INDIANAPOLIS -- It's hard for any parent to imagine burying their son or daughter – but Jerrold Parker's family is making sure his death wasn't meaningless.
The 18-year-old Pike High School senior was on track to be the first male in his family to graduate from high school in 20 years. But that hope was ended when he was found shot to death inside a car on February 3.
Now, his mother is asking the school board to issue his diploma posthumously.
"He's like, Mom, I can't give you a new house or a new car or anything like that, but I know how important my diploma is to you, so I want to make sure I give that to you," Sanekah Jackson-Jones said. "So it would mean the world to me. That was my only son."
But school board president Regina Randolph said issuing an honorary diploma isn't that easy.
"He did not meet the state requirements to earn a high school diploma," Randolph said.
The Pike school system does not have a policy in place to grant Parker's mom's wishes. The school board did, however, promise to consider other means of remembering her son come graduation time.
