Posted on 06/01/2007 12:03:25 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
GALESBURG, Ill. - 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.
About a month before the May 27 ceremony, Galesburg High students and their parents had to sign a contract promising to act in dignified way. Violators were warned they could be denied their diplomas and barred from the after-graduation party.
Many schools across the country ask spectators to hold applause and cheers until the end of graduation. But few of them enforce the policy with what some in Galesburg say are strong-arm tactics.
"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."
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.
"Lots of parents complained that they could not hear their own child's name called," said Joel Estes, Galesburg'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 started kicking out parents and relatives who cheer. At one school, the superintendent interrupted last month's graduation to order police to remove a woman from the gymnasium.
"It's an important, solemn occasion. There's plenty of time for celebration before and after," said Clarke Campbell, president of the Indianapolis school board.
In Galesburg, the issue has taken on added controversy with accusations that the students were targeted because of their race: four are black and one is Hispanic. Parents say cheers also erupted for white students, and none of them was denied a diploma.
Principal Tom Chiles said administrators who monitored the more than 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," Chiles said. "It is the amount of disruption at the time of the incident."
School officials said they will hear students and parents out if they appeal. Meanwhile, the school said the five students can still get their diplomas by completing eight hours of public service work, answering phones, sorting books or doing other chores for the district, situated about 150 miles southwest of Chicago.
Gayles' mother said she plans to fight the school board — in court if necessary — to get her daughter's diploma. The noise "was like three seconds. It was like, `Yay,' and that was it," Carolyn Gayles said.
American Civil Liberties Union spokesman Edward Yohnka said Galesburg's policy raises no red flags as long as it is enforced equitably. "It's probably well within the school's ability to control the decorum at an event like this," he said.
Another student who was denied her diploma, Nadia Trent, said she will probably let the school keep it if her appeals fail.
"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," Trent said.
maybe these schools should pay back the feds for all the money spent to educate students that passed only to get left behind due to others actions.
just a thought.
Power is like, so awesome.
>>American Civil Liberties Union spokesman Edward Yohnka said Galesburg’s policy raises no red flags as long as it is enforced equitably. “It’s probably well within the school’s ability to control the decorum at an event like this,” he said.<<
The shouters should have yelled pro al-Qaeda slogans, that way the ACLU would’ve been on the spot filing suits on their behalf.
Apart from the idiocy of punishing someone for someone else’s actions, I honestly had no idea where my H.S. diploma was within a month after I got it. Just another piece of paper.
The education system is an embarrassment.
How about if my friends and I cheer for students we don’t like?
I’m surprised the ACLU guy said that he thought their policy was ok here. I thought the ACLU generally is in favor of anarchy and free expression of any type. I’m very surprised that an ACLU person would be concerned about the decorum of a graduation ceremony. I’m surprised that an ACLU person would not immediately jump to conclusions about the race of the people involved and charge discrimination.
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.
“Lots of parents complained that they could not hear their own child’s name called,” said Joel Estes, Galesburg’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 started kicking out parents and relatives who cheer. At one school, the superintendent interrupted last month’s graduation to order police to remove a woman from the gymnasium.
“It’s an important, solemn occasion. There’s plenty of time for celebration before and after,” said Clarke Campbell, president of the Indianapolis school board.
Playing the race card. Poor victims.
...a very costly embarrassment with profound power.
Public schools are about creating large groups of easily controlled people. This is just one little hoop they hope to make these kids jump through. Smells like a lawsuit.
That diploma would just get stuck in a box somewhere inside a few months anyway.
Graduations have changed a bit since mine.
“Look Bill, those are our planes now...”
It’s all about decorum, yaknow, a few folks whooped it up a bit too much per some, others couldn’t hear their kids names and hence the more rigid approach.
It could just be a crappy PA system too... glad I don’t have any kids in schools... and never did. ;-)
Crass displays have no place at graduations and other solemn events. And, unfortunately, they're becoming more common.
The essence of modern “liberalism” is that the innocent MUST be punished (or at least pay for) the behaviors of others.
I understand how disruptive the audience can be. When I went to my niece’s graduation at a Catholic school I didnt hear her name called because someone behind me had one of those air horn cans. In the gym, with an air horn, it was loud and obnoxious. But to withhold a diploma isn’t right either. She earned her grades and the diploma fair and square. Seems like there has to be a balance and a way to be fair to conduct cermonies. But it seems like people nowadays don’t understand how to be formal and proper no matter where they are. Cheering is appropriate at a football game, not at a graduation.
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