Students Denied Diplomas?
60Graduation. The standard dictionary definition of it is:
- Conferral or receipt of an academic degree or diploma marking completion of studies.
- A ceremony at which degrees or diplomas are conferred; a commencement.
Students wait almost what seems like a lifetime for this day. For many high school students this day is a huge sigh of relief. It is the last day they will sit with their student body as one. After graduation some students prepare for college, for some they will begin working right away, and some will take some time off before deciding the path they want to take. For a few students however, the day is not what they expected. It is ruined.
The web and news worldwide is currently buzzing over a story about a student who lost his diploma. During the Bonnie Eagle High School in Maine, a student walks across the stage to receive his diploma; he pauses and blows a kiss to his family. The school administrator sent the student directly back to his seat without his diploma. To many, including the family of the student this is a seemingly harsh punishment. Searches on the web for "student denied diploma" and "Bonnie Eagle High School" have skyrocketed. School officials stand behind the actions of the administrator claiming the incident was misbehavior on the students behalf. The outraged mother of the student was quoted as saying "A bow, a kiss to your mom is not misbehavior".
In 2007, five students at Galesburg High School in Illinois were denied their diplomas because members of the audience cheered. School officials believed that family members of these five students violated a "cheering ban" that was in place. This ban was started due to complaints of rowdy behavior in a 2005 graduation ceremony. There were also questions raised about racial discrimination because one student was Hispanic and the other four students were African American. According to Principal Tom Chiles, the families of these five students created a very loud disruption using noisemakers and air horns. Many of the parents said there were cheers for Caucasian students, however none of them had their diplomas withheld.
Apparently school officials sent home a contract for parents to sign that gave strict consequences such as loss of the diploma for cheering and loud distracting disruptions. The students were asked by school officials to turn in the identities of those responsible for cheering. Students responded that it would be impossible to figure out who cheered out of a crowd of almost 2000 people. The parents and students are prepared to take the issue to court however none of them plan to seek punitive damages. Beaten down by the national media attention received over the event, school officials conceded and gave the students their diplomas two weeks after the ceremony.
In 2005 a Native American student is denied his diploma for wearing a bolo tie with his graduation gown. Maurice J. McDonough High School and the Charles County Public Schools officials stand by their decision. Officials state that prior to commencement ceremonies, students were provided with the dress code requirements. Officials further state that there are many students of the school with heritages and there are times to honor them. However all students were expected to follow a certain uniform status quo. The senior and his family wanted school officials to release the diploma and give an apology to the student.
Are school officials taking these rules applied to graduation ceremonies to extremes? My son graduated June 6th of this year. At the beginning of the ceremony the school’s principal made an announcement to please respect the ceremony and to please not cheer as the graduates entered the auditorium. He said the silence would show respect and honor to the students achievements. When it came time for each student to cross the stage an announcement was made for spectators to wait until the students name was called before cheering and to keep it brief so the next name could be heard. The students were uniformly dressed with their cap and gowns and white shirts. The only difference was the shoes on their feet. But it mattered little, because no one came to watch their feet. The ceremony went very well.
I can't imagine how devastating it must have been to not only the students but the families as well when the diplomas were withheld. It is one thing to have rules, but it is entirely another when they are taken to extreme. So what, a student blew a kiss to his mom. It seems very harsh to take away the diploma for such a minimal offense. Now it would have been another issue entirely if the student had dropped his pants and mooned the crowd; that would have warranted punishment. The five students who were withheld diplomas did deserve an apology because they had no control over the actions of the crowd. The student who wore the bolo also deserved an apology. It's not like he wore a clown tie.
Students Denied Diplomas? in the News
- No transcript to get once-denied diplomaThe News & Observer4 days ago
State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison says the education agency didn't mean to make it hard for former students who failed competency tests to get diplomas or for schools to give them out.
- TEA denies C-FB ISD rating appealThe Carrollton Leader3 days ago
Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District will remain academically acceptable as the Texas Education Agency denied its appeal to adjust the district rating to recognized.
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Comments
Thank you Queen and Dolores for your comments. I couldn't agree more. These accounts of diplomas being withheld are ridiculous. My heart goes out to thes kids and their families.
What next? Will contracts have to be signed at football games in case cheering gets out of hand? OMG....these people need to chill out! Misconduct and rowdy behavior is one thing and should not be tolerated. But, come on, this is ridiculous.
I saw this on the news - ridiculous. The diploma is awarded for the student's academic achievement - what does the ceremony have anything to do with the work that has already been done, other than to celebrate it?
KCC - It is very ridiculous indeed. I think these school officials are trying to act more powerful than they actually are.
Mamahops- I agree, it is incredible that they are more concerned with the pomp and circumstance of the ceremony and they diminish the actual achievement.
It seems to me that these schools are trying to conform the kids to a life of subservience in the military or prepare them for draconian sweatshop jobs at minimum wage. I am sure the diploma was not worth the paper it was printed on. Don't get me started about the dumbing down of America and the many public schools four digit thinking patterns. At the end of george orwells 1984, it shows that 1+1 can equal 3. The route learning system is made to make low grade workers that the rich and powerful need to keep getting richer and more powerful.
Sorry about the tangent but damn!
