Skyline Alumnus Speaks Out: Leadership Shouldn’t Hurt

As a former Skyline graduate, this display is sadly unsurprising, yet it still feels like a profound betrayal. On Friday, May 16th, I attended Skyline High School’s commencement not only as an alumnus but as a family member celebrating a momentous achievement. It requires no courage to stand before your peers and invoke a gesture tied to one of the most gruesome periods in our world’s history. It doesn’t make you a leader to perpetrate such hatred in front of families gathered to honor their children’s hard-earned accomplishments.

It takes a certain kind of malice to stand before your peers—those who elected you, entrusting you with the privilege of leading them into their next chapter—and taint their ceremony with hate.

To open your speech with ‘racial slurs are not funny’ and then conclude with a gesture that global media recognizes as a Nazi salute felt not just inappropriate—it felt dauntingly cruel.

What you may have shrugged off as a joke was, to many, a horrifying act that cast a dark shadow over what should have been an evening—and the days that followed—filled with gratitude and accomplishment. You stole that from them, Kailey.

But you didn’t stop there. You amplified your gesture by posting a side-by-side with Elon Musk, captioned ‘incase ya didn’t catch it the first time,’ then proceeded to boast about your supposed expertise. To me and countless Skyline Alumni before you, this wasn’t humor; it was a chilling display. It didn’t make you a leader—it made you someone to fear. What haunts me is: did you revel in watching your classmates’ smiles fade into hurt as they grasped your actions? Did it bring you joy to see the teachers who poured their hearts into preparing you for college and life confront the hate you just spewed? Were you happy knowing your administration, already burdened, would have to scramble to contain the damage you inflicted?

An inexcusable act might bring fleeting attention and opportunities, but I hope the cost to your classmates, teachers, administrators, friends, and your hometown was worth sacrificing a night meant to celebrate a major milestone.

Cami Hubbard
2023 Skyline Highschool Alumnus
Front Royal, VA

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