As a Native American student, Kyla Kaufman always knew she wanted to honor her culture when she graduated from the Washoe County School District. 

Less than 2 percent of district students identify as Native American. As a group, Native students have some of the lowest graduation rates in the district and state. 

For the Spanish Springs High School senior, it was important to carry parts of her heritage with her across the graduation stage. That included adorning her purple graduation cap with tribal beadwork. 

Since 2017, the district has allowed Native students to wear eagle feathers in their hair or affix them on their graduation caps. For years, Kaufman and other students have lobbied for the district to expand this policy to allow tribal beadwork on caps, but she said they were met with resistance because of concerns that someone could abuse that privilege and put something inappropriate on a cap. 

Determined not to give up, Kaufman tried again this year and pitched it to her principal, Sean Hall, who was in his second year in the role at Spanish Springs High School in Sparks, and whom she had gotten to know better as a student worker in the front office.

“I essentially complained about it for days and he said, ‘Absolutely, we are going to fight for this,’” Kaufman said. 

With Hall’s help, the district announced in April it would change the policy not only for Native American students, but for other students who wanted to personalize their caps. 

“I was ecstatic, through the moon, everything. It was a great feeling,” Kaufman said of her reaction to the news. “Being able to do both beads and plumes definitely was a big accomplishment.”

The district’s policy change came about a month before the Nevada Legislature approved a bill, AB73, that will allow students statewide to wear traditional tribal regalia or other objects of cultural and religious significance as an adornment on their graduation attire.  

Hall said he’s always been supportive of students wearing stoles and sashes over their graduation gowns that represent their culture, but (like Kaufman) had received pushback from district administrators whenever he brought up the idea of allowing students to wear beaded graduation caps. Instead of going through the district office again, he decided to personally bring up the topic to Superintendent Susan Enfield, who started at the district last July, when she visited his school for the first time. 

“I was just doing it for my kids because obviously I'm going to stick up for them all the time,” he said. 

A sea of purple colored the Lawlor Events Center on Thursday for the Spanish Springs High School graduation. Among the graduates was Camille Johnson, who chose to decorate her purple graduation cap with lyrics from the song “CHXSE” from her favorite band, Chase Atlantic. 

“I thought it just really related to chasing the thrill of graduating high school and moving on to, like, college in the real world,” Johnson said. 

Other grads personalized their caps with artificial flowers, rhinestones, glitter and references from songs, TV shows and movies.

Meanwhile, Kaufman decorated her silver stole and purple cap with beading that symbolized her heritage. She said she hopes this new tradition of decorating caps is passed down to future Washoe County graduating classes as her younger brother and cousin are in middle school and elementary school, respectively.

“I want them to be able to do it and not have to worry about whether or not they're going to be able to do it or whether they're going to have to fight for it again,” she said.