Double vision: 9 sets of twins graduate from Illinois grade school

TINLEY PARK, Ill. -- The number of twin births in America keeps rising, now up over 76 percent since 1980. Now twins born in the year 2000 are now graduating from grade school.

Nine sets of twins in one 8th grade class graduate Tuesday night from Central Middle School in Tinley Park, Ill. They may stand side by side in nine pairs, but they are 18 individuals.

Six of the sets are fraternal and three are identical. Of the fraternal twins, three sets are comprised of a boy and a girl.

"We have 268 students in the eighth grade as well as we have nine sets of twins and that comes out to seven percent of our 8th grade class," said Randy Fortin, principal of Central Middle School.

The individual twins have been separated in different classrooms during their grade school years. Tuesday night, they graduate two by two.