Every year at graduation, the Senior Class President gives the senior key to the Junior Class President. However, not many people besides the class presidents know what the story is behind the key. What does the key mean? Why does the key get passed down?

For each graduating class, a ribbon is tied somewhere to the key. In the ‘80s, the key had to be changed to a new key because the old one was fal-ling apart. Mrs. Beth Majors, the practical applica-tions teacher, was one of the students who had to transfer all of the ribbons from previous classes onto the new key.

The importance of the senior key is that since 1918, the key has been passed from each Senior Class President to the Junior Class President. Every class also designs and ties a ribbon to the key to show that “all those classes and students have passed through Freedom’s doors,” according to Sen-ior Class President Zachary Wilson.

“The key is passed down as a simple tradition and a symbol that the junior class is the new senior class,” Wilson said. “I consider that the official mo-ment of becoming a senior.”

The key can symbolize many things, but ac-cording to Wilson, it is a memento to show being a senior and that whatever class currently has it is clearly the senior class. This year the senior class officers are planning on having seniors design the ribbon with different things that symbolize their class as a whole.