The poignancy of a graduation speech can live with the more malleable forever. Vice-principal Paul J. Banik Jr. might have known that when he asked the students of his Asbury Park, New Jersey, school to stand. Perhaps hoping to scare the students straight, he assured the class of ’03 that a third of them would see their lives ruined by alcohol, drugs or unwanted pregnancy. The sense of doom may not yet have seeped into the young minds of the students, but all the parents in attendance agreed wholeheartedly on one thing: this was no way for their children to end kindergarten.

Bangs Avenue elementary school principal Howard Mednick says Banik wasn’t speaking specifically about that particular group of five- and six-year-olds and, while Mednick hadn’t anticipated such a speech, he thinks Banik’s comments were essentially correct. Just the same, Mednick says he feels "badly," and has reportedly given Banik a good talking-to.

» Scott Saxon