This Week’s Top Scrooge – June 7, 2007
By ALEXANDER
TheScroogeReport.com
Kids will be kids and this time of year, graduation ceremonies will be…well, graduation ceremonies.
Full of tears, anticipation, silliness, some pomp and circumstance, and yes, a few outbursts of obnoxious cheers. All part of the graduation game…but apparently not at Galesburg High School in Illinois.
Five students were initially denied diplomas after cheers erupted when their names were called at the grad ceremony and emerged empty-handed Tuesday from a meeting with school administrators.
The students and their families met briefly with Galesburg High School officials at an administration building, but they were again denied the diplomas because no one apologized to school officials for the cheers at the May 27 ceremony.
Just yesterday, Galesburg High School officials reversed their decision and said they would review a get-tough decorum policy.
The diplomas were withheld because the school said cheering violated a school policy aimed at restoring graduation decorum. The students still were considered graduates on paper, but they didn’t have a diploma.
Initially officials had said they would not hand over the keepsake diplomas unless they received apologies. But the stalemate over the diplomas and the media attention (by now that must mean blogging as well) it attracted have taken valuable time and energy, they said.
“It is time for the good of the community, the school district, the families and the students involved to move on,” Superintendent Gene Denisar said in a written statement.
Nyeaaaaaaaa-aaaaaah! (buzzer sound)
Not good enough! You, yes you…school officials at Galesburg High receive the This Week’s Top Scrooge award.
Reports are that there were no apologies to the students, who were unreasonably tagged for their friends’ and families’ actions and that the diplomas were unceremoniously given by a school staffer…not the principal.
I’m all for decorum…but rules that include stupid punishments don’t sit well with me. And rules that attempt to squelch random acts of silliness are even more ridiculous.
Earlier this week, I called the high school officials “Diploma Nazis” in reference to the soup vendor in Seinfeld who dropped the line “No soup for you!” on a frequent whim, thus being known as the “Soup Nazi”.
Today, I’m calling the principal and his gang: This Week’s Top Scrooge(s).
Besides, it fits with this column’s premise.
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Past Scrooges:
Can Hugo Chavez go down on YouTube, blogs?
Sex, drugs and the ol’ ‘You’re going to do it anyway’ excuse
A nation traumatized by Paris Hilton
Fleeing to the satellite waves, radio jocks Opie and Anthony reach even lower
Parents’ child abuse includes dog cage, shock collar
Alec Baldwin tries cleaning pigsty with “Apology Tour 2007”
This week: no point in poking fun at boneheads and blunders
Knuckle-headed Dom Imus and Nebraska woman tie for top dishoner
Woman’s home up for grabs as part of online hoax
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i live in that town and everyone here agrees with the decisions they originally made. what you failed to mention is at the beginning of their senior year the students and their parents had to sign a contract, do it again a month before the ceremony and then two weeks before the ceremony. and you may say it was other people besides their parents, but it was not because they only get two tickets because of limited seating in the auditorium.
^ thank you for your insight!