School System Won't Let Senior Walk On Graduation Day Because Of Her Piercings

[matcom]

<snip>

PORTLAND, Tenn. -- A senior at Portland High School won’t be able to get her diploma at graduation.

Samantha Elliot said she is not being allowed to walk across the stage because of her face piercings.

Graduation is set for Friday, May 18, but Elliot will not be walking because of a dress code violation.

“I don’t think it’s right. I just want to walk with my class. I mean, I’ve worked for this, and I think I deserve it,” she said.

The dress code states that piercings aren’t allowed.

“From the time she was five, a mother looks forward to this day,” said Samantha Elliot’s mother Pamela Elliot.

She said there is a double standard because she has seen other students with piercings and that Samantha had her piercings all year, and nothing has been said.

“Why didn’t you tell me this five months ago? I would have taken her and had these things taken out,” Pamela Elliot said.

“Walking the line at graduation is a privilege, it’s not a right,” said Sumner County Schools Spokesman Steve Doremus.

He said the system won’t budge.

http://www.wsmv.com/news/13342271/detail.html

[Mad_Dem_X]

1. That is so messed up!!!

The damn things can be taken out!!! It is not a federal case. The school should lighten the hell up!!!


ETA: From Ms_Dem_Meanor

[bbernardini]

2. While I think the school's policy is a bit much...

...can't she just take them out for a little bit? Your piercings do not define you, dear. Take the damn things out, get the piece of paper, then put them back in and go about your life. In the long run, nobody's going to give a crap.

[kay1864]

6. From the story:

"Samantha Elliot’s piercings are surgically implanted and are not easy to take out, she said."

[DS1]

3. Well if she was aiming for her ears, I'd say they had a point

:rofl:

[LoZoccolo]

4. Looks like that high school has a web site!

http://phs.sumnerschools.org

[Gormy Cuss]

5. Graduation's today. I wonder how long ago the school told her this.

If it only came up this week, the school officials are being jackasses because she can't simply twist them out like an earring. The mother has a point about letting her attend all year with visible piercings. If it's a dress code violation someone at some point during the year should have initiated a disciplinary action.

I wonder what the back story is.

[Shell Beau]

7. What in the hell does that have to do with her education?

[crim son]

8. Samantha Elliot learns something even as she graduates.

It's ridiculous, that's what it is.

[masshole]

9. Those small round band-aids

place over piercings, as soon as Herr Principal hands over the diploma, OFF with the band-aids. "Walking the line is a privledge" my ass, it's a public school.




*sp

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. Fuckin' oppressive assholes. Sadly, I bet the administration are all Christians

who think piercings are somehow "evil" or some other goddamned bullshit.

Jackasses.

[ghostsofgiants]

11. Haha...

[ghostsofgiants]

12. That is fucking ridiculous.

[CC]

13. When did graduation become something for the

schools instead of for the students that worked for it? I am sick of schools everywhere acting as though graduation is for them to show off instead of for the students and their parents. Sorry but the best thing that could happen at one of these schools that use the "privilege" of walking to get their diploma as a cudgel is for no one to show up at all. The students that qualify for a diploma should get to walk. Most trouble makers etc. don't stick around to graduate or don't qualify.
Someone needs to tell her and mom to get a copy of ALL her school records including every note with her name mentioned, then get a lawyer.