A Florida High School is charging parents money to attend their own children's graduation, UK MailOnline reported.
Aside from the parents, seniors have to pay $20 to participate in their own graduation ceremony. Manatee High School in Brandenton has mandated that if a family wants to reserve a row of 15 seats, the cost is $200 or around $13 a seat.
Ten rows near the end zone of Hawkins Stadium were made available for purchase on Tuesday morning and sold out in about four hours, Brandenton Herald reported. All other seating is on a first come first serve basis.
After the school district pulled $3,400 from its annual contribution to cut costs, the requirement of fees is an effort to cover the $12,000 graduation costs for the school, High School Principal Don Sauer told reporters.
"It's due to the district's financial situation that it stopped providing funding to Manatee HS for their graduation costs," Valley told the Herald.
This is the first time the school is charging seniors $20 to participate in the ceremony and it was announced in November in a letter to students and parents.
However, it was also made clear that if students and parents could not afford to pay the requested amount, then the fee would be waivered, Sauer said.
"I am not here to make money off my kids," Sauer said.
Although each Manatee County school charges a graduation fee, the cost varies from school to school, the school district spokesman Steve Valley said.
"Manatee's Graduation will be held on May 31 at the school's Hawkins Stadium and the school expects to host between 5,000 and 6,000 guests for about 500 graduates," UK MailOnline reported.
"The ceremony isn't really for students, the ceremony is for the parents," Sauer said.
In order to complete some other financial losses, Sauer has decided to offer parents an option of choice seating for more money.
"With the budget crunch, money has become tighter and tighter," he said.
