Stooooopid . . . . .

[omimouse]

Gayles was one of five students denied diplomas from the lone public high school in Galesburg after enthusiastic friends or family members cheered for them during commencement.

Gyah. Do they just not see how incredbily moronic it is to punish the graduating student for someone else's behaviour? Oh yeah, you can get your diploma back, if you win the appeals process or if you complete eight hours of community service. Never mind that you've already worked your ass off to earn the damned thing.

Good gods, if it's that much of a problem, have the folks causing the disruption removed from the damned place. Not, y'know, the kid who's stuck hoping that no one dislikes them enough to make a lot of noise, or that their family (who won't be personally suffering any reprecussions) will actually listen to them and be quiet.

Stupid people. Stupid people, breathing my air.

Comments

[suzilem.livejournal.com]

Something similar happened in Dripping Springs (a suburb of Austin). They're holding the diplomas for the entire 200=student class until they review the video to determine who was responsible.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/05/31/31dsgraduation.html

[hakamadare.livejournal.com]

hm, i dunno… this past week, chaiya and i saw her youngest brother graduate from high school. the class was 200+, so unsurprisingly the assembled friends and family were quite a throng.

before the names were read, the marshal explicitly asked the crowd, in so many words, to please refrain from screaming and shouting after each name was read. he pointed out that every student present deserved sufficient respect to have their name heard and understood.

i appreciated his efforts, but was utterly unsurprised when groups of people howled like banshees throughout the entire ceremony. this pissed me off for the following reasons:

1. by the end of the ceremony, my ears were ringing and my head hurt.
2. some of the names had, in fact, been drowned out by the bellowing of the friends of the previous person announced. this didn’t directly offend me, but if i had been a family member of one of the drowned-out graduates, i would have been incensed.
3. by the end, it felt like nothing but a popularity contest; i felt bad for the kids who didn’t get shrieks of triumph when their names were called.

when i read the article, though, i lost my last bit of sympathy for the students when i learned that the school had made them sign a contract a month prior to graduation. there’s no way they can claim ignorance after that.

have the folks causing the disruption removed from the damned place

sure, if you want the ceremony to drag on for six hours while every single rowdy person protests being ejected. who’s going to do the removal? bouncers? the cops?

their family (who won’t be personally suffering any repercussions)

if the family values being able to yell and hoot more than they value the student actually receiving the diploma, then the family are assholes.

frankly, i sympathize with the school administrators, and i have a hard time thinking of a more effective and fair way for them to accomplish their goals.

-steve

[omimouse.livejournal.com]

What bothers me is that, as far as I can tell, the students were calm and quiet as they walked across the stage. Their diplomas are being withheld from them because people that they personally had no control over made noise. I mean, if this policy is in place next year, I'd be more than willing to bet that the unpopular kids will get the most amount of noise there is, because high-schoolers can be nasty little bastards.

The kids are getting punished for someone else's actions. How on earth is this fair?

[louisadkins.livejournal.com]

It should not matter if someone's family is full of ass-holes. If the person getting their diploma did nothing wrong then it is not, can not be reasonable to punish them.

(ex)
I consider my father an asshole. There are a lot of things he has done wrong in his life. If someone wants to hold him accountable for any of it, that is between the two of them. If someone wants to hold me accountable, though... that I will not stand for. I have no control over what my father does, and I have no responsibility for it. I should not have to pay for his mistakes.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Making the students perform additional work to get the diplomas is where the school steps over the line IMO. It reminds me of the time one of my teachers caught me doing homework for another class; he confiscated it (reasonable) and destroyed it (not reasonable, not his property). The "community service" requirement is an unreasonable response, out of proportion to the nature of the offense.

[wordweasel.livejournal.com]

What a load of bullshit.

They recently introduced a brand new graduation test here, that seniors have to pass or they cannot walk OR receive a diploma. They had kids with 4.0s and near-perfect attendance fail one portion of the test with like 1 or 2 points off. They still aren't letting them walk, and their options are to take it again over the summer and receive their diploma if they pass, or go for their GED. 4.0 GPA students who just did not test well on a BRAND NEW VERY DIFFICULT graduation test.

I lived in Florida when these tests started being the new thing (meaning, I had to take the FCAT to pass I think eighth and tenth grade. That FCAT is a hard test). Thay are HARD tests, and they are unlike ANY other standardized test, or ANY test kids would get in their regular classes.