Caisha Gayles
Associated Press – June 1, 2007:
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.
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.”
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.
I’ll bet they think twice before acting like idiots again. Besides, they DID sign a contract.
1. “Besides, they DID sign a contract.”
But no one signed it freely because no one had the option not to sign. The only way to attend the graduation was to sign the contract. What parent is going to turn that down? If the contract had fine print that parents had to turn over their first born child over to the school, would you expect that to be enforced too?!
And if the parents and friends did break the contract, then kick them out. Why punish some person up on the stage who did absolutely nothing wrong?
Don’t want to sign the contract… then don’t walk. Simple.
3 “Don’t want to sign the contract… then don’t walk. Simple.”
So you think someone should be punished for someone else’s actions. I’d agree totally if the student had acted out while on the stage. But, once again, the student did nothing wrong.
As I said before, if the parents were obnoxious, they should have been kicked out. I see no basis, absolutely no basis to punish a student because of her parents’ actions.
I have three university degrees. Not once did I participate in graduation proceedings because I saw no point in standing in line for something they could simply mail me. So I’m with other people here, don’t walk! What’s the fricken point?!
However, I can’t help but wonder if the school is holding up their graduations or merely their diplomas? I don’t see how a school could deny an otherwise qualified student to graduate merely because their parents cheered. But if all the school is holding is the diploma itself, i.e., a token representation of the graduation, that’s something different. No one needs their high school diploma. When was the last time you used yours?!
5. SN,
Somewhere in the story it says she “officially graduated” but simply didn’t get to go to the graduation party or receive a diploma, which the story called a keepsake.
Somehow, the last place I expect to find fascists is in a temple of learning but then again, I do recall from decades ago my own principal, vice-principal and most of my teachers were flat-out fascists.
I remember this because I remember being kicked out of school for not attending school as often as they thought I should.
Fascists aren’t always logical.
#5, SN
Good point as I too missed my graduation ceremony. (I only got one undergrad degree) I picked my degree up the next week. It hung on the bathroom wall where all could read who was the University President and the proper spelling of baccalaureate even if they don’t know what it means.
For many though, graduation is an acknowledgment that one of life’s milestones has been successfully passed. These kids spent 12 years getting where they are. To them, and the parents who suffered through those same twelve years, this rite of passage is more then merely symbolic.
A very common thread in western justice is you don’t punish people for the transgressions of others. It would appear the school is punishing the kids because of what those in the audience did. Yup, look for the school to end up paying out some money to right this wrong.
It would be in the school’s interest to deliver the diplomas to the students. The students were not disruptive, the audience was. I see no reason why the school wouldn’t send the diplomas to the kids in the mail… unless it’s run by a bunch of dopes.
Not surprised. School administrators are among the biggest douches on the planet.
No comments about the last part? Only kids who were black or hispanic were denied the diplomas. That makes it appear to be a different issue then just moron administrators.
Only in america..
Where I live, the population is 50-50, black/white and we all get along fairly well. However, when my 3 kids graduated high school, it was a zoo with the majority of the black families yelling, screaming, horn tooting, foot stomping and very disruptive. Am I a racist? No. Am I an observer of human nature? Yes. I could not hear anything from the stage (including my daughters’s names) so I watched the families instead. With over 400 graduates, it was a long drawn out process as the announcer waited as long as possible to call each name, but still we could not hear because there was so much disruptive behavoir from from the spectators. Should the kids be denied their diplomas? NO. Should the families have been removed? Yes. I like the contract signing idea but not the denial of diplomas. Another good idea is to give “tickets” to a limited # of family members like they do in most colleges. Why is this rude behavoir mostly displayed by blacks? Is their sheer joy that someone in their family is graduating? Is part of their culture? I don’t know but it is extremely discourteous and annoying to the rest of us.
Bugs hell out of me when people live down to the stereotypes….
But the school’s reaction is nonsense. Which is exactly what I’d expect from school administrators.
My daughter survived High School because her Assistant Principal’s dad was a friend of mine…. Fascist doesn’t begin to cover it….
Regards,
True story. After my brother and I endured years of abuse from my high school principal, on graduation day, I walked across the stage and when the smiling principal held out his hand for me to shake, and exclaimed “no hassles mark” I feigned a handshake then did one of those through the hair moves, which brought much laughter to the auditorium. Maybe a little immature as I look back on it, but that bastard had it coming.
What kind of lesson is a child to learn from this nonsensical, authoritarian response? That even if he performs his duties in excellence every day for four long years, it can be negated in the space of five minutes, by the actions of others over which he has no control?
What power does the graduating student have that the school administrators do not have to control the crowd? The ACLU spokesman should remember that the school’s ability to control the “decorum” at an event does not extend further than the boundaries of each individual’s civil rights. That means the school must confine their actions to the persons that are in violation of the rules, and does not somehow magically transfer individual responsibility for someone else’s actions to the student they cheer for.
Apply that skewed logic to other situations, and it quickly becomes clear just how idiotic the school’s position is.
For example, at the next school board meeting, the superintendent rises to give a short speech. Every time he makes a good point, three citizens in the back of the room cheer and whistle loudly. So the local policeman in attendance grabs the superintendent by the arm and escorts him out of the building for disrupting the meeting.
