Fittingly, the door has been opened for the graduates of Open Door School to go out into the world.

With emotions overflowing, the six graduates had mixed feelings at their graduation Wednesday.

"I hate leaving," an emotional Andrea Sammons said with tissue in hand and tears pouring.

She said that it was going to hurt her to leave the people at the school.

The 2005 graduates are Eric Brian Clay from Symmes Valley, Billy Joe Cooper and Kenneth Ray Cooper from Dawson-Bryant, and Catherine Ruth Hamilton, Mary Ellen Estell Johnson and Andrea Michelle Sammons from South Point.

"The students here at Open Door worked hard, and the staff, to get them ready to go out into the world," Principal Jeff Saunders said.

Identical twins Billy and Kenneth Cooper said they were ready and excited to graduate.

"They're pretty good boys and I'm proud of them," their mother Mary Cooper said.

Five of the six students thanked those who had helped them get to this point with personal speeches.

Staff members at Open Door will miss this group as they have each year.

"We have so few students here we just get attached easily," Saunders said.

"We've seen them since they were babies," Gina Fraley, a pre-vocational teacher, said. "Now they're all leaving the nest."