The student eagerly rises from his seat, anticipating his turn to walk across the stage to shake the hand of his principal for the past four years, then to feel the smooth paper of his diploma settle into his hand--the piece of paper that declares he has struggled and succeeded through four years of high school madness. He wears a huge grin on his face, eager yet patiently waiting for his name to be called--and then he hears it. His name is called, and you can hear it reverberate through the auditorium as he proudly and confidently strides toward the principal to receive his certificate. But the reverberations of his name are swallowed by his equally excited family and friends, and along with the reverberations go his diploma.
How depressing.
Can you imagine what that student felt? The feeling of his heart dropping into the pits of his stomach, the feeling of rejection, the knowledge of a diploma denied.
It's understandable that adminstrators would want to keep this ceremony quiet enough for parents to hear the names of their children called out. But what is worth more: the sound of the student's name being called as a declaration of his success, or the tangible evidence of said success in the form of a diploma? Really now...can't we all just be happy for each other? Their children all struggled through four years of the same high school--let them all rejoice collectively, as the one body that they truly represent.
Another student who was denied a diploma, Nadia Trent, said: “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.”
Good point. What if those cheering had malicious intents at heart? No good, no good.
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