Author Topic: If anyone cheers for you, no diploma  (Read 3200 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Sal Atticum

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 7121
  • Karma: 38
  • Gender: Male
    • Campus Dakota
If anyone cheers for you, no diploma
« on: June 05, 2007, 09:22:10 AM »
This is really a dumb thing.  Cheering is a part of graduation, isn't it?  What's the point of going to your kid's graduation if you aren't going to cheer for him or her or his or her friends?  This is one weird school.

The racial aspect of it is interesting as well--someone's going to have to answer for that, I'm sure.

Quote
June 3, 2007
Diplomas Denied Over Graduation Cheers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

GALESBURG, Ill., June 2 — A high school that had warned against undignified behavior at its graduation ceremony denied diplomas to five students after enthusiastic friends or family members cheered for them during the commencement program.

On May 27, Galesburg High School students and their parents were asked to sign a contract promising to act in dignified way. Violators were warned they could be denied their diplomas and barred from an after-graduation party.

Many schools ask spectators to hold applause and cheers until the ceremonies end but few rigidly enforce the policy.

“It was like one of the worst days of my life,” said Caisha Gayles, one of the five students, who officially graduated, but does not have her diploma to frame and hang on her wall. “You walk across the stage and then you can’t get your diploma because of other people cheering for you. It was devastating.”

The school said the five students can still get their diplomas by completing eight hours of public service, answering phones, sorting books or doing other work for the district.

School officials in Galesburg, a city of 34,000 in northwestern Illinois, said the policy was adopted after hoots, hollers and even air horns drowned out much of the ceremony in 2005 and nearly touched off fights in the audience when the unruly were asked to quiet down.

“Lots of parents complained that they could not hear their own child’s name called,” said Joel Estes, the school’s assistant superintendent. “And I think that led us to saying we have to do something about this to restore some dignity and honor to the ceremony so that everyone can appreciate it and enjoy it.”

In Indianapolis, public school officials this year began removing cheering parents and relatives. At one school, the superintendent interrupted the graduation program in the gymnasium last month and had the police remove a woman.

“It’s an important, solemn occasion,” said Clarke Campbell, president of the Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners. “There’s plenty of time for celebration before and after.”

Four of the five Galesburg students who were denied diplomas are black and one is Hispanic. Parents say cheers also erupted for white students but none of those students was denied a diploma.

Principal Tom Chiles said administrators who monitored the 2,000-seat auditorium reported only disruptions they considered significant, and all turned in the same five names.

“Race had absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever,” Mr. Chiles said. “It is the amount of disruption at the time of the incident.”

School officials said they would listen to appeals from students and parents. Ms. Gayles’s mother, Carolyn, said she would try to get her daughter’s diploma. She said the noise “was like three seconds: it was like, ‘Yay,’ and that was it.”

Edward Yohnka, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union, said Galesburg’s policy raised no red flags as long as it was enforced equitably. “It’s probably well within the school’s ability to control the decorum at an event like this,” Mr. Yohnka said.

Another student who was denied a diploma, Nadia Trent, said: “It’s not fair. Somebody could not like me and just decide to yell to get me in trouble. I can’t control everyone, just the ones I gave tickets to.”
JUST EXTRA POLISH. I DO SOME WORK WITH EXCELL SO I KEEP THE CAPS LOCK ON :-P

Offline SoonerNSioux

  • UND
  • *
  • Posts: 15
  • Karma: 4
  • Gender: Male
    • www.ontheplains.com
Re: If anyone cheers for you, no diploma
« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2007, 11:46:50 PM »
I experienced this  first hand at my sis's HS graduation in a different IL public city school a week ago. A certain ethnicity felt it appropriate to yell names THROUGHOUT the ceremony, even during the valedictorians speech.  They would shout across the arena calling each other's names. Not the students, mind you, but relatives in the audience.  After the speech, the head of ceremonies made a statement about curtailing the senseless yelling.  Even with this, they still occasionally yelled.   Quite aggravating. 

Aaron


Offline pmp6nl

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 5621
  • Karma: 113
  • Gender: Male
    • Campus Dakota.com
Re: If anyone cheers for you, no diploma
« Reply #2 on: June 10, 2007, 11:58:19 PM »
I think there is a difference on what is appropriate and what is not.

I can see it both ways, relatives and friends want to share their excitement; but others want to be able to hear their kids names called.

If it was a quick yell it might not be too bad.


People need to follow rules and learn what is right and what is wrong... its not that hard.
CampusDakota.com

 

With Quick-Reply you can write a post when viewing a topic without loading a new page. You can still use bulletin board code and smileys as you would in a normal post.

Name: Email:
Verification:
Type the letters shown in the picture
Listen to the letters / Request another image
Type the letters shown in the picture:
What color is an apple, it starts with an r?:
What is 5 plus 5?:
Which Dakota has the city of Fargo:

anything
realistic
anything