Okay, I’m in the middle of another project, but I simply couldn’t let this AP story pass. It has to do with five Illinois high school students who were denied their diplomas by Galesburg High School officials because family members cheered too enthusiastically for them during the graduation ceremony.
Evidently an increase in rowdiness at graduation ceremonies has become a genuine problem for a lot of high schools with large student populations. It seems that, in addition to cheering, friends and family bring air horns, silly string and the like, and other parents can’t hear their own child’s name called, admittedly not an ideal situation.
Some schools have hired sheriff’s deputies to police the ceremonies in an effort to keep over-the-top behavior to a minimum. Many simply ask audience members to hold their applause and cheers until after all diplomas have been handed out, then make peace with the fact that the noise may be lessened, but not eliminated. Other schools break up the ceremony into groups of graduates, allowing families to get their ya-yas out by cheering, at least, for the group.
But few have resorted to the kind of strong-arm tactics that the AP story describes.
Caisha Gayles graduated with honors last month, but she is still waiting for her diploma. The reason: the whoops of joy from the audience as she crossed the stage.
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.
“It was like one of the worst days of my life,” said Gayles, who had a 3.4 grade-point average and officially graduated, but does not have the keepsake diploma to 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, actually.”
(The fact that cutting these monster schools into smaller, more personal schools would solve the problem in a heartbeat is an issue that we won’t get into right now.)
School officials in Galesburg, a working-class town of 34,000 that is still reeling from the 2004 shutdown of a 1,600-employee refrigerator factory, said the get-tough policy followed a 2005 commencement where hoots, hollers and even air horns drowned out much of the ceremony and nearly touched off fights in the audience when the unruly were asked to quiet down.
Certainly the school didn’t break any laws and even the ACLU agrees that, legally, the high school administrators are probably within their rights. But is it really a sensible, productive strategy to start yanking kids’ diplomas because of somebody else’s over-sized whoops?
“You’re kidding?” said Father Greg Boyle on the phone when I told him about the news story. “I just spoke at three graduations last week where they had this same issue. Everybody lives with it. I can’t believe they took those kids’ diplomas. It’s ridiculous.”
Over the years, I too have attended my share of gigantic graduations for LA’s biggest inner city high schools, some of which have student populations larger than certain Midwestern towns. And, although in many cases administrators ask everybody to hold applause and keep the mayhem down to a dull roar, it works only up to a point and nobody sweats it. Some people really want to cheer for their kid—especially, as is true in many families, when a successful high school graduation is a hard-won victory worth cheering.
I suspect this same is true for many families in economically-distressed Galesburg.
And while we’re on the subject, would the Galesburg officials have also flipped out over the wild cheering that erupted for this Utah dad who flew home from Afghanistan to hand his son a diploma?..
Or perhaps the cheering for the kid in this Maryland story who got whoops and shouts from both his happy grandmas as the first in his very large family to ever graduate?
Which of those diplomas do the no-cheering adults suggest we eliminate?
I’m just curious.
I could not figure out what was causing normal Galesberg adults to act like idiots.
Then I found that answer, Bill Clinton is speaking at a Galesberg College. Now everything seems in it’s place and all clear.
Kudos to the administration for trying to maintain a bit of decorum at a graduation ceremony.
People need to know how to act in public. After all, they signed a contact to behave appropriately.
I have a post on my blog about this. Please feel free to stop by and post a comment no matter how ridiculous they are.
http://moretexastruth.blogspot.com
This must be the year of weird HS Graduation ceremonies. Down in Florida a Valedictorian decided to devote her speech to the proposition that if the members of the Audience didn’t accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior they would be condemned to hell. Sveral walked out. The student said afterwar that she didn’t see what the big deal was.
Well she had a right to her own words in the speech but i was a little surprised that they hadn’t vetted the remarks in advance. That is what you usually do. Did someone get cold feet about suggesting that the language might not be appropriate in a public HS graduation? Fear of litigation?
And if our Texas friend is correct and parents were apprised of standards for decorum and had to sign a agreement to that effect then I think this is not as arbitrary as it sounds. Besides, she did graduate and you don’t need a diploma for that. As a matter of interest I didn’t get mine that day as, it was misprinted. It arrived at my house months later while I was in college.
In my book and in my time a 3.4 GPA was “Honors work”. Course I can’t speak for Grade Inflation. Maybe like the kids of Lake Woebegonme, they’re all above average.
Glad to hear Bill Clinton addressed the graduates of Galesberg College. That gave them a chance to see what a real President lookes like and not the empty suit masquerading as the Chief Magistrate today.
Richard, the parents all signed contracts. So, no it wasn’t a surprise. I suspect, half the parents just signed the thing without reading, because the kids brought it home and put it in front of them. You know how that goes.
But then the administrators evidently got together afterward and wrote down the names of the kids who had the loudest cheering sections, then withheld those kids’ diplomas. Naturally, families have said that other people not cited cheered just as loud (white families) and that the kids all picked on were kids of color. Who knows?
I just think it’s unbelievably stupid—particularly in this day and age when our real concern is kids graduating at all.
I don’t know if I ever got a diploma but to some people it’s very, very meaningful. Wasn’t to me.
In the greater scheme of things, this is not going to bring down the empire. But it qualified, for me, as the most irritating Stupid Adult Trick of the day.
Tell me how great public schools are again.
A home-schooler won the national spelling bee, although you would never know that from the liberal press. I understand that his family can celebrate his accomplishments and not have some bureaucrat interfere.
Speaking of home-schoolers, in Germany where home schooling is banned because the government feels every child should be indoctrinated by the state, Melissa has escaped.
http://www.worldmag.com/articles/13034
I think they forbade it because they were worried about OTHER kinds of indoctrination. (Once again, to solve one problem the gov’t creates another.)
But, cool little story, Pokey. We like independent spirit where ever we find it, right?
Celeste, I too saw that story and could’t believe that the administration of the school couldn’t figure out a better way to handle it than how they chose to do so. It seems that zero tolerance really means zero insight and too often, zero responsibity (“We are just following policy.”) If this was indeed race based then the administrators making the decision need to be fired, if not, then those playing a race card need to have their hand slapped vigorously.
Too, your comment “Once again, to solve one problem the gov’t creates another,” is spot on. But then, we conservatives could have told you that a long time ago. 😉
Maybe the nuts who implement “zero tolerance” need to read Al Gore’s book on common sense, which seems lacking in our public schools.
“Texas Truth” – the problem wasn’t the students making noise. The problem was related to noise in the audience. You know this.
How can you reasonably believe that one person should be punished for the act of another? Would you offer up your daughter to serve a jail term on your behalf?
How is this any different?
It is guilt transference and is not worthy of your “kudos”. For a teacher of supposedly “30 years” you ought to know better.
This was simply shameful on the part of the administration – picking on kids because they couldn’t find a reasonable way to accomodate the joy of the spectators. The kids go to school because it is mandated by the state they receive an education – this does not make them serfs with no right, nor does it render them subject to whatever unreasonable whims the local educrats decide to dream up in their power-drenched minds.
I think that it’s really unfair to deny the diplomas because of the noise in the audience. The students worked hard for it, and they should receive what they’ve earned. Behaviour of their relatives is really a secondary thing. I think it is mostly the administration fault that they failed to prevent such situation.
Than you!