What an idiotic thing for teachers to do.
And at the other end of the spectrum are schools who have teachers give awards out to every student, so as to not hurt a child's self esteem. Gone are the days when, if awards were given out, they were given out to the top students.
At the end of my son's 6th grade year, the teacher "forgot" to give an award to this one student..whether on purpose or on accident..don't know. I still remember her crying because she was so embarrassed.