Callaway High School senior Eric Duncan wants to walk beside his friends at graduation Friday night. He and his mother, Shelia Anderson, would prefer that he stay in school to stimulate his mind. But they want him to walk onto the field at Callaway Stadium with his friends.

However, graduation requirements may prevent that.

Duncan suffered extensive trauma to his head and severe nerve damage in a one-car accident on Willowood Road near Hogansville Road a year ago.

The 18-year-old has had to relearn how to talk and walk. He still deals with periodic trips to the doctor and regular rehabilitation, but that never stopped him from yearning to graduate alongside his peers.

“His friends were the ones who told me that he’s not going to be able to walk” during graduation, Anderson said. “He doesn’t have all his credits.”

Troup County schools require a graduating senior to complete 25 of a possible 28 credits, and pass the Georgia High School Graduation Test and end-of-course tests.

Duncan will come up about a half credit short, his mother said. Hospital stays and three-day-a-week rehabilitation sessions have cut down on the time he could be in class.

Anderson said it took about three months for them, including help from officials with Scottish Rite in Atlanta, to get Duncan back in school for two half-days a week. She believes the school dropped the ball on getting him back in his classes.

“Since Jan. 28, he’s probably only been four times to school,” and officials for home schooling met with him only a handful of times, she said.

They both want him to walk onto the field at graduation, but the only way to do that is by fulfilling the requirements.

While officials are sympathetic, their hands are tied.

“If you don’t have the credits, if you have not completed the coursework, you can’t walk,” Callaway High principal Kevin Jones said. “We’re trying to work on the thing for him,” but Jones can’t waive the policy.

Troup County school system officials feel the same way.

“There’s two sets of criteria, two ways you can walk,” said Tonia Contorno, director of secondary curriculum. “One is you graduate, which is full fledged. You meet all the credit requirements and you meet all the Georgia High School Graduation Test requirements.

“The second one, you walk if you’ve met all the credit requirements but you have not yet met the Georgia High School Graduation requirements.”

Those students receive certificates of attendance for completing the requirements of Troup County. They then attend summer school to complete the graduation test, fulfilling the state requirements.

“You must meet all the graduation credit requirements,” Contorno said.

Anderson said school officials wanted Duncan to enroll in special-education courses so he could walk at graduation and receive a special-education diploma, then come back for regular classes in the summer.

That’s something he refused to.

Anderson was also upset, saying others had walked previously without having all their credits. She named a few close to her family who she believes skirted the rule.

Jones says there’s no way that happened.

“We have been trying to work with the parents, but that would be completely inaccurate,” he said. “That would be erroneous. It’s wrong.”

He said the school follows the codes set forth by the school board and the state very closely, and no student has walked at graduation without fulfilling all the requirements.

But Anderson doesn’t want her son to graduate. She wants to keep him in school as long as possible to help stimulate his repairing brain.

Both she and Duncan want him to walk with his friends.

“It’s not like he was playing hooky. He was in the hospital in rehab,” Anderson said. “You show me another child who was in a wreck with traumatic brain injury who wants to walk and you won’t let them.

“I don’t want him to graduate. His classmates just want him to walk with them.”

Trey Wood can be reached at twood @ lagrangenews. com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 228.