Posted on 04/28/2008 3:00:51 PM PDT by upchuck
Durango High School will allow its highest-performing students to wear white robes at graduation, reversing an earlier decision to require all students to wear red robes.
Principal Diane Lashinsky said she had learned "a great deal" from the controversy over graduation robes.
Lashinsky decided several months ago that all students would wear red robes at the May 24 graduation ceremony, ending a tradition where students with grade-point averages of 4.0 or greater wear honorary white robes.
Lashinsky said she felt the white gowns "diminish the accomplishment and hard work of other graduates by relative comparison."
Her decision caused an uproar among parents and students when it was publicized in a school newsletter this month and then April 16 in The Durango Herald .
Lashinsky has met with parents and students the last two weeks, and Durango School District 9-R announced Thursday that she had reversed her decision and would allow the tradition to stand.
This year, about 23 members of the Class of 2008 are eligible to wear the white robes. To be eligible, graduates must have an overall GPA of at least 4.0. Some students can exceed a 4.0 GPA by taking Advanced Placement courses.
The principal said it was clear from her conversations that it was "really important for several of the honors graduates to wear white."
"The issue was never about not recognizing our top students nor about praising mediocrity, as my original decision has been characterized," Lashinsky said in a statement. "Rather, we had planned to honor students more individually and personally during the ceremonies without so visibly comparing one group of students with another. Many students who won't be wearing white worked very hard to get to graduation and deserve to be honored for their accomplishments, too."
Students and parents did not return messages requesting comment Friday.
Durango High has also planned other ways to recognize the 4.0 GPA students. They will lead the graduating class in a march to their chairs on the football field, they will be the first to receive their diplomas, and they will be recognized in the graduation program, said Robert Logan, this year's graduation adviser.
"Students will be honored as they have been in the past," he said in a 9-R news release. "No more, no less."
National Honor Society members also will continue to be recognized with the gold NHS tassel on their mortarboards, he said.
Lashinsky said she was initially told the white-robe tradition was only three years old, not seven as she later learned. Durango High adopted white graduation robes seven years ago when the school stopped naming a valedictorian and salutatorian for each graduating class.
"That makes it a much bigger issue," Lashinsky said. "Had I known, I would have dug deeper into the history, and my initial decision may have turned out differently."
Durango High will not name a valedictorian or salutatorian this year.
Lashinsky said she will revisit next fall how to best honor academic achievement.
"We'll engage in a more global examination of how we recognize achievement and success, not just at graduation, but in a multifaceted manner that addresses all the ways we honor students," she said.
The principal makes an arbitrary decision based on very little research and gets slammed for it. Hot dog!!
Earning a grade point average above 4.0?
That’s just 110% wrong!
I think what she means is that next year, everyone will be wearing white.
WHAT?!? PC is going to be the death of us all.
Diane, you over-educated but still ignorant tw@t!
God forbid we publically recognize the students that went above and beyond. Doing so would only make the dregs and ne’er do wells loathe themselves even more.
Well then, Diane Honey, you should just be called TEACHER DIANE instead of PRINCIPAL DIANE!! You EARNED the PRINCIPAL TITLE and yet you DENY the Title of VALEDICTORIAN and SALUTATORIAN to others who EARNED those TITLES.
TEACHER DIANE......how does that feel??
I know, why do otherwise intelligent people talk this way? They all sound like that guy, Professor Irwin Corey? mocking edu-bable. If they think this sounds coherent maybe they are stupid.
Did I read that right? Taking a “Global approach” to a HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION?
I may puke.
We use to have the girls wear white and the boys wore green.
Because of lawsuits and threats of them (not at our school, but around the country) we changed it so that everyone wears green now.
Precisely! She won't let this go. She can't. Her mental disease caused by liberalism won't let her.
I bet they no longer have a valedictorian and salutatorian for each graduating class because they are deathly afraid of hurting the student's ever so delicate self esteem.
"All citizens will be required to change their underwear every half-hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check."
This is becoming very common. I don’t like it either. This link below is at a good public high school that sends a lot of students to really good schools.
“It kind of depends what their intention is. If they’re trying to shield kids from competition, that’s kind of pointless. Most of these kids are going to have to deal with very demanding competition their entire lives,” Femec said.
http://www.mpnnow.com/news/x1838788116
When you have 23 students with perfect 4.0 or higher, how do you decide who is first or second? When I graduated from high school, our GPA’s were calculated to 3 decimal points out of 100%. The highest girl had a 96.663% and the highest boy (me) had a 96.660%.
The link above is interesting because Canandaigua used to have a tough-ass principal. He ran a really tight ship. No hats in schools. No politically correct BS. He retired about 8-10 years ago. The school is still very good but it’s a much looser ship. I suppose that goes for most high schools compared to 10 years ago. Canandaigua’s sent a lot of kids to the service academies. I know one of its lacrosse players is going to Harvard next year.
Don't forget the corresponding pay grade adjustment.
BINGO! Check please.
If everyone is singled out for honor, then no one is really honored.
The ones who really tried are already getting their public acknowledgement, it’s called THE GRADUATION CEREMONY.
If you strive to achieve and do well, be warned you will be punished. How dare you think you can do better than anyone else!
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