Shasta Elementary School’s promotion ceremony for the 8th grade Class of 2013 began with a moment of silence.

The request was made by Principal Audrey Green “in support of Oklahoma” which suffered a deadly and devastating tornado on Monday and leveled two elementary schools.

The Tuesday evening ceremony was held in the Manteca High School gym. Program highlights were the awarding of awards in academics, athletics, deportment and music.

Recipients of the academic awards were: Seth Hog and Kayleigh Dutra for outstanding Math achievement; Gilbert Franco and Cassandra Marlow for outstanding Language Arts achievement; Iysha Rafiq and Alejandro Escalante for outstanding Science achievement, Cerena Benson and Alexander Talbert for outstanding Social Studies achievement; and Caitlin Silva McVeigh and Ishmael Ramiez for overall academic achievement.

Recipients of the other awards were James Thomas and Mercades Galvan, scholar athletes; Karina Gonzalez and Sofia Cornejo Cruz, character awards; and Elizabeth Acosta and McKenna Rankin, song performance.

Dr. Cheryl Meeker, Manteca Unified School’s director of elementary education, officially declared the Shasta School 8th-grade class of 2013 approved for promotion to high school.

The student speaker was Kiarra Foster, and Jarmine Aleman led the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of the ceremonies.