennett -- who once served as Bay St. Louis mayor. As the ceremony ended, the now-former students marched across the field to an open spot, twirled themselves into a tight spiral formation, and hurled their caps in the air. As they did, Bennett beamed with pride.

"Boy, these kids came through like champs," he said, as they hugged, leaving their caps scattered across the field, a rare kind of happy debris for this town.

Paving the way for summer

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