Unbelievable!
The principal at Bonny Eagle High School, obviously not the sentimental type, sent a student back to his seat when he walked on the stage to receive his diploma.
Why was the student disciplined and denied his diploma after four hard years of rigorous academic work in high school? He blew a kiss to his family from the platform and was therefore chastised for bad behavior.
This type of heavy handed and overbearing use of authority given by high school principals happens more than you think. At the high school where I taught last year as an ESOL teacher (English teacher for international students), our military like principal (a female with a domineering personality) threatened to call police minutes before the graduation if she saw students wearing any sunglasses on the platform when receiving their diplomas.
While I understand we want to preserve the dignity of a graduation ceremony, threatening students with being arrested by police for wearing sunglasses and celebrating THEIR graduation is a bit overboard and uncalled for.
Domineering principals that take joy in threatening, belittling, and abusing students should not be allowed in our public schools funded by hard working tax payers' dollars. Parents need to be in the know concerning the goings on at the schools their children attend.
Parents be alert. Ask questions. Attend parent teacher association meetings. Ask your children questions about how teachers and principals enforce class rules, disciplinary procedures, and punish unruly students.
Probe and take a deeper look before you assume everything is all right. Being a principal or teacher is no easy job, but the difficulty of the occupation isn't sufficient reason for those in authority within education to rule with a harsh overbearing and heavy hand.
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