ANAHEIM : Connelly Girls Will Dress for Occasion

There will be no caps and gowns for the 22 seniors graduating from the Cornelia Connelly School of the Holy Child Jesus. When the girls file into their graduation ceremony June 7, they will be wearing ankle-length white dresses, and each will be carrying a dozen long-stem red roses.

It’s the same style of dress that graduates of the nine all-girl Holy Child Jesus high schools nationwide have worn since the Roman Catholic order’s founding in the 1800s. The Anaheim school opened in 1961.

Each class gets to make some decisions about their dresses. The Connelly seniors this year decided “candle” would be the shade of white they would wear, picked ankle-length dresses over calf- and floor-length, and chose elbow-length gloves over wrist-length.

Then, armed with the standard stipulation barring plunging backs and necks, each girl was allowed to select and purchase her own dress.

Lisa Biscaichipy, the student body president, said the trick for her was to find a dress that would be comfortable yet formal. But not too formal. “You don’t want to look like a bride,” she said. “You want to look your age, but you also have to remember that the dress has to be appropriate.”