angelicminx
Loving the monkey!
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2005
- Posts
- 3,490
http://www.cnn.com/video/player/pla...2007/06/05/wheller.il.yelling.no.diploma.whoi
Illinois Students Lose Diplomas Over Cheers
By JAN DENNIS
AP
GALESBURG, Illinois (June 2) - Caisha Gayles graduated with honors last month, but she is still waiting for her diploma. The reason: the whoops of joy from the audience as she crossed the stage.
Gayles was one of five students denied diplomas from the lone public high school in Galesburg after enthusiastic friends or family members cheered for them during commencement.
About a month before the May 27 ceremony, Galesburg High students and their parents had to sign a contract promising to act in dignified way. Violators were warned they could be denied their diplomas and barred from the after-graduation party.
Many schools across the country ask spectators to hold applause and cheers until the end of graduation. But few of them enforce the policy with what some in Galesburg say are strong-arm tactics.
In Galesburg, the issue has taken on added controversy with accusations that the students were targeted because of their race: four are black and one is Hispanic. Parents say cheers also erupted for white students, and none of them was denied a diploma.
"It was like one of the worst days of my life," said Gayles, who had a 3.4 grade-point average and officially graduated, but does not have the keepsake diploma to hang on her wall. "You walk across the stage and then you can't get your diploma because of other people cheering for you. It was devastating, actually."
School officials in Galesburg, a working-class town of 34,000 that is still reeling from the 2004 shutdown of a 1,600-employee refrigerator factory, said the get-tough policy followed a 2005 commencement where hoots, hollers and even air horns drowned out much of the ceremony and nearly touched off fights in the audience when the unruly were asked to quiet down.
"Lots of parents complained that they could not hear their own child's name called," said Joel Estes, Galesburg's assistant superintendent. "And I think that led us to saying we have to do something about this to restore some dignity and honor to the ceremony so that everyone can appreciate it and enjoy it."
In Indianapolis, public school officials this year started kicking out parents and relatives who cheer. At one school, the superintendent interrupted last month's graduation to order police to remove a woman from the gymnasium.
"It's an important, solemn occasion. There's plenty of time for celebration before and after," said Clarke Campbell, president of the Indianapolis school board.
Principal Tom Chiles said administrators who monitored the more than 2,000-seat auditorium reported only disruptions they considered "significant," and all turned in the same five names.
"Race had absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever," Chiles said. "It is the amount of disruption at the time of the incident."
School officials said they will hear students and parents out if they appeal. Meanwhile, the school said the five students can still get their diplomas by completing eight hours of public service work, answering phones, sorting books or doing other chores for the district, situated about 150 miles southwest of Chicago.
Gayles' mother said she plans to fight the school board - in court if necessary - to get her daughter's diploma. The noise "was like three seconds. It was like, `Yay,' and that was it," Carolyn Gayles said.
American Civil Liberties Union spokesman Edward Yohnka said Galesburg's policy raises no red flags as long as it is enforced equitably. "It's probably well within the school's ability to control the decorum at an event like this," he said.
Another student who was denied her diploma, Nadia Trent, said she will probably let the school keep it if her appeals fail.
"It's not fair. Somebody could not like me and just decide to yell to get me in trouble. I can't control everyone, just the ones I gave tickets to," Trent said.
http://news.aol.com/topnews/article...r/20070601155509990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
Okay, I've read accounts of things being thrown, air horns being used, silly string, things like that, and I agree with them not being appropriate, but CHEERING? C'mon!
The argument seems to be that the audience can't hear the next name. Duh! Don't say the next name until the cheering subsides. Haven't teachers at this point perfected the 'hold your hand up to get silence' technique?
I remember my high school graduation and I remember thinking, "Could ya slow down just a bit?" I enjoyed the cheers given to my fellow students, and cheered for a lot of them myself. A couple of seconds of cheering doesn't hurt anyone, build it into the length of the ceremony. Cut the speech given by the principal or whichever NON-STUDENT is speaking. (Y'all know the one I'm talking about. The one that drones on and on. The one that makes you want to shoot yourself, if only to make them stop speaking.)
I understand that not all students are going to get cheers. At that stage in life I really don't think it's going to cause self-esteem issues. I think they'd be pretty well established by then.
Maybe I'm just way off base here, but that's the way I feel about it. Oh, and before anyone mentions it, yes I know they signed an agreement and were aware of what could happen. IMO that still doesn't make the policy right.
