Banned from grad for senior prank

[sparks19]

it was local .... I wish I could remember the name of the school district. but it is close to here.

According to the discussion.... the boy had never had issues at school. He was never suspended and had never had trouble with the teachers. The mother had never received any complaints from the school about her sons behaviour. so she claimed.

Also, the superintendant was reportedly berating and belitting the boy in the meeting and yelling back at the boy. I would NOT tolerate my child talking that way .... but on the other hand this person is in a position of authority and is an adult.... if he cannot show self control during a meeting with the parent and child then he has no business being in that sort of position. does that excuse the boys language? no it does not.

The meeting was set up by the mother BECAUSE the school called and told her that her son could not attend graduation for the tray incident.... this was before the language and the yelling in the meeting. so yes he was banned for the prank.

shoudl this kid be punished? of course he should. I just do not think he should be denied his graduation. He was suspended for the rest of the year..... I believe he should have to pay damages and perhaps a fine..... I also believe he should have to do some community service work for the school. I think this is plenty to teach cause and effect. Not banning him from an event that is 2 weeks after the deed. Punish him NOW for what he did. not two weeks from now.

[sparks19]

ARGH..... I am looking for the article but I apparently need to be more specific because a bunch of unrelated junk comes up everytime.

I will have to ask hubby when he gets home or tomorrow if he remembers the school district name.... that will probably help.

[Edwina's Secretary]

Gosh...I sure hope mommy and the media are there to bail him out when he uses that kind of language in the workplace. Where he most likely will be fired.

[sparks19]

Gosh...I sure hope mommy and the media are there to bail him out when he uses that kind of language in the workplace. Where he most likely will be fired.

No one excused the boys behaviour in the meeting.....

the graduation thing happened BEFORE the meeting was even set up.... and the language happened in the meeting. No it is not acceptable but it was not the cause of his being banned from grad.

[ratdogg]

People who go into education as a career generally don't try to live their life as a high school teacher or administrator. They do tend to be people who were unsuccessful in pursuing a university position (just like jr.college police are failed police officers). I'm not trying to offend people, but um...high school isn't a great achievement in the education field. There are many many MANY poor principals and superintendents. Its not far fetched to believe a human in this position would lose their self control and engage a teenager in a name calling and power trip fight.

[Ginger's Mom]

Tonya, although I could not find the incident you were talking about I did find three other articles talking about high school pranks and vandalism. And it appears that being banned from attending the graduation ceremony is a common punishment for seniors who commit acts of vandalism within a certain time period of graduation, and that the students are made aware of that beforehand. So even if the student hadn't been in trouble before he certainly knew what the punishment would be if he got caught.

[sparks19]

Tonya, although I could not find the incident you were talking about I did find three other articles talking about high school pranks and vandalism. And it appears that being banned from attending the graduation ceremony is a common punishment for seniors who commit acts of vandalism within a certain time period of graduation, and that the students are made aware of that beforehand. So even if the student hadn't been in trouble before he certainly knew what the punishment would be if he got caught.

the whole premise of the argument was that there was no specific rule stating it would be punished by no grad. that was the big argument.

[Lady's Human]

People who go into education as a career generally don't try to live their life as a high school teacher or administrator.

I beg to differ. The majority of teachers in my high school who were excellent teachers, and were exactly where they wanted to be. While I have run across teachers who had negative attitudes, their attitudes had nothing to do with having failed at being anything else. They were just miserable individuals, period.

[Lady's Human]

ES, we agree?

MEIN GOTT!

[ratdogg]

The majority of teachers in my high school who were excellent teachers, and were exactly where they wanted to be. While I have run across teachers who had negative attitudes, their attitudes had nothing to do with having failed at being anything else. They were just miserable individuals, period.

I'm talking about high school administrators....not teachers. The teachers are there to teach the kids to try and make a difference. The admins from my experience are unhappy failures.

There are many many MANY poor principals and superintendents. Its not far fetched to believe a human in this position would lose their self control and engage a teenager in a name calling and power trip fight.

[Edwina's Secretary]

Okay. So will mommy and the media be there when he gets fired for violating company policy? Pranking? Will mommy set up a meeting to talk to his boss?

People need to accept the consequence of their actions. Missing graduation does not strike me as that serious of a consequence. He can put on the cap and gown and mommy can take his photo.

I deal with these people in the workplace all the time.

He sounds to me like a Paris Hilton in training...

[K9soul]

I have a hard time having much sympathy for this boy too. I remember being in school and how wild and disrespectful some of the kids would get when they knew they were basically 'home free' and thought they could get away with some final act they would never have dared before. There is not a whole lot of repercussion a school can give at the end of the year a few days before a senior graduates. A kid would laugh at being suspended or put in detention. He wasn't punished by failing him and denying him a diploma, he just can't go to the ceremony. This boy must be about 18 and headed out into the adult world and he needs to take it seriously. Vandalism is vandalism, he messed with the school's property and legally if any lasting damage was done (even to just a lunch tray), they could have pressed charges. I'm willing to bet if the kid had shown remorse and apology and acted like an adult, things MIGHT have gone differently. Even if they hadn't, at least he would have owned up to responsibility and been the better person for it. I guess I just have little tolerance for things like that. And I don't think the school could really enforce something like community service or anything that isn't to do with the school itself. I think they did about the only repercussion that was available to them at that point. This wasn't a kid in grade school putting a frog in his teacher's desk, this was a young man about to graduate and enter adulthood.

Just how I see it.

[sparks19]

I guess I just come from a place where this would have NEVER been an issue.

in elementary school the school let us ORGANIZE a prank and the teachers also organized their own prank.

I just find it a little sad that THIS is what they are making a big deal of.

Kids are being beaten, bullied and tortured everyday in schools and half the time those parents don't even get a phone call.... they just turn a blind eye..... but a kid glues some stupid trays together and the sh*t hits the fan lol. Seems if they put this much energy into the REAL issues instead of this petty nonsense maybe something would change.

however, I am also of the frame of mind that the PARENTS should be more involved in a childs schooling. Seems there is a big void between school and parents and that, to me, is sad.

As for this boy entering adulthood.... what about this makes him unsuitable for the working force? I guess I have just been lucky to work in places where our bosses had great sense's of humor. my bosses were often the ones pulling pranks on US for April fools day etc etc.

[IRescue452]

Our high school's policy was that any senior prank would get you banned from the graduation ceremony. No exceptions. We were all reminded of this several times in our senior year.

[catnapper]

In my day (oh jeeze I sound old saying that!) NOBODY played pranks. Nobody. It wasn't even a thought. Now today, tv shows are deedicated to pranks. Websites are dedeicated to pranks... and some of them are utterly disgusting!

I really would like to find the whole story before giving my opinion