A diploma is nothing more than a piece of paper. If she has met the requirements to graduate, the school can not prevent her from graduating and that is all that matters to colleges and employers, (they want official transcripts, not a copy of that easily forgeable piece of paper that the school handed out.) If it means that much to you to put something on the wall, copy a friends and change the name in photoshop.
Not quite true .. this is the only EVIDENCE you can present to prove your qualifications. Generally, these are assumed documents - Colleges may perform a background check to see if your name appears on the roles as a graduate - but should the burden of proof be required - the Diploma is your proof.
That said, I agree with you that SHE owns the Diploma - not the school. When she completed her last legally required day of class attendance, and having passed the required classes with anything above the minimum grade - she paid for, and earned the Diploma. As a juror, I would have no problem at all finding the School and administrators PERSONALLY responsible for Felony theft (definition: "In common usage, theft is the taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it") - and I say "Felony" because in my view, spending 12 years working towards an education is well worth more than $1,000.
Perhaps if the Superintendant, Principle and other adminstrators were convicted of Felony theft, spent a year or so in jail and lost their credentials to teach - this abuse of power would stop.
The piece of paper called a ‘diploma’ is one thing; the school records for the student are quite another.
I recall being told that a student is ‘graduated from’ a given school and it is up to that school whether they will confer a diploma or not.
Still, the whole issue here, on first blush at least, seems more than a little silly,