A Native American student did not receive her high school diploma and faces a $1,000 fine because she wore a feather during her graduation.$1000? Really? I think the school will end up paying more than that when they lose this in court. Gawd, sometimes I think there are no worse petty tyrants in the world than people in my own field.
WPMI reports 17-year-old Chelsey Ramer decided to wear the eagle feather during her May 23 graduation at an Alabama high school to honor her heritage. Ramer is a member of the Poarch Creek Band of Indians.
Although the school prohibits graduates from wearing "extraneous items" during the ceremony, Ramer says she asked the headmaster if she could wear the feather anyway. She was denied, and was told she had to sign a dress code contract to walk at graduation.
Ramer did not sign it, and wore the feather in her graduation ceremony anyway. She was denied her diploma, and now must pay a $1,000 fine to the school to receive it and her transcripts, WPMI reports.
Wednesday, June 05, 2013
Need Some Tar With That Feather?
This seems sort of stupid to me. Why is a feather any different from a bow, a ribbon, odd coloring, or anything else women do to their hair?
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That's pretty petty. Are they trying to say that she hasn't earned her diploma, doesn't deserve to be qualified to finish high school, because she wore a feather against orders? I can see that they'd be annoyed (though I can't see the harm myself, I assume they were trying to stop excessive decoration by banning all decoration), but I would consider even not letting her walk to be an overreaction. Withholding her diploma is just ridiculous.
My brother fixed up his hat to spin around. It was neat.
A $1,000 fine and no diploma? Was the feather on fire or something?
The offense here was 'lese majeste' and while I have known some excellent school administrators, I've also seen a number of low-talent petty dictators.
Where's the cultural sensitivity that educrats prate on about all the time?
Cool ... so you would also be fine with students wearing leis, or having balloons tied to their mortarboards, or taping messages to the back of their gowns at your school's graduation? I thought you were in favor of dress codes? I'll grant you, this one's petty. But at your school, they just wouldn't have been allowed on stage.
Did they ban ribbons? Bows? Odd hair colors?
You just changed the standard. Something to hold your hair back, or your hair color, is different from something that you attach to, or wear over your gown or mortar board. Had this woman just worn the feather in her hair, there probably wouldn't have been an issue. She applied to have it attached to her cap. And, while native americans are allowed to have eagle feathers, the fact that it WAS an eagle feather probably played part in the decision.
If you read the 2nd sentence of the post, you'll see that I haven't changed the standard at all. In fact, that standard was *my point* all along.
No, you're comparing apples and oranges. Something that a person wears under the gown, or uses as a grooming aid, is one standard. Something attached to, or worn over, the gown or cap is another standard. The university imposed the second standard, but not the first. Like I said ... if she hadn't attached it to her cap, but had worn it, say, behind her ear, it wouldn't have been an issue. Personally, I think the restrictions are prima facie idiotic anyway, and this highlights the stupidity of not letting students have fun at the graduation resulting from tens of thousands of dollars of their money and their hard work ...but technically, the university is correct. They'll still probably cave, though, and I'll be happy when they do.
1st off, it's a high school, not a university.
2nd, where did you read that she attached the feather to her cap and not her hair? Perhaps I missed that, or perhaps you have some reading comprehension issues.
I skimmed the article ... I thought it was Alabama U. but that only changes the money argument, not the it's their graduation argument. As to the second point, it may not have bee in the text of the article, but yahoo news posted a photo. It was hanging from her cap.
I skimmed the article ... I thought it was Alabama U. but that only changes the money argument, not the it's their graduation argument. As to the second point, it may not have bee in the text of the article, but yahoo news posted a photo. It was hanging from her cap.
So, I'm wrong on it being the university ... skimmed right over it. but go to bing, and search 'eagle feather graduation' ...plenty of pics.
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