‘We’re just getting started’: 300 SHS graduates cross stage

LAURINBURG — As Scotland High School’s 2025 graduating class made their way to the Pate Stadium football field Friday, they first traveled through a spirit tunnel filled with Scotland County Schools employees cheering them on for their accomplishment.

These employees included teachers from kindergarten through middle school, principals and school staff members who have played a hand in “getting these young people where they are today,” said SHS Principal Laura Bailey.

“We know that it takes a village and we know that every step matters from the time we entered Scotland County Schools in pre-K or kindergarten to today when they’re going to walk across the stage,” Bailey said.

This year, 300 students crossed the stage as thousands of family members and friends filled Pate Stadium’s bleachers. After the last name was called, fireworks dotted the sky to seal off the celebration.

The ceremony opened with the SHS Color Guard presenting the colors. Cameron Bounds led the Pledge of Allegiance and the Scotland Singers and American Sign Language students performed the National Anthem.

Cameron Cole led the invocation and Terrance Kendall Graham Jr. offered welcoming remarks. Avery Stutts delivered the charge to fellow graduates and Maleah Locklear led a moment of silence for classmates who passed away before reaching the graduation milestone.

In her remarks, Bailey spoke of the many tests the Class of 2025 has endured over the last four years in classrooms, ball fields, relationships and life. She told graduates about the ripples they can make if they are brave enough to “throw the pebble.”

“When you start taking ownership of your life, even in the small things, you begin to influence everything around you,” Bailey said. “You don’t need a grand platform or a viral moment. Change starts with one decision, one word, one small act.”

Bailey presented this year’s salutatorian, Addison Johnson, and valedictorian Madison Dixon with medals for their accomplishments.

‘We made it’

Before taking one last selfie with her fellow graduating classmates, Dixon reminded them of what they had overcome over the last four years.

“We walked through high school on the tail end of the pandemic,” Dixon said. “The world and our school were still figuring out what normal even means … Some of us lost loved ones. Some of us struggled with isolation.”

Dixon said they didn’t just make it through high school, they made it through life these past few years.

“We’ve been tested … I mean tested by the world, our circumstances, by our peers and, at times, even by ourselves, but we met the challenges head on,” she said. “We faced the chaos, and we didn’t just get through it; we rose through it. We learned to adapt, we showed up even when it was hard — well, most of us anyway — and we leaned on each other.”

Dixon told fellow graduates that their future is wide open, but it won’t always be “sunshine and success.”

“There will still be days when people will doubt you, where they’ll try to count you out,” Dixon said. “Someone will look at you, your background … and they’ll try to use their titles, their power and their influence to make you feel small.”

To them, Dixon says, “let them.”

“While they’re busy counting you out, I want you to be busy counting on yourself,” Dixon said. “When others doubt you, use it. When they count you out, prove them wrong.”

The class was told that it doesn’t matter where you start, but how you finish.

“And baby, we’re just getting started,” Dixon said.