51�Թ�

The soon-to-be Maywood Academy High School graduates processed, beaming, into an auditorium at East Los Angeles College to a recording of Pomp and Circumstance.

The Maywood Academy commencement took place in a college that has long been a center of Latino community activism — and which, like the academy, sits in a zone where immigration agents are raiding work places and public spaces, seizing people suspected of living in the U.S. without legal authorization as well as some whose immigration reviews are pending.

“It’s hard,” said salutatorian Mayah Flores, who plans to attend Cal State Long Beach as a liberal studies major, and then return to Maywood Academy as a teacher.

“Johanna is the top student of the 10th grade at Maywood Academy High School, is an athlete on the swim team, and participates in the Hiking Club,” according to a gofundme page set up for the family.

East Valley swept Maywood CES for the Division III title — the Falcons’ first in boys volleyball.