:eek:
For real?
[obligatory anecdote]
My high school did something similar.
For a little tiny place in podunk, Kentucky, we had one of the classiest graduation ceremonies in the state. I’m talking ultraformal (as far as conduct went). No clapping/whooping/yelling/etc. till the appointed time, then the house came down.
They did this because people want to hear every name called as the students receive their diplomas, and because they wanted the actual giving out of the diplomas to be solemn. Plus it was sort of a school tradition to not allow our graduation to turn into a big mosh pit in the middle of the whole thing, as the surrounding schools did.
Before my class graduated, no other class had thrown their caps in the air. We fought with the principal and reached a compromise: after we filed out, we could come back in, get on the gym floor (with our parents/friends/etc.) and then we counted down and did it. It actually worked better this way because everyone knew it was coming and had their cameras primed.
I remember 2 different ceremonies in which people failed to follow the rules. In one, some student’s family/friends made a lot of noise (and I mean A LOT) when their student was on the stage. The principal stopped the ceremony and informed the crowd that if it happened again the ceremony would stop completely. Then in 1995 some girl (who knew better) yelled “way to go!” when one of her friends was on the stage. She was asked not to come to the 1996 graduation. Yes, that sounds unreasonable, but this school was a little hole in the wall POS in hickville. Our traditionally nice, peaceful graduation ceremony was one of the few things we could be proud of.
[/obligatory anecdote]
As far as this student goes, I think it was inappropriate to remove him – unless the class had specifically been told “scream and we’ll remove you” in which case it’s his own fault.
We had tortillas being thrown around at our graduation. It was funny. We also had beach balls, but they got confiscated.
Hmm, even if the students had been told that no expressions of any kind were permissible, that standard is onerous and ridiculous. Graduation is a joyous event. It is a celebration of the accomplishments of the students, not heavy-handed administrators or parents and extended family. I can understand the desire to keep extended and boisterous cheering to a minimum to keep the ceremony length under control and make sure that no one is drowned out, but even if every student exclaimed jubilantly during that particular part of their trek across the stage, no one’s name annoucement would be delayed or unheard. It’s just ridiculous to suggest that this important life milestone is to be marked in silence and solemnity. This was not a funeral, and the celebrants are in the time of their lives when joyful hoots and cheers are de rigeur.
Shame on the principal, Mrs. Bradshaw. Shame on the deputy. Shame on the school administrators who backed this up. Shame on a community that would support administrators who would make such a rule.
Or …
Shame on people who tell kids “you don’t have to follow the rules” and then have the nerve to wonder why every generation is worse than the one before.
I went back to this website and I’ve been reading the editorials and have managed to piece together what happened. Apparently graduations in years past at this place were a zoo. So Bradshaw laid down a few ground rules and informed the students of them and what would happen if they broke them.
This kid chose to break them. I’m not feeling too sorry for him. Is he going to go through life ignoring those in authority over him if he doesn’t agree with what they tell him to do? In that case this kid had better get used to a hard life.
Okay, my sister’s graduation was last night.
People were yelling, cheering, laughing. It wasn’t nasty, and it wasn’t rude and unruly-it was mostly “YEAY!!! WAY TO GO!”
It was a lot of fun. Rilchiam-the grads on stage were tossing around beach balls and blowing bubbles, etc. And I had forgotten-we did the beach ball thing too. Loads of fun!
(Basically, there would be a beach ball and it would just be tossed around by the seated graduates. It was a lot of fun, and the audience loved it).
I graduated from high school in 1993 (10 years ago tonight, in fact), and I remember lots of cheering and applause from the students and the audience. One girl even did a victory dance after getting her diploma. We were quiet during all of the speeches, but everyone started celebrating the minute the students started walking on stage. No one had any problem with it at all.
When my brother graduated four years later, one student in the graduating class got a standing ovation (she missed three years of school due to a life-threatening illness and was well known in our community). I don’t think the even threat of arrest would have shut us up. 
I was a sub in another NC county beginning with the letter C. At one school, some students were telling me that during last year’s graduation all of the seniors carried a marble with them as they walked across the stage. When time came to shake hands with the unpopular principal, they all handed her their marbles. She had to get a bucket and drop them in as each student passed.
No one was arrested. The offended parties kept their offence to themselves. The students (and I) thought it was hilarious.
Class of 98 here too.
They told us (parents and students) that we couldn’t cheer until all 300+ names were called. Many parents ignored this request. No one was escorted out.
Maybe I just live in the laid-back part of the state.
