The keynote speaker at the graduation was Franklin Country Sheriff Christopher Donelan.
Mohawk Regional High School graduated 89 students Sunday in a ceremony at the high school featuring keynote speak Christopher Donelan, the sheriff of Franklin County.
“I knew you wanted Jay-Z to be your speaker,” Donelan said, referring to the popular rapper. “I have no idea how you ended you with me.”
Donelan told the graduates that he deals every day with inmates at the Franklin County House of Correction who have a range of problems and have suffered various forms of abuse. Most, he said, never finished high school.
“You do not find values,” Donelan said, “you form them. You do not find character, you build it.”
Donelan asked the graduating seniors to consider public service as a path in life and told them the story of the late state senator Ralph C. Mahar, after whom Mahar Regional High School in Orange is named. Legally deaf, Mahar needed braces to walk, Donelan said. Nevertheless, he served 18 years in the Massachusetts Senate.
The class valedictorian was Kaitlin Grant, the salutatorian Aliza Sassler. According to the school, 37 percent of the class is going on to four-year colleges, 33 percent to two-year college and 3 percent to technical schools. Another 3 percent are enlisting in the U.S. military and 18 percent are going into jobs.