Newsday.com: Student’s Diploma Withheld Over Bolo Tie __ No wonder our education system is one of the worst in the world. Boneheads who are sticklers for “going by the book” run everything.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — School officials are withholding a 17-year-old boy’s diploma for wearing a bolo tie under his graduation gown.
Thomas Benya said he prefers the string bolo ties over traditional knotted ties to reflect his American Indian heritage.
But officials from Maurice J. McDonough High School in suburban Washington said they warned him beforehand that a bolo violated the dress code for the event, held Wednesday for about 250 students.
The bolo “was not considered by staff to be a tie,” said Katie O’Malley-Simpson, a spokeswoman for Charles County schools. “We have many opportunities throughout the year to express cultural heritage. But we don’t do that at graduation.”
Benya said he never thought his diploma was at stake, and wore a bolo anyway.
submitted by P. McEntee who adds:
Although the school had
stated that there was a dress code for the ties (must have), the string tie did not meet those standards. If, however, a standard size tie was orange or had hula dancers on it, it supposedly would be OK.“There was a kid who took his pants off and threw them up at graduation. He got his diploma. But not my son for his bolo tie,” (his mother) said.
Only in America.
The school itself is another impersonal “factory” themed campus so common in the USA. A real charming facility designed as both a school and a minimum security prison.
The principal is a guy with the unlikely name of Garth Bowling.
If anyone would be the proper person to champion for someone to wear a tie, I knew it would be John C. Dvorak. 🙂 That channel screwed up killing Silicon Spin I still say.
Anyhow, this story shows how some things in the public school system is screwed. The student does the work to graduate and get his diploma then they keep it from him because he wears a tie they don’t like?
Someone should withhold the principal’s paycheck because he’s obviously overpaid.
Hmm..I’m glad somebody noticed the tie collection….I worked that show daily for fours years and only wore the same tie twice…gives you some idea as to the collection.
The politically correct term is “Educrats.” Their driving philosophy: “What is easiest for me?” Alternate” Student? What student?”
Based on personal experience, you can go down to the Seattle School District headquarters and swing a dead cat and you will never hit anyone who does an honest days’ work.
I have lived in this small burg for 7 years now. In that time I have been to about 10 weddings and a half dozen funerals. I am definitely in the minority when it comes to wearing a tie to these events. I photographed a wedding last year where, besides the pastor, I was the only man wearing a tie. The groom and party all wore BOLOs ! This not because they are all uncivilized, it is their choice in neck ware.
The young man denied a diploma is truly a travesty. I liked your comparison to a minimum security prison. Only you might have also compared it to the old Fritz Lang movie, Metropolis.
Last week in Texas, I believe, a graduate was denied the opportunity to attend the ceremony because she was pregnant. The father of her child was in the same class and was allowed to participate in the ceremony. I applaud the young lady for announcing her name and walking onto the platform to give herself her diploma to applause from her classmates.
Both of these cases are stupid. The school administrators have purposely insulted and discriminated against two deserving people. Because the schools will not admit any wrong doing, there will end up being a law suit filed and the big losers will end up being the taxpayers.
heh, another paradox is that in the USA if you’re 18 years old you are still too young to drink booze but you’re old enough to go to war and kill/die.
In the State of Arizona bolo ties are the official state neckwear. Presumably, this school would have withheld a diploma from Barry Goldwater.
Brenda,
Swinging a live cat might at least result in more superficial scratches on said non-working school admin workers.
Bowling was just showing the kid who’s in charge. I bet he handled this the way he does most things, only this time it came back to bite him.
Just refuse to go. Being an adult means running your own show. Just have all the grads get together and sign individual letters to the Principal that they will not be attending his “custom dress, prescribed activity, restricted behavior” ceremony. Instead, with some help from legal age adults, they will run their own ceremony, off campus, to which he is not invited. They could further suggest the diplomas be either shredded or mailed to them, whichever he (or she) prefers. They are of no practical value other than as souvenirs of a bad four years under the heavy hand of idiots and tyrants.