Posted on 06/16/2009 6:26:58 PM PDT by Artemis Webb
For teens, there is no greater joy than graduating high school. Shaking off the shackles of education and claiming that hard-fought diploma is truly an epic day. Unfortunately, for several students at Bonny Eagle High School in Maine, their natural exuberance has led to some surprisingly serious problems.
On Friday night, when the senior class was waiting to graduate, excitement began to grow. Students bounced a large inflatable rubber duck. The noise level rose. And then came "the kiss." When called, one student walked on stage to receive his diploma and blew a kiss to his family. The school administrator, clearly not the sentimental sort, sent the student back to his seat ... sans diploma.
The seemingly harsh punishment has sent the Web all aflutter. Searches on "student denied diploma" and "bonny eagle high school" are both through the roof. Additionally, blogs and news papers are chiming in with opinions on whether or not the administration overreacted. The student's mother has given interviews and is quite upset at her son's treatment. According to an article from Fox News the outraged mother said, "A bow, a kiss to your mom is not misbehavior."
But the administrators feel they were just enforcing the rules that students agreed to. At a meeting following the debacle, school superintendent Suzanne Lukas said that "if a student doesn't adhere to the expectations, then the consequences are clearly spelled out."
(Excerpt) Read more at buzz.yahoo.com ...
Zero tolerance means those in charge can’t think for themselves and have to be told how to handle the most minor of things. They group together and call themselves teachers, the most power hungry people on the planet.
He will get it in the mail, whats the big deal.
I didn’t even go to my college graduation having had to endure the high school one and I got my diploma in the mail the next week.
“Just because we are public employees some parents and kids think it’s a green light for abuse and disrespect.”
No. You get disrespect because you earn it with your gestapo tactics. You are not the victim.
No. You get disrespect because you earn it with your Gestapo tactics. You are not the victim.
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Gestapo tactics, can you read? The agreement they signed clearly stated that type of behavior was not allowed. Must be some of the good home schooling.
Public school teachers and administrators wouldn’t have to do this stuff so often if parents would teach kids to have a bit of common courtesy.
LOL! Did he even break stride blowing his Mom a kiss? So disrespectful! There was no such thing in the Gestapo Agreement. Only in the mind of a power monger who can’t hold back their desire to be a Supreme Ruler would blowing a kiss be anything more than a nice gesture.
It is disrespectful to everyone’s time. If every student did their own little salute, depending on the size of class they had, you could be there all afternoon.
Then of course you would be asked to determine what is and isn’t appropriate because someone would be offended by someone’s little end zone dance.
Best to avoid that and let everyone do their thing at the end when it’s going to be chaos anyway, which is in the agreement. Students were to celebrate at the end of the ceremony. I believe it is at the very end of the list.
It is also disrespectful to everyone who read and complied with the agreement.
Did you watch the video? Yes he did break his stride. In fact he stopped, bowed, pulled something from under his gown, blew a kiss, and then made some hand gestures.
He will still get his diploma along with everyone else, probably mailed in a week or so.
The Nazi references are totally out of place here. There are perfectly legitimate state, local, and national policies that deserve that kind of treatment. Those epithets are over the top in this instance.
This is simply a superintendent try to keep control of a large crowd of teenagers who will be prone to act stupid because the authorities can’t do anything about it afterward. Thus, ruining the event for those students and parents with the maturity to treat it with some respect.
Expecting some public decorum, while celebrating achievement, and a respectful attitude to a traditional right of passage. Who would have thought that, would make me a Nazi?
I understand your stance. I see that kind of thought process most days. After teaching, they move on to homeowner association president. It’s just their nature to control everyone around them while insisting upon adherence to “rules” with no rational basis in thought.
Of course you are entitled to your opinion, as I am mine. I find my opinion proved out every single day, unfortunately.
It’s just their nature to control everyone around them while insisting upon adherence to “rules” with no rational basis in thought.
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There are some rules Nazis out there. Some of my students would call me one on occasion. We have a saying in education. “Pick your battles”. For every rule I enforce I let two or three slide with just a small comment. Teachers that try to enforce every rule all the time don’t make it past two or three years.
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Of course you are entitled to your opinion, as I am mine. I find my opinion proved out every single day, unfortunately.
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Me too. I find people to be more rude, entitlement driven, and narcissistic everyday. Our next generation is going to get a nasty wakeup call when they start reporting for work. If they can find a job these days. I hope there is no ill will.
No ill will on my part whatsoever from you! I can’t say the same for another un-named idiot on this thread, however. I know from personal experience that there are many really GOOD teachers out there. I’ve bowed in their presence. I also know quite well that “bad” teachers are NOT removed from their pedestals of self importance almost EVER. They continue on inflicting their puffed up sense of power entitlement on decades of students. There is a reason that the educational establishment has gone into the toilet and it starts precisely with the quality of the “elites” in charge. I call it gestapo tactics...you may prefer some other nomenclature, but most people know exactly what I’m speaking about if they have had children in any of these hellholes in any recent years.
i never figured why graduating high school meant diddly...hell even a 70IQ can do it
i never even went to mine....i went to a pipeline job in Venezuela for my dad 3 days after that early summer 1975
college was different....i made that one
I graduated from BEHS. Sounds like things have gone a long way downhill in the last twenty years.
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