Like the new pic in the book thing by the way. :)
Hi Paper Moon, thanks for stopping by. I don't know what goes through these idiots minds for ruining a students graduation over such petty issues. WOW he blew a kiss to his Mom..how horrific!!! It's one thing to want a certain decorum in a ceremony and it's another to take it to extremes. Honestly I think parents everywhere should unite and stand together to show that over-reactions of this nature by school officials and staff will not be tolerated or taken lightly.
Thanks for the comment about my new pic - I love morphing pics...it's so fun.
I must apologize to all for the typos....I just re-read the article and corrected them. That's what I get for writing in a hurry.
I don't believe the school should have a right to withhold a document that a person has earned. To me that's like a car dealer taking you money and then telling you that you can't have the car because you broke and rule.
Oh my word! The last graduation I was at, every student was cheered for!
The graduation ceremony is just that. A ceremony! It is not part of graduating. This is equal to saying your not really married, if you didn't use the traditional vows, or if people at the wedding talked.
Hi Pete & Ivorwen. Thank you for the comments. I think this is a classic case of school officials on a power trip. I think it is horrible that they diminished these graduations for such petty reasons. Graduation is something that should be celebrated, it is a huge milestone in life. I don't think they have any right to withhold diplomas either. It is ridiculous.
That is just so damn childish, thank god we don't have that in Ireland, jeeez no way wud us Irish put up with that crap !
The whole graduation ceremony for highschoolers is a bit silly. While I heartily agree that no kid should be denied an academic diploma that has been earned through the completion of requisite coursework, and while I notice that the student in question DID in fact receive his diploma at a later date, I can almost understand the frustration of the administration. If no one respects the diploma itself, why should it be handed out? If no one respects the ceremony, why go? But the woman was, indeed, incorrect in her actions. Highschool is for kids who will behave like kids. This behavior should have been accomodated at a rehearsal, to let it all out of the kids' system, so that the real ceremony (if the high school wants to take it so seriously) could have been attended with a little more respect shown by BOTH teachers and students. But while we're on the subject: if a highschool education has been debased over the years by an attrition of common sense in the curriculum, perhaps everyone is right in treating it like a party, not a rite of passage.
@ Badco - I couldn't agree more.
@ Teresa - I could understand frustration on the Administrations part if in fact he had committed a leud or other inappropriate act. But he blew a kiss to his mom, and I don't find that inappropriate at all. My twin boys graduated this year. The first one graduated early in January. The ceremony was held in the schools gym. My other son graduated in May at it was held at a huge collesium in downtown Fort Worth. At both events the principal made an announcement at the begining of the ceremony for everyone to please remain silent as the students entered and took their seats as a show of respect for their accomplishment and that as they took the stage to please wait until after the name was called to begin cheers and to also keep the cheers brief so not to keep the nexts students name from being heard. Both ceremonies went very well. Several students looked to the crowd as they headed across the stage. Some gave a thumbs up or a small wave. In no way was the "seriousness" of the event diminished.
Since parents don't attend rehersals, it would be hard to have a student get a gesture such as blowing a kiss out of his system. The fact is, it was a harsh punishment for so little an offense. School Administrators tend to get off on power trips and that is ridiculous. It's not as if he mooned the crowd or yelled out or did a tap dance across the stage.
Is there any event any more boring than a high school graduation ceremony? My eyes glaze over just thinking of sitting in a hot auditorium while the name of 500 students are read and each one individually receives his or her diploma. A better solution would be to give them their diplomas before the ceremony and do some sort of walk across the stage at the end, after the speeches are over. The kids are excited. It is THEIR day, not the school administrators. Isn't it time to reflect that with a new kind of ceremony that can incorporate the seriousness of the achievement to include the excitement that the student feels?
Well said Connie. I wish they would come up with a better type of ceremony.
In the UK, we don't have any graduations from secondary schools. The GCSE exams (taken at 16) and A level exams (at 18) are marked externally and nationwide, so it's nothing to do with the school.
Most schools do have either Speech Day, or Prizegiving Day, though. I was the proud recipient of the History Prize when I was leaving school (-:
However, even if you got expelled from school after taking your exams and before leaving, that didn't affect the GCSE / A level marks.
We do have university graduation ceremonies, but they are ceremonial only - you don't have to go, and if you choose not to, you just pick your degree certificate up some other time.
That's very interesting Londongirl. Wish we had a similar set up here, things might go more smoothly if we did.
These are absolutely ridiculous reasons not to give diplomas to kids. The first young man was just showing his appreciation to his mother who obviously did a lot to help him get where he was. The cheering thing is absolutely ridiculous since there is no way a parent/family can do to control the rest of the crowd when their child's name is called.
Our schools are here to unite our youth against actions that would be culturally destructive to our society. Ceremonies that honor the individual detract from the impetus of the entirety. Do not complicate so simple a path. You are asked to conform for your own good and for the good of all. Subversivness will not be tolerated. The Fuhrer
Dolores Monet says:
5 months ago
It kills me how a kid is punished for blowing a kiss to his mom, or a kid is denied a diploma for something somebody else did (the families making noise is not the fault of the student). You hear so many stories of young people running wild, of terribly inappropriate behavior, why single out these kids? It makes no sense.