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Cheater banned from graduation; sues school
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:17 pm
by Sionnach Glic
Saw this on SDN the other day.
Admitted Cheater Sues To Attend Graduation
Judge Denies Motion
By Erin Haynes/WLKY
POSTED: 12:18 pm EDT June 5, 2009
JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. -- A Superior Court Judge has denied a Jeffersonville High School student's petition for injunction.
With graduation less than 24 hours away, Kristen Reno sued the Greater Clark County School Board, asking Judge Jerry Jacobi to grant an injunction that would have allowed her to walk in the school's graduation ceremony Saturday morning.
Reno, 18, was caught cheating. She admits the cheating was wrong but said denying her the right to walk with her class in the graduation ceremony is taking the discipline for her action too far.
Her attorney filed an emergency injunction petition in Clark Superior Court Thursday.
Reno admitted she was one of several students who had another student change their grades in the school's computer system.
Reno's credit for that course was taken away, and she was given the opportunity to retake the exam, but she chose not to do so.
She said she has still earned enough credits to graduate and should be given the right to do so.
"Without that credit, I would still be able to graduate, but with that credit, I would have a higher diploma. I'd rather have a lower diploma and get to graduate than have that credit," Reno said.
Calling the graduation ceremony a privilege, not a right, the attorney for the school board said the school handed down the least restrictive discipline possible and allowed Reno to participate in other senior activities, including the baccalaureate ceremony and senior picnic.
The student who changed the grades in the computer was expelled from the high school.
So she sues the school for not being allowed to attend (from my understanding) a completely pointless ceremony, despite admitting to cheating massively? If she'd pulled that over here her
entire test results would have been deleted as being suspect. She should consider herself lucky.
Re: Cheater banned from graduation; sues school
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:24 pm
by Tyyr
Agreed, she should be happy that they only pulled credit for the one class and are giving her a diploma at all.
Re: Cheater banned from graduation; sues school
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:33 pm
by Tsukiyumi
Yeah, f*ck that. Cheaters shouldn't prosper; nice to see one caught and punished.
Re: Cheater banned from graduation; sues school
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:38 pm
by Tyyr
Not having to go to your graduation ceremony? She got rewarded.
Re: Cheater banned from graduation; sues school
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:34 pm
by stitch626
Tyyr wrote:Not having to go to your graduation ceremony? She got rewarded.
Doesn't matter to me. When she gets a job and tries to cheat she'll either:
1) become CEO of AIG.
2) be fired.
Re: Cheater banned from graduation; sues school
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 6:58 pm
by Lazar
Tyyr wrote:Not having to go to your graduation ceremony? She got rewarded.
Lol, I gotta agree with that. At my HS, the boringness was compounded by the fact that we had a horrible sound system and a soft-spoken valedictorian, so no one could hear his speech.
Re: Cheater banned from graduation; sues school
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 7:24 pm
by Tyyr
I graduated in a class of ~550 people. I took a book.
Re: Cheater banned from graduation; sues school
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 7:29 pm
by Aaron
We had 60ish people in mine, I don't remember much beyond the Valedictorian having a nice rack.
But suing the school...clever. Hope she doesn't want to go further.
Re: Cheater banned from graduation; sues school
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 7:55 pm
by Tyyr
Hopefully the judge has some common sense, but even that seems to be waning on the judiciary.
Re: Cheater banned from graduation; sues school
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 8:26 pm
by Nickswitz
I would miss mine if I didn't get to go to it. Our valedictorian is awesome. His speech will probably be the longest and most interesting one I will ever hear... No kidding.
Re: Cheater banned from graduation; sues school
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 8:37 pm
by Aaron
Nickswitz wrote:I would miss mine if I didn't get to go to it. Our valedictorian is awesome. His speech will probably be the longest and most interesting one I will ever hear... No kidding.
Yeah, you think so now. To me HS is a distant, pointless memory. Should have just enlisted in grade 10 like I originally planned...
Anyways, my pointless rambling aside; HS and grad seems awesome and the pinnacle of a students life until your out in the real world and discover how much of that was BS.
Re: Cheater banned from graduation; sues school
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 8:56 pm
by Sionnach Glic
Interestingly, we don't have graduations over here. Nor, as far as I'm aware, do any other European countries. It seems to be a purely North American thing.
Re: Cheater banned from graduation; sues school
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:02 pm
by Tyyr
Learn something new every day. Sadly it's getting out of hand over here with all kinds of graduations starting to crop up. From elementary to middle school, from middle school to high school, etc. It's the parents getting a chance to jerk themselves off at their kids expense.
Re: Cheater banned from graduation; sues school
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:24 pm
by Sionnach Glic
What exactly goes on at a graduation? All I know about them is what I've seen on various films, etc. From what I can tell, it consists of being called up in turn and being handed a form of some kind. Correct?
Re: Cheater banned from graduation; sues school
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:32 pm
by Lazar
Rochey wrote:What exactly goes on at a graduation? All I know about them is what I've seen on various films, etc. From what I can tell, it consists of being called up in turn and being handed a form of some kind. Correct?
Pretty much. It will typically start out with speeches by the principal/headmaster and valedictorian, and then the students (dressed in caps and gowns) are called up by name to receive their diplomas. And they
always, always, always play Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance" (i.e. "Land of Hope and Glory") while this is going on, so most Americans will probably just know that as "the graduation music". And then, traditionally, the students will all toss their hats in the air at the end, although my HS expressly told them not to do that.
College/university graduation ceremonies are pretty much the same, except they'll typically try to get a famous or noteworthy person to do a commencement speech.