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What small business owner here doesn't have rules that you expect your employees to follow? Rules that your help probably find "arbitrary". How many here really want an employee that disregards the rules because he/she doesn't think they're a priority? Who here really wants to have an employee that doesn't value your arbitrary rules?

I think the opinion here for many is impacted by their dislike for public schools.

And what small business person here tells the IRS that their rules are "arbitrary" and not a priority.

No system is perfect anywhere. But ignoring it's rules has it's own consequences. That's the way life works. Hers in this case is that she went to school 18 years and didn't get a diploma. Maybe that isn't important to her. If it isn't then what are they complaining about????

You seem to have ignored the fact that she started high school under one set of rules that were changed on her midway because of a transfer. You picture her as someone who simply ignores rules that are inconvenient to her. I'm saying that this conclusion can only be supported if you ignore one of the most important parts of the evidence, namely, that she built a plan based on a different set of rules. Should her family have found a way to keep her in her original school district so that she could follow the original plan? Maybe so, maybe it wasn't possible. Should they have checked all of the requirements at the new school immediately after the transfer. They probably should have, but I can understand the assumption that a good policy followed widely in the system will be followed by the new school. My big problem with your post is your making negative assumptions about this young lady without having good evidence.

I'm very aware of the fact that companies have arbitrary rules. I'm also aware that many of these rules are wrong and that they should be changed whenever better policies can be formulated. I love nothing more than seeing a company lose good employees because those employees move to companies that treat their employees better. Every time we change a bad rule, we make the country better. Every time a company fails because it couldn't keep good employees, the business world gets better.

Where I work, they tried to hand down a new program last spring. The program was going to cost millions of dollars to execute, but the premises on which it was built were faulty. Occasionally, it would do good, but in many other cases, we would spend a great deal of money for no return. We would also be ignoring some places where we needed to spend money, and those omissions could have led to problems. I started sending complaints up the line. My boss realized that I was right and supported the idea of making change. I presented my thoughts at a meeting of folks from our worldwide technical community. Others agreed, and we started making changes. Some people are still resisting, but I think we have the momentum to create a better program. I'm sure that some of those originators see me as you see this young lady. They see a guy who just refuses to follow proper orders. I sleep better at night knowing that I did the right thing. My company will be more profitable because I'm making the program better.

If your company needs people who don't think but who just follow rules, then you clearly don't need people like this young lady. If your company needs people who can challenge a bad idea and work to find a better one, it needs more like her. Clearly, she and her family thought through the situation. They checked with her college and made sure that the college was okay with her not having a diploma. They thought. They evaluated. They made a plan. I think our country is dying for lack of people willing to do this.

You can't seriously be arguing that something could be right because that's the way the IRS does it. The IRS is an example of much of what's wrong with this country. Crushing that kind of wrong and arbitrary exercise of government power is a good thing, not a bad thing. The IRS constantly violates the principles of the 5th Amendment to our Constitution. I can't believe any real conservative would support it.

Getting a diploma was important, and the family has a right to complain about things that are wrong. That's why we have a First Amendment. When things are wrong, we criticize. We hope that constructive criticism will lead to changes for the better. In this case, the family decided that the biology class was more important than the diploma. They made a hard decision forced on them by bad policy. They are accepting the consequences but exercising their First Amendment right to criticize a foolish policy.

Bill

No system is perfect anywhere. But ignoring it's rules has it's own consequences. That's the way life works. Hers in this case is that she went to school 18 years and didn't get a diploma.

If you read the Bible as "carefully" as you read this news story, I'm glad I am not under your Deaconate.

She MET the requirements to graduate, where she was previously attending; then she transferred to a new school.

THAT school AGREED she met the requirements by not requiring the BEST class when they gave her her Fall schedule last Spring.

AFTER Fall classes started, they discovered THEIR error, and tried to stick it to her.

BOTH schools are in the same city, so she had a reasonable expectation that the requirements would be the same.

When I was in high school, decades ago, ALL public schools in the entire STATE had uniform minimum graduation requirements, which prevented this kind of fiasco.

Who here really wants to have an employee that doesn't value your arbitrary rules?

How many hire a person under one set of 'arbitrary rules' then arbitrarily change them, thus disqualifying the new hire, before they even start work?