A Philadelphia highschool graduate is condemning her faculty principal’s resolution to withhold her diploma simply moments after she danced on stage throughout her commencement ceremony.
Hafsah Abdur-Rahman spoke to native information outlet WPVI about what performed out throughout her commencement from The Philadelphia Excessive College for Ladies on June 9.
Because the 17-year-old started strolling on stage after her identify was referred to as, video footage captured her doing a dance referred to as ‘The Griddy,’ inducing laughter from the group. When she lastly approached the principal, the principal directed Abdur-Rahman to stroll again to her seat whereas dropping her diploma right into a basket.
Abdur-Rahman did obtain her diploma off-stage, however in an interview with WPVI, she mentioned that the principal ruined the second utterly.
“She was like, ‘You’re not getting your diploma since you made the group chuckle.’ She stole that second from me,” mentioned Abdur-Rahman. “I’ll by no means get that once more. It was simply embarrassing. She didn’t have to try this.”
{The teenager} mentioned that second was spoiled past the principal’s instant refusal at hand her the diploma. Abdur-Rahman selected to bounce and have a good time to honor her sister who was killed at 14 and couldn’t expertise this milestone for herself.
Three different college students have been denied their diplomas through the ceremony for doing related celebratory dances, however they acquired them later.
The principal warned college students that their households couldn’t cheer or clap after they walked on stage, based on Abdur-Rahman. Nonetheless, Abdur-Rahman mentioned she felt it was unjustified to be penalized.
“I didn’t really feel like I broke any of the principles as a result of she didn’t say this previous to the commencement that you could’t do that strolling throughout the stage,” Abdur-Rahman mentioned. “She simply mentioned our households can not cheer for us. And my household didn’t cheer.”
The response on-line overwhelmingly has favored Abdur-Rahman’s tackle the incident, with many saying that the penalty was pointless and policed her for merely celebrating her achievement.
“They’ll’t simply let children be children anymore ?” one individual posted on Twitter.
One other person wrote, “Why have graduations turn into this soulless stroll on stage? Why have the commencement within the first place? Should you’re going to police households’ cheering at a celebratory perform then simply mail them a .pdf on the finish of the 12 months.”
“Each commencement season, faculties do this sort of nonsense. The necessity to police the conduct of Black and Brown folks is really compulsive,” one other individual commented in response to the story.
Abdur-Rahman mentioned the assistant principal reached out to her and her household to apologize.
The teenager’s mom, Jazmine Reid, defended her daughter’s actions, and demanded the college change its techniques and insurance policies to make sure incidents like these don’t occur sooner or later.
“It’s 2023, rather a lot has occurred. These women went by means of COVID collectively. Our youngsters are usually not even residing as much as see highschool,” Reid mentioned in an interview with WPVI. “I perceive traditions and guidelines are set in place for a cause, and we’re not saying they need to be damaged, nevertheless it would possibly have to be revised additionally.”
In response to the incident, the Philadelphia College District launched an announcement, saying, “The District doesn’t condone the withholding of earned diplomas based mostly on members of the family cheering for his or her graduates. We apologize to all of the households and graduates who have been impacted and are additional wanting into this matter to keep away from it occurring sooner or later.
