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ATTLEBORO - Members of the Attleboro High School Class of 2009, touched by tragedy, tested by adversity and celebrated for their sports and academic achievements, said goodbye to their alma mater in graduation ceremonies Friday held inside because of a persistent rain.

A total of 400 students received their diplomas in the school gymnasium at the school's 140th commencement, witnessed by hundreds of parents and friends seated in the bleachers. Hundreds more watched the proceedings on closed circuit TV in Robert Bray auditorium or live at home on cable channel 9.

Speakers at the graduation cited the resilience of members of the class whose members have been affected by economic crisis and the loss of loved ones and a beloved classmate, Rebeckha Whitefield, who died last year in a jeep accident. Students responded, said Superintendent Pia Durkin, by remaining fixed on their goals and students participation in community service including raising funds for local causes in their classmate's memory.

"I have witnessed how very strong you are and the way you have remained focused on your goals although at times you have been tested by the passing of family members, and your classmate, Becky Whitefield," said Durkin. "But they are with you tonight. And Becky's legacy will live on in each one of you."

Class valedictorian Teresa Pelletier also spoke through tears as she recalled Whitefield's uplifting and optimistic spirit. Most of the proceedings were less emotional and at times lighthearted, however.

A series of inflated beach balls emerged mysteriously during the ceremony and continued to bounce among the seated graduates until captured by a faculty member. Each ball's deflation brought a groan from onlookers.

Principal Jeffrey Newman, presiding over his first graduation as principal, said this year's graduates are distinct in that they are entering a world greatly affected by globalization. Newman said that education after high school is the key to competing in that world.

"You are entering a world in which you no longer compete only with the people next to you or in the next town," he said. "A skilled person in China or India can now compete for a job anywhere on earth and they can perform that job with the stroke of a computer key anywhere in the world."

Mayor Kevin Dumas, who graduated from the same high school in 1994, said that despite challenges students can still set and achieve high goals and recalled his own commencement of the beginning of the path that would lead him to the mayor's office.

"If you can dream it, you can do it," he said.

Salutatorian Rachel Cox noted that graduates of the class of 2009 had passed many milestones during their school career from Y2K to Harry Potter and the terror of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But they also created some of their own history, including returning Thanksgiving Day football trophy to Attleboro for the first time in 15 years.

Pelletier said high school is a miniature version of the outside world and that class members will be able to bring many experiences to bear as they go out and challenge the real one.

"AHS has prepared us to be major players in the world," she said. "So let's go out and show them what A-Town's got."