Carrollton Bans Senior from walking at Graduation for helping his sick mother

• hoops23

  

  Obviously there needs to be special circumstances, such as this instance. There are not that many cases in each school that would result in special treatment such as this one.
  
  You can easily differentiate each individual case. As others said, it wouldn't really be that big of a deal, especially with all the staff that high schools employ nowadays.
  
  Hell, my high school of ~1,300 kids had 1 principal, 3 guidance counselors and 4 assistant principals who were all assigned students based on their beginning initial of their last name. That's not counting the secretaries, assistants, etc..
• queencitybuckeye

  I Wear Pants;1145529 wrote:"Rules are rules" and "zero tolerance" are code for "we are too lazy and stupid to actually think about the proper response to individual cases and situations".

  Reps.
• justincredible

  

  Steel Valley Football;1145643 wrote:Ok, so they'd need a list of this diseases. What if a case where a disease they hadn't thought of comes up?
  
  What about an auto accident where there the mom became paralyzed and needed help to eat? Would that apply also? If so, what if the auto accident was a result of the mom doing drugs and she killed someone else in another car?
  
  Hopefully, you see where I'm going w this. There are too many variables so they have a general rule in place and they work from there. Which is exactly what happened in this case. But, instead of thinking it through, people just immediately throw dumb comments around about how dumb and lazy the school ADs are.

  If I could post a fart noise I would.
  
  High school's aren't prisons. Their purpose isn't to drown kids with rules and make their high school experience crap because them. Special circumstances do come up. Hopefully, you see where I'm going w this.
• justincredible

  

  My wife work for a high school. I think that's enough to make me an expert in this, btw.
• Apple

  

  brutus161;1145422 wrote:They reversed the decision. He can walk.

  Front page of the Canton Rep today: "FISH WALKS!"
  
  It looks like the school made the right decision.
• justincredible

  

  Apple;1145740 wrote:Front page of the Canton Rep today: "FISH WALKS!"
  
  It looks like the school made the right decision.

  Not according to the rules. Because the rules are the most important thing.
• I Wear Pants

  justincredible;1145746 wrote:Not according to the rules. Because the rules are the most important thing.

  I'm going to reveal SVF's real name.
  
  His name is clearly Emmanuel Kant.
  
  What with his attitude towards rules and authority it is obvious.
• justincredible

  

  The funny thing is I've met him and he's a cool guy and doesn't at all seem like a guy that would be such a stickler for the rules.
• Steel Valley Football

  I Wear Pants;1145655 wrote:They don't need a list of diseases. Not everything needs to be a hyper controlled bureaucratic cluster****.*
  
  That's the laziness I'm talking about. Wanting to have a reaction and reprimand and solution to every possible situation already thought out is impossible and so your solution is to just make blanket policies. That's what our school boards do now and it blows. Sure if they react on a situation by situation basis they may occasionally run into a snafu but it's simply the right thing to do.*
  
  A great example would be with fights. Most schools today have zero tolerance policies wherein if you are in a fight you are suspended no matter the circumstances. Not exactly fair for someone who gets attacked and doesn't retaliate or only retaliates enough to get separation or to settle the situation. Blanket policies don't serve that person justly.*
  
  Just as blanket policies on things like excused absences don't justly apply to students who are caring for their terminally ill parents.
  
  And the school administration is dumb and lazy. If they weren't they would have ****ing known about the kid's situation or talked to him when he came close to/went over the allowed days missed and they would have came to the conclusion (if they had a brain or heart) that the kid deserved to walk (assuming his grades are in line with graduation requirements).

  
  Your last paragraph tells me all I need to know. *Its not the school's responsibility to make sure every gradation requirement of this student is in order. *That onus falls on the student. *The school board did exactly what it was supposed to do in this case.
  
  The rest of your post is wishful ideology at best. *It' a school system, not a court system. *A student is either in class or not in class; either fighting or not fighting, etc and students who follow that setup are allowed to graduate. Special circumstances are handled separately, costing additional time and money. That's the current system. If voters want to implement and pay for a different setup then so be it. Any family who doesn't like it has the option to use a parochial or charter school.
• Steel Valley Football

  justincredible;1145734 wrote:If I could post a fart noise I would.
  
  High school's aren't prisons. Their purpose isn't to drown kids with rules and make their high school experience crap because them. Special circumstances do come up. Hopefully, you see where I'm going w this.

  Their purpose is to educate students. That's it. Rules are needed to do that. A special circumstance did come up and it was handled. That doesn't mean the rule is now out the window. It's the best system unde the current setup. What you seem to want just won't work. Not as the schools are funded now. You're talking about a logistics nightmare.
• Steel Valley Football

  justincredible;1145734 wrote:If I could post a fart noise I would.

  
  Each and every website I post on has fart noise capability. The OC is bush league.
• Steel Valley Football

  Not sure why those asterisks are coming up again. I didn't type any of them.
• justincredible

  

  Steel Valley Football;1145813 wrote:Their purpose is to educate students. That's it. Rules are needed to do that. A special circumstance did come up and it was handled. That doesn't mean the rule is now out the window. It's the best system unde the current setup. What you seem to want just won't work. Not as the schools are funded now. You're talking about a logistics nightmare.

