An attorney representing scores of parents whose children attended St. John's College said yesterday she would file legal action against the school as early as this week if the Anglican Central Education Authority (ACEA) does not reverse its decision to cancel the graduation ceremony and prom.

 Graduation was scheduled for this morning.

 The ACEA has said it canceled the school's prom and graduation ceremony for students' "gross insubordination and deceit".

Christina Galanos said the school has no legal basis to unilaterally deny students the right to walk across a stage and collect their diplomas in front of friends and family.

 Galanos said the school does not have legal grounds to cancel the events and not refund the parents the fees they paid. She spoke with reporters after a nearly hour-long meeting with scores of frustrated parents and students at The Crab House restaurant.

Galanos said the board has to prove why each student is not eligible to participate in a graduation ceremony, based on a contract they signed with the school.

"The contract speaks specifically to a graduation ceremony, not just a graduation, but a graduation ceremony," she said.

 "So to collectively say that all of the students cannot participate in a graduation ceremony or that they won't have a graduation ceremony doesn't relate to the fact that there were individual contracts, and of course each student can enforce those individual contracts against the school."

Galanos said she intends to contact the school or board before filing anything to see if the decision would be reversed. "Failing that, we intend to file documents before the courts sometime this week," she said.

 She has also instructed parents not to collect diplomas or awards from the school pending a resolution to the matter. "They deserve to walk across that stage," Galanos said.

 "To take that moment from the parents and the students, we think it's unreasonable; it's a travesty."

During the meeting yesterday many parents voiced their anger over the ACEA's decision.

 Wesley Ferguson, a single father, said he paid for his four children to study at St. John's College at a significant financial sacrifice.

 Ferguson said his youngest child is part of the 2013 graduating class, and he was looking forward to the ceremony.

 "I finally paid the last of school fees for St. John's," he told The Nassau Guardian.

 "That was a milestone for me. "For [my son] to finally reach his milestone and for somebody to just [pull] the carpet out from under him, I find that discouraging."

Other parents said they have paid thousands of dollars in tuition to the school and feel offended by the way school officials have handled the matter.

They are also angered over the board's refusal to refund the associated fees. Parents each paid a non-refundable $300 fee for a graduation package.

Others said they have spent hundred of dollars preparing for the prom, which was set for June 24.

 During the meeting, parents also said they were worried about the stigma that will be attached to the students because of the statements the ACEA made about its reasons for canceling the events.

Some parents said they feared that their children will have a hard time getting a job because of that stigma. Parents said the school is upset over a video that surfaced online that showed students dancing during a recent school function.

They also claimed officials are upset over a senior "ditch day", when some students did not show up to school.

Anglican Bishop Laish Boyd told the parents of the decision at a meeting on the campus on Friday.

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