Does that sound at all sensible to anyone with a pulse and the mental capacity of an eight year-old?
Or imagine what would happen at the next presidential debate in which the moderator, having asked the audience to hold its applause until the end of the debate, expelled one of the candidates because the crowd cheered at an especially good one-liner. The moderator would be considered extremely fortunate if he managed to avoid tar and feathering!
The bottom line is that most of the young people graduating are over 18, and considered adults with the full compliment of rights belonging to adults, in the eyes of the law. The school administrators, being accustomed to imposing their arbitrary will on children who are not considered to be endowed with the full set of rights that comes with adulthood, are showing just how arbitrary that power can be when it is wielded by authoritarians without conscience. They might get away with it in the classroom where children are subject to that arbitrary power, but the adults that walk across the stage, having earned the right to their diplomas, have also earned the right to never again be subject to the whim of arbitrary power.
They should exercise that right, and demand that they receive the diplomas they have earned, teaching the “educators” a lesson in the personal humility endemic to a free society.
#1 through #4 – Wow Jerk-Face…. I guess you are gonna have to change your name to Not Nearly As Much Of A Jerk as flyingelvis-Face
I live in a fairly small town where we DO cheer for our graduate!!! The Black and Hispanic students should get a grat big cheer after all don’t they always say they won’t amount to nothing and when they graduate the parents are PROUD and should be able to Holler. I know I do and I’m a mother of 2 High School graduates!! I know how proud the mothers are and we should cheer!! Also why do the students have to pay the price!! That’s not fair, why do they have to do 8 hrs of Community work when all they did was walk across the stage and accept a diploma, by the way, that was denied them! That’s like having to do time for what someone else did!!! Where is the ACLU at!!! Jesse Jackson where are you when your needed!!!! I believe in the law and clearly the High School Admistration broke the law, when they sentenced the students for just wanting what they rightfully earned. I hope this doesn’t interfer with College!! Hope some one with clout comes to the rescue. I for one am very proud of any student that can graduate from school. I hope you get your diplomas you eraned them!! This should not be a raciest thing with the school Administration and for the record I am not Black and feel they have been unfaifly treated!!
The school douchebags are so clearly in the wrong here that I don’t know why it’s even an issue. JC Garrett (#15) and Elva (#17) covered it in full.
Jerk-Face – wow, time to change your name.
#5 – SN – I’ve also avoided wearing a silly hat and dress while walking across a stage to collect a piece of paper. Mail delivery worked fine. But I grew up white, upper middle class, with the complete set of expectations that implies. For some, simply staying in school and seeing it through may be an important achievement, and for others it may be enormously important to the graduate’s family. Some douchebag administrator befouling that achievement because audience members cheered goes beyond mean. It bespeaks a prison warden’s mentality, not an educator’s. And it deserves to be penalized sharply enough that the damn bureaucrats remember next time why those cheering people pay them..
#14 – mark – Good for you. Sometimes all you can do is refuse to shake hands with the bassids.
6. “Somewhere in the story it says she “officially graduated” but simply didn’t get to go to the graduation party or receive a diploma, which the story called a keepsake.”
Damn, I should at least read the stories I post! Thanks!
The important issue here is the possible racism. If parents of other kids say that white family’s and friends also cheered or horayed, then this Supervisior is going to lose his job.
TJ has a good point. Those of us lucky enough to be middle class expect certain things to happen naturally. But for many minority parents, to see your kids graduate, and do it with Honours, is a wonderful thing. They have a right to be happy.
For many years it was a cultural thing amoung Mexican familys to celebrate their kids passing out of 8th grade. This was as far as many of them would go, they were considered an adult, and they were then expected to help provide food and money for their family. So when they go all the way and graduate from the 12th grade, it is a big deal, to them and all involved.
The ignorance and stupidity of those running our schools never ceases to amaze me.
I am a long time member of Leoville, etc. and your blog. I was quite surprised to see that the artcle about Galesburg, IL graduation conflict was mentioned on your blog. I just so happened to be at that ceremony. That is my hometown and my husband and I went up north to attend my niece’s graduation.
I was aware that parents had to sign a waiver, as they have for several years. I just don’t see the point in it. Parents are excited to see their children, family memebers graduate. That is what makes it special. I heard the yelling as I was sitting in the back of the auditorium. (I use a wheelchair and vent) The yelling and cheering did not offend me. If I hadn’t been aware of the waiver issue, I would have probably yelled myself as my niece walked across the stage. It just seems silly for waivers. There is a lot worse things in life.
Now the issue is getting really ugly and is being considered a race issue. I feel that everyone should have the right to be proud of their child and let them know it no matter the race or ethnicity.
THANK THE LORD THEY DIDN’T HAVE THIS RULE WHEN I GRADUATED. MOM AND THE AIR HORN WOULD HAVE KEPT ME FROM GETTING MY DIPLOMA.
It’s starting to sound more-and-more like neo-Nazis have taken over America — all these zero-tolerance policies, jail at the slightest offense, etc, etc.