  Exactly. The school realized it was a mistake to keep the kid from walking due to his special circumstances and bent the rules​. WTF do you think we've been arguing about here?
• thavoice

  Pick6;1145425 wrote:I dont buy the fact that all of his unexcused absences are from taking care of his mother. Kids skip school for being "sick" all of the time. I'd be willing to bet that the kid could have taken proper steps to getting his absences excused. When I was in high school (graduated in 09) a hand written note from your parents (no matter the excuse) was good enough to get excused.

  I agree with ya. Seems a bit shady and I am betting that a number of his days werent used for that.
• Steel Valley Football

  justincredible;1145819 wrote:Exactly. The school realized it was a mistake to keep the kid from walking due to his special circumstances and bent the rules​. WTF do you think we've been arguing about here?

  I didn't see you argue much for anything. It was mostly sarcasm and light-hearted insults. I did see IWP argue against have an attendance or fighting rule in place at all. I saw you suggest that schools need to make students' experience more enjoyable. I'm not getting on board that train though.
• justincredible

  

  Steel Valley Football;1145827 wrote:I didn't see you argue much for anything. It was mostly sarcasm and light-hearted insults. I did see IWP argue against have an attendance or fighting rule in place at all. I saw you suggest that schools need to make students' experience more enjoyable. I'm not getting on board that train though.

  Keeping with the light-hearted insults theme, I guess:
  
  
• Steel Valley Football

  Make sense Justin. I've met you, as well, and you don't seem like a dumb guy at all.
• Steel Valley Football

  So, Justin, what if what thavoice suggested is true? Should there be a checks and balance system in place? Or should the schools just take every student's claim at face value?
  
  Since you obviously DIDN'T see where I was going w that.
• justincredible

  

  Steel Valley Football;1145831 wrote:Make sense Justin. I've met you, as well, and you don't seem like a dumb guy at all.

  I'm not sure what is so hard to understand about my point of view. Special circumstances happen that require schools to look at individual cases instead of just applying a general, arbitrary rule. It's high school, it isn't serious business. And it appears Carrollton finally realized this and made the right decision.
• justincredible

  

  Steel Valley Football;1145832 wrote:So, Justin, what if what thavoice suggested is true? Should there be a checks and balance system in place? Or should the schools just take every student's claim at face value?
  
  Since you obviously DIDN'T see where I was going w that.

  Case by case. Obviously they felt this kid had a legit case and reversed it. Perhaps they might not have reversed it if he had 26 unexcused absences instead of 16. He was only two over the limit.
• thavoice

  If he really was missing school to take care of his mother then why wouldnt he, or his mother, have contacted the school to discuss the situation? As a mother she should have insisted on having someone else take her at times and have her son go and attend school. When my mom went through her two bouts of breast cancer she wouldnt allow us kids to skip HS class, a college class, or work to take her. There were times that we did, we could schedule a day off at work, or my sister would get her assignments from the school the day before she took her to an appointment so she wouldnt miss out.
  It goes back to how important, or unimportant, school and education is to a family. I am seeing it first hand in my situation. I always grew up where attending class was mandatory and my parents took a very tough stance on not going, and now I have my wife who doesnt take an education seriously and allows her daughter to skip out on school very frequently for a myriad of reasons. If a parent doesnt take a stance for their kid to go to school and take it seriously then more times than not education wont be important to the kid.
  
  WHo knows, he may get very good grades. He may do good work, but attendance is also important.
  
  
  There is no reason why the mother should not have contacted the school and met with them about the situation. None whatsoever.
• Apple

  

  I think the main reason they changed the rule and let him walk was because of the social media outcry and trying to CYA after it went viral on Yahoo News.
• FatHobbit

  

  thavoice;1145841 wrote:WHo knows, he may get very good grades. He may do good work, but attendance is also important.

  Meh, if he does the work and gets good grades I don't give a crap if he went to class.
• Steel Valley Football

  justincredible;1145839 wrote:I'm not sure what is so hard to understand about my point of view. Special circumstances happen that require schools to look at individual cases instead of just applying a general, arbitrary rule. It's high school, it isn't serious business. And it appears Carrollton finally realized this and made the right decision.

  
  It isn't hard to understand. It's simply hard to implement for the school, which is why the rule system is in place as it is. It deters every student from wanting their special case reviewed.
  
  We also differ on the basics here. Students need rules and structure. They don't need a school system saying "do what you want then we'll review your situation and see if you're case is special".
• justincredible

  

  Steel Valley Football;1145871 wrote:It isn't hard to understand. It's simply hard to implement for the school, which is why the rule system is in place as it is. It deters every student from wanting their special case reviewed.
  
  We also differ on the basics here. Students need rules and structure. They don't need a school system saying "do what you want then we'll review your situation and see if you're case is special".

  
  If he was missing school for shits and giggles the rule would apply. It isn't about doing what you want.