newly ancient

According to Joel Estes, graduation is an important, solemn occasion. There’s plenty of time for celebration before and after the ceremony. Isn’t the entire point of graduation to be a celebration of student’s achievment? If graduation isn’t a celebration of that, then what is it? Sure, it should be restrained and more elegant than the receptions after it, but as far as I know graduation is still a time to celebrate students. Well, 5 students from Galesburg, Illionous don’t have much to celebrate. They have been denied their diplomas because audience members cheered when their names were read. Is this just me, or is it punishing the students for something completely beyond their control? That’s like giving a pedestrian a ticket because they saw someone speeding. I am graduating from my school of 8 years in two weeks, and I would certainly be extremely upset if someone did this to me. In fact, I would take it into court on the basis that they are requiring 8 hours of community service for anyone who has cheers accompanying their name. One particularly pressing issue is the fact that audience members could cheer to purposefully be destructive.

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.

Nadia Trent

You better keep that crowd quite if you want your diploma. After all, graduation isn’t a time for celebration.