Illinois Students Lose Diplomas Over Cheers
By JAN DENNIS
AP
GALESBURG, Illinois (June 2) - Caisha Gayles graduated with honors last month, but she is still waiting for her diploma. The reason: the whoops of joy from the audience as she crossed the stage.
Gayles was one of five students denied diplomas from the lone public high school in Galesburg after enthusiastic friends or family members cheered for them during commencement.
About a month before the May 27 ceremony, Galesburg High students and their parents had to sign a contract promising to act in dignified way. Violators were warned they could be denied their diplomas and barred from the after-graduation party.
Many schools across the country ask spectators to hold applause and cheers until the end of graduation. But few of them enforce the policy with what some in Galesburg say are strong-arm tactics.
In Galesburg, the issue has taken on added controversy with accusations that the students were targeted because of their race: four are black and one is Hispanic. Parents say cheers also erupted for white students, and none of them was denied a diploma.
"It was like one of the worst days of my life," said Gayles, who had a 3.4 grade-point average and officially graduated, but does not have the keepsake diploma to hang on her wall. "You walk across the stage and then you can't get your diploma because of other people cheering for you. It was devastating, actually."
School officials in Galesburg, a working-class town of 34,000 that is still reeling from the 2004 shutdown of a 1,600-employee refrigerator factory, said the get-tough policy followed a 2005 commencement where hoots, hollers and even air horns drowned out much of the ceremony and nearly touched off fights in the audience when the unruly were asked to quiet down.
"Lots of parents complained that they could not hear their own child's name called," said Joel Estes, Galesburg's assistant superintendent. "And I think that led us to saying we have to do something about this to restore some dignity and honor to the ceremony so that everyone can appreciate it and enjoy it."
In Indianapolis, public school officials this year started kicking out parents and relatives who cheer. At one school, the superintendent interrupted last month's graduation to order police to remove a woman from the gymnasium.
"It's an important, solemn occasion. There's plenty of time for celebration before and after," said Clarke Campbell, president of the Indianapolis school board.
Principal Tom Chiles said administrators who monitored the more than 2,000-seat auditorium reported only disruptions they considered "significant," and all turned in the same five names.
"Race had absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever," Chiles said. "It is the amount of disruption at the time of the incident."
School officials said they will hear students and parents out if they appeal. Meanwhile, the school said the five students can still get their diplomas by completing eight hours of public service work, answering phones, sorting books or doing other chores for the district, situated about 150 miles southwest of Chicago.
Gayles' mother said she plans to fight the school board - in court if necessary - to get her daughter's diploma. The noise "was like three seconds. It was like, `Yay,' and that was it," Carolyn Gayles said.
American Civil Liberties Union spokesman Edward Yohnka said Galesburg's policy raises no red flags as long as it is enforced equitably. "It's probably well within the school's ability to control the decorum at an event like this," he said.
Another student who was denied her diploma, Nadia Trent, said she will probably let the school keep it if her appeals fail.
"It's not fair. Somebody could not like me and just decide to yell to get me in trouble. I can't control everyone, just the ones I gave tickets to," Trent said.
http://news.aol.com/topnews/article...r/20070601155509990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
Okay, I've read accounts of things being thrown, air horns being used, silly string, things like that, and I agree with them not being appropriate, but CHEERING? C'mon!
The argument seems to be that the audience can't hear the next name. Duh! Don't say the next name until the cheering subsides. Haven't teachers at this point perfected the 'hold your hand up to get silence' technique?
I remember my high school graduation and I remember thinking, "Could ya slow down just a bit?" I enjoyed the cheers given to my fellow students, and cheered for a lot of them myself. A couple of seconds of cheering doesn't hurt anyone, build it into the length of the ceremony. Cut the speech given by the principal or whichever NON-STUDENT is speaking. (Y'all know the one I'm talking about. The one that drones on and on. The one that makes you want to shoot yourself, if only to make them stop speaking.)
I understand that not all students are going to get cheers. At that stage in life I really don't think it's going to cause self-esteem issues. I think they'd be pretty well established by then.
Maybe I'm just way off base here, but that's the way I feel about it. Oh, and before anyone mentions it, yes I know they signed an agreement and were aware of what could happen. IMO that still doesn't make the policy right.
.