My graduation: we had to wear these horrible bright red robes, so the in the days before graduation, everyone (and I mean everyone) got sharpies and wrote all over them. Mine said, “Future McDonald’s Employee” across the shoulders. We were instructed to hold all applause until the end of the ceremony. No one complied. People, parents and grads, cheered at every name. Someone got an industrial-sized bag of stale bread rolls and passed them out. Everyone handed one to the principal as they received their diplomas. By the end of the ceremony, he was standing next to a knee-high pile of buns. And there was lots and lots of hat tossing. In short, we actually had fun at our graduation, and nobody said two words about it. Because it was our graduation, goddammit, and people respected that.
Is this for real? At my graduation (1988) we had bubbles, little champagne bottle streamer things, applause, merriment- it was a fantastic celebration. I was the last name called and no one was tired of clapping by then- I got a nice round. Can people really just have absolutely no fun or relaxation anymore? I am seriously sickened to think that our kids are raised with the presence of armed deputies at their events ready to escort them off for any little offense. Times like this I thank God 3 times that I don’t have kids because I’d be furious daily over this kind of crap if I had to deal with it first hand.
Yea, I wish I’d had fun at my graduation. My biggest regret is actually going, frankly.
Class of '97 here. And, since I was in the band, that means I got to play at the '94 through '96 graduation ceremonies. Then I also attended the '98 and '99 ceremonies for friends and my sister, respectively. I never did see a beach ball being bounced around, but I saw a few graduates blowing bubbles. I never saw any pranks played on the principal. All the graduations were pretty relaxed yet serious affairs. Maybe a little on the dull side, but everyone had fun knowing we were out of high school at last.
The audience and the graduates cheered, clapped, and whooped throughout the whole deal. The only restrictions on the merriment were that no megaphones or airhorns could be used. The graduates always threw their caps in the air at the end of the ceremony. I had a blast at my graduation (I was shocked that I had more people cheering for me than I thought I would) inspite of having to suffer through three hours in dress shoes.
Oops! Sorry to keep you in suspence, but I just made that up.
- KKB, who seriously has to work on his delivery :smack:
S’okay, KKBattousai, we have armed cops hauling proud parents away anyway.
Another newsitem today about moronic school officials, (Tennessee, this time,) ruining kids’ graduation, if only “Junior High” grad.
I really waffled on whether or not this one deserved its very on Pit thread, because it looks to be less controversially mean-spirited, nay, even evil:
What’s particularly irksome about this one is how personally directed the decisions seem. In this picture, the girls in the center panel were allowed to participate, while the girl in the left panel was excluded. WTF? How is her dress more “overdressed” than those other girls? A better class of material?
/begin rant
"I feel that it was very racist for her to tell my child that he looked like a pimp.
WTF does pimping have to do with race?!
RAR I wish people would learn the fucking definition of race!
/end rant
I think that the idea is that a pale pink person in the same suit would be less likely to be compared to a pimp. The suit is pictured, and it looks pretty conservative to me-- nothing about it suggests ‘pimp’ – the kid looks like he’s dressed for his big sister’s wedding. Or maybe his grad.
If he was wearing a lot of gold, or had an open collar, or a big ol’ hat, or anything about his actual dress was suggestive of a pimp, I’d agree with you — but I don’t think it’s out-of-line to suggest that someone comparing this nice-looking kid in a sharp suit to a pimp might be doing so because the colour of the face hovering over the necktie alters their perception of the suit. If a whiteboy or an asian kid in the same suit wouldn’t elicit the same remark from her, than I’d have to agree it was racist.
“Then”, not “than”.
Overdressed? You gotta be kidding me. I didn’t see one outfit in those photos that wouldn’t be okay for church.
Class of '87 (Gee, was it really last century I graduated? I guess it was!) here. I played in the band throughout high school, so I attended every graduation during that time, I also attended my two elder brothers graduations (back in the '70’s!) and I have to say that I made the graduation ceremony my year, and it was also the most disruptive of any that I attended. 
At mine, when they handed my diploma, I immediately began jumping up and down and shouting, “I got one! I got one!” Then, after everyone in the class (all 56 of us) had gotten their diploma, we were all standing around and everyone was going, “When do we throw our caps?” I said, “This is stupid! 1, 2, 3!” and chucked mine straight at the principal, immediately thereafter, everyone did the same!
Afterwards, I got my ass chewed out by the senior English teacher about it. Of course, the fact that her husband was standing behind her, laughing his ass off, ruined any chance she had of inspiring me to take the whole thing more seriously.