'Be Good, Be Safe...'

Hundreds of students gathered at the UMass Lowell Tsongas Arena Monday for the Andover High School graduation.

There was a lot of reflection among students as well as hopeful talk about the future. And there was also an impressive class gift to the school -- a new sound system for Dunn Stadium.

One particularly moving part of the evemt was when Brian Parker spoke. Parker, a social studies teacher at the school, recently suffered a brain hemorahge and a stroke. He's been absent from the school much of this year, but he said his passion for teaching has helped him learn to talk and walk again.

He left the students with the same advice he gives them in class: "Be good, be safe, be careful and make good decisions."

This year's guest speaker was Andover High School Spanish teacher Thomas Powers.

Powers was raised in Andover and attended Andover public schools, graduated from Colgate University in 1987, spent two semesters in Russia during the 1980's, spent more than a decade teaching social studies in Mexico City.

Powers cautioned the graduates against focusing too much of curriculum in college.

"Don't let school get in the way of your education," Powers said. "You need to pursue the passion of your mind."

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