As June 9, 2022 approaches, seniors have been given the news that the graduation venue has been changed to Bellflower High School. The graduation ceremony was previously going to be held at Bell’s football field. 

“I thought the school didn’t have any money left to get us a good place to hold our graduation ceremony,” senior Ariel Velasco said.

Money, however, was not the issue as to why the school took a while to get an outside venue. “We attempted several colleges, universities, but due to the pandemic they had restrictions so they were only leasing within. There was no other option but Bell High School,” Assistant Principal Ms. Corral said.

Previous graduation ceremonies were held at Cerritos Community College, among other places. “The reason we were not able to get an outside venue was because the college we would usually use, Cerritos, were not leasing the facility to anyone outside their own campus,” said Corral.

Trying to find a willing campus that would allow Bell to host the graduation ceremony took quite a bit of time. “We could not find a location that would take outside schools,” Corral said. With graduation creeping up, how was Bell able to get a new venue? “Persistence, lots of persistence and calling, and Bellflower was the first location that agreed to host our graduation,” said Corral.

With Bellflower hosting the ceremony, students are able to get up to five tickets. When graduation was held at Bell High, were only allowed two tickets. According to some students, five tickets is a good amount for them and their families.

“The five tickets we’re being given are perfect for me because I get to take my parents and my siblings,” senior Jason Loera said.

However, some students do not pay much mind to the extra tickets being given. “Personally, I would have been fine with just two tickets, but I like that I have extra so I can give them to my cousins or something,” senior Paolo Gomez said.