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World War II veteran Joe Perricone will graduate from Hillsborough High School after 76 years of waiting
He was almost done with high school when Uncle Sam called.
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After 76 years, World War II veteran Joe Perricone returned to walk the halls of Hillsborough High School. Drafted halfway through his senior year, Perricone never had the chance to walk across the stage and get his high school diploma.
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Perricone was supposed to graduate with the Class of 1943, but like many other students at the time, was interrupted by the United States (U.S.) involvement in Germany. “I wasn’t at my graduation because the draft board said, ‘you need to go out and serve your country so be a big boy,’” said 95-year-old Perricone.
At first, he was hesitant, asking a member of the draft board for a deferment until he could graduate. “I told them that I wished I’d been able to go out and graduate first, just get that diploma you know,” he said. While serving in Europe, the diploma was mailed to his mother.
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After being drafted, Perricone completed his basic training in Florida as a combat engineer. At the age of 19, he traveled to Germany, and he stayed in Europe until the Japanese surrendered in 1945. While at Hillsborough, Perricone was on the track team. “Well I was in track and those were some of my fondest memories here,” he said. “I ran and I was in track and I loved all that kind of stuff.”
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After he was drafted, he experienced a stark difference. Perricone never had trouble in school and recalled having many friends. However, his training experience was completed with much less ease than his time in high school. “I’ll tell you that none of us really knew what was going on. There were all kinds of rules and there were all these big bombs going off,’ he said. “At that age, you think you’re a big shot. But when they told me I was in the Army and they started giving me all these weapons, I just didn’t think too much about the graduation.”
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“I lost a lot of buddies,” he recalled.
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But his time in the Army wasn’t one he regretted. Despite his initial hesitation to leave without his high school diploma, once he was in Germany his concerns melted into the background. “I wasn’t upset that I was there. At that time, just about every boy that I came across was glad to be there,” he said. “To tell you the truth, I forgot about the cap and gown. I was kind of busy when I left.”
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But on Wednesday, his long-awaited cap and gown were finally in his hands. Perricone, joined by his grandson Hillsborough Circuit Court Judge Tom Palermo, met with Principal Gary Brady in the auditorium to receive his red cap and gown along with the 2019 senior shirts.
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“I never thought I was going to graduate,” he said, laughing while looking at his tassel. “I’m glad that it’s finally coming around and I’m glad that I’m finally going to have a cap and gown.”
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Brady also showed Perricone his diploma, but quickly put it away. “You’re going to have to wait until Saturday for that one,” Brady joked. Palermo and his family worked with Hillsborough High School to realize his grandfather’s dream 75 years later.
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Perricone will walk across the stage to receive his diploma on Saturday May 25 at the Florida State Fairgrounds with the Class of 2019, who are eight decades his junior. “I’ll tell them that they’re not boys and girls anymore once they get that diploma, they’re ladies and men,” he said. “I’m sure a lot of them have thought about what they would like to do, what they want to do but my advice to the whole crowd is this: Do the best you can in whatever you decide, plus 10 percent.”
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View the story and video of his graduation here.
This was by far the most heartwarming story I've ever written. Joe Perricone was charming in every sense of the word. When I approached him to interview him after a press conference, he was thrilled. He couldn't hear very well and I had to repeat all of my questions at least three times but oh boy, did he have stories to tell. When his name was called at graduation, he had tears in his eyes and got a standing ovation. I sent him a copy of the story I wrote and the photos I took of him in his cap and gown and he was just happy. He was so glad to share his story. It was infectious. His gratitude to me for telling it was infectious, too.
Blog: Eat your spinach
At the beginning of the school year, I published a short series of blogs called "Eat your spinach." The idea behind them was to offer students who didn't have the time, patience or desire to read long articles the necessary news in short, conversational snippets. Because taking Buzzfeed quizzes is fun, but sometimes students need to sit down and eat a hard news and spinach salad.
​HHS hosts Florida Governor Democratic candidate forum
Hillsborough High School welcomed candidates Andrew Gillum and Philip Levine at a Democratic Candidate Forum on Aug. 16. Hosted by the Hillsborough Association of School Administrators (HASA), the main purpose of the forum was to discuss the gubernatorial candidates' plans regarding public education.
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The first candidate to speak was former Tallahassee City Council member and current Mayor of Tallahassee, Andrew Gillum. He began his remarks by introducing his mother to the crowd and giving a campaign rundown of his policies concerning public education, with a specific focus placed on increasing funding to public schools.
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He addressed the role of charter schools in diminishing the budget for public schools and shared his plans to utilize any legal action, like the governor’s veto, along with the budget pen to stop the siphoning of money from the public education budget. “In a way, we are taking money away from the public system and by virtue of that, we are depriving areas of a low-income nature from receiving an equal opportunity to learn,” Gillum said. “That is the state’s obligation for every child and we are not meeting that obligation.”
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Former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine shared Gillum’s desire to increase funding for public schools, promising a $10,000 increase in teacher salary without raising taxes, but by restructuring the budget to accommodate the increase at the expense of high-stakes testing. “I don’t believe in the testing program we have now, I think we should stop the testing and start investing in schools,” Levine said. “Today if a school gets an ‘F’ it doesn’t get funding. But to me, ‘F’ means funding because in business when something isn’t doing well you want to invest in it.”
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Both candidates had similar policies concerning public school funding, but different approaches to address educational disparities with low-income students. Gillum advocated a system of outreach programs for parents and students using a combination of nonprofit and faith organizations.
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“I don’t believe that parent lack of involvement in a child’s education is disconnected from the economic circumstances and conditions of the household. So, I don’t think you can solve one without paying attention to the other,” Gillum said. “I think we need to create the kind of economy that allows those parents to make the resources that they need to take care of their families and spend time with their children.”
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His dedication to this issue is personal. As the first person to graduate college in his family, he’s decided to make parenting programs one of his educational priorities. “I don’t know a parent that doesn’t want to do right by their children. I think there is an absence of information on how you do the best job you can do, and we want to help close that gap,” he said.
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Levine is also focused on bridging the gap between low-income students. His focus is on technology, rather than parent outreach. His goal is to create a level playing field for all students in the public system. “I think that there’s too much of a digital divide that we see. If I’m governor, I’m going to make sure that every high school kid has a laptop,” Levine said. “The thought that some kids don’t have access to a computer or don’t have access to the internet means that they’re at a huge disadvantage, and it’s not fair. We want to give everyone the same opportunity.”
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For Levine, this also means creating individualized education for each student, with spec
ial emphasis placed on vocational and technical training for students who aren’t planning on pursuing a traditional college degree.
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Eliminating the current system of high stakes testing is a large part of his plan. Levine advocates teaching over testing, and a personalized approach for each child in the public school system. “We need to make sure that we’re inspiring students, not teaching them for a test. We need to have programs where they can learn what they’re excited about,” he said.
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Other Democratic candidates — Gwen Graham, Jeff Greene, and Chris King — did not attend. HASA has announced plans to invite the winner of the Republican primary to a future members’ event.
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View story here.
When I was younger, I hid behind my mom when she introduced me to new people. When I wrote this story, I stood next to gubernatorial candidate Philip Levine until he let me interview him.