Students don't get diploma due to excess cheering from crowd

[AGDee]

You're asking a 17 or 18 year old to say to their parents "Sorry, but I don't trust that you'll behave yourself so I'm not giving you tickets for graduation."

I don't see that flying in most households.

[UGAalum94]

It is pretty challenging logistically, which is why I favor laying it all on the graduates and matching them by ticket to the folks in the audience.

Knowing that you could cause little Suzie to lose her diploma ought to motivate people to act right.

It's a shame that good behavior would have to be compelled in this way.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by AGDee

You're asking a 17 or 18 year old to say to their parents "Sorry, but I don't trust that you'll behave yourself so I'm not giving you tickets for graduation."

I don't see that flying in most households.

I think if the parents knew that their behavior could cost the diploma, the kid wouldn't have as much to worry about.

But yeah, if it came to that, I'd rather see the parents not go than mom or dad blast the air horn over some other kid's name.

[CutiePie2000]

Maybe the person who does the "name announcing" could pause to let the noise die down, so that the next person following could actually have their name heard by their family. The pauses would add up and take forever, but I guess you've got to do what you've got to do.

[UGAalum94]

What you are suggesting is entirely reasonable, but if people were behaving reasonably no school would have gone to this holding the diploma thing.

Have you been to a graduation, particularly a high school graduation in the last few years?

Really, the stuff you are suggesting would work if the people in attendance weren't selfish jerks, but some of them are.

I honestly believe that if they figured you would wait for them to quiet down, it would become a contest in how long they could make noise. You see, it's all about them and their kids. They don't care about you or your kids or the decorum of the event. They think they are behaving in a positive and celebratory way and that it's their right to do so.

In the linked news story there were only five graduates who had guests who did anything excessive, and this was after they publicized this policy and the kids knew what would happen. Why not let them enforce it this way and get the excessiveness down to zero?

There's always some loser who can't follow the policy and then wants to appeal for sympathy when the consequences they were told would follow a given behavior actually happen. Don't give it to them. All the sad graduates should be told to get their sympathy from Aunt Sally with the air horn.

[UGAalum94]

From the article:

"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."

There you have it folks. The only thing that's happened is that the school actually followed through.

[PM_Mama00]

My high school graduation was very.. um.. ceremonious... is that a word? It was very serious. And we were definitely warned that if we did anything to screw it up, we wouldn't get our diplomas. This included excessive cheering, tossing caps, etc. But then again, we didn't have the kind of crowd that would be hooting and hollering, and we also had a certain amount of tickets to give to family.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by PM_Mama00

My high school graduation was very.. um.. ceremonious... is that a word? It was very serious. And we were definitely warned that if we did anything to screw it up, we wouldn't get our diplomas. This included excessive cheering, tossing caps, etc. But then again, we didn't have the kind of crowd that would be hooting and hollering, and we also had a certain amount of tickets to give to family.

I'm glad to hear that not all of them have this problem. But maybe some of what you and SWTXBelle mentioned are what bothers me so much. I'm assuming that yours too might be a private school.

I really want to believe in public schools, and when things come up about how public school kids and parents can't act right, it really makes me sad in a bigger way than just air horns at graduation would bother me.

I don't want public education to only be for trashy people. But when you can't even conduct a graduation ceremony with decorum and seriousness, it makes me think that public education might really only be for the low class.

[PM_Mama00]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

I'm glad to hear that not all of them have this problem. But maybe some of what you and SWTXBelle mentioned are what bothers me so much. I'm assuming that yours too might be a private school.

I really want to believe in public schools, and when things come up about how public school kids and parents can't act right, it really makes me sad in a bigger way than just air horns at graduation would bother me.

I don't want public education to only be for trashy people. But when you can't even conduct a graduation ceremony with decorum and seriousness, it makes me think that public education might really only be for the low class.

I went to public school.

[SWTXBelle]

I think one problem is the sheer size of the graduating class - when you have 600+ students graduating, the odds are higher that you will have some parents/family/friends who don't/won't behave.

[carnation]

[QUOTE=Alphagamuga;1459684]
I honestly believe that if they figured you would wait for them to quiet down, it would become a contest in how long they could make noise. You see, it's all about them and their kids. They don't care about you or your kids or the decorum of the event. They think they are behaving in a positive and celebratory way and that it's their right to do so.[QUOTE]

Yeah! Best quote ever! And it doesn't just apply to graduations but to a lot of what parents do, especially in the school arena. Because "it's all about them and their kids"!

[KSigkid]

I think you could ask the people to leave without having the students wait for a diploma.

I think this goes a bit too far, especially for a high school graduation. With a college graduation, I can understand it a bit more.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by PM_Mama00

I went to public school.

This gives me some hope! What did your school do to get these results?

I do think the size of the class is part of the issue.

Again, I regret that I seem so negative, but I really think those of you making such reasonable suggestions really have no idea what you are dealing with as far as irrational members of the public and how they deal with school officials. I get the feeling that Carnation does, but I'm sure we both wish we didn't.

It's not a really big section of the public school enrollment, in my opinion, but they pretty much ruin it for everyone else.

Some of the folks making noise are people who even when asked to leave aren't going to go until the cops come and get them, which let's face it, ruins the ceremony for everyone else even more.

They're going to test your authority time and time again. This school is trying to set up a policy in advance and then follow through to make the graduates choose their guests more carefully and to make sure that the guests know there are consequences that will follow if they act up.

I say more power to them and I hope they don't back down. If only five groups acted that way, it seems to me that the community will support the school's effort, and I hope they do. If they stick to their guns, they will be able to set the tone they want for graduation.

As far as it not mattering because it's high school, for some kids it's as far as they will go and they deserve a nice ceremony. Besides that, it's just not how people should act, period. You don't bring cowbells and air horns to ceremonies. We don't have to culturally dumb it down for the yahoos all the time, do we?

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

Sure, I think making accepting tickets contingent on following the behavior expectations would be great. Maybe they could sign something when they picked them up.

This is what my HS did. You had to sign for your tickets. When you signed for them, you agreed to the behavior expectations and basically said that everyone you give a ticket to is going to follow them. The consequence (while not as strict as loss of diploma) was dismissal of your entire party from the ceremony.

[UGAalum94]

This is random, but I'll use an example from another thread to illustrate what I mean: right now, one person is explaining how lying to her GLO to get out of having to staying active when she wanted to go alum was what she needed to do. She admits she lied, but she details how she got around the policies of her group because it's what she wanted to do, and the group couldn't/didn't stop her.

I point that out as a particular illustration of there being some people who don't do what's right or even what they've agreed to do. They instead seem to operate with the idea that they are entitled to do whatever they can get away with.

The same type of thing happens with public behavior at graduation. Most people go along with what's expected. Other people go along because they feel like they've agreed to act a certain way based on being allowed to attend. But a few others seem to take the view that they are entitled to do whatever you can't actually stop them from doing.

So if they know the cops won't come and kick them out, they they will yell or do whatever. For these people, there always have to be a punishment or penalty that they know they will face for doing what other people would just do because it was good manners.

Rather than calling in the people to forcible remove people from the graduation ceremony, this school decided to go with a different but equally undesirable "or what?" or "who is going to make me?" consequence for the people who won't do what they were asked to do. They were going to hold the diplomas of the people they came to see graduate.

They told everyone the plan way in advance. They expected the jerks to modify their behavior as not to penalize the honoree, but the jerks didn't. Now the school just needs to follow through with what was spelled out as the consequence.

I think it's fine. Sooner or later, the jerks will stop being invited to graduation.