It’s a special time for millions of high school seniors: they’re graduating. Most are heading off to college, but the 12th grade signals the end of their formal education. Yet, in Philadelphia, which has recently become the epicenter of disaster, one school refused to hand out diplomas to two girls because audience members either clapped or laughed at their procession to the podium. I’m not kidding.
Those are the rules for graduation at the Philadelphia High School for Girls. There’s a 175-year protocol where everyone must remain silent lest you risk humiliation from the principal, who will refuse to hand you your diploma. Two students, Hafsah Abdul-Rahman, 18, and Saleemah Burch, 18, were forced to walk up and take their seats, no diploma, for their antics at graduation, the latest victims of this embarrassing reprimand.
Abdul-Rahman committed the heinous offense of doing the ‘Griddy’ when her name was called. This student was marred by health problems all year, and her special moment was suffocated by protocols that are Handmaid’s Tale-esque. Burch flipped her hair when her name was announced, leading to a family member clapping. She was also denied getting her diploma onstage. What the hell kind of school is this (via Philly Inquirer):
Philadelphia High School for Girls has 175 years’ worth of proud traditions, including its graduation, where young women dress in white, carrying flowers.
This year, as in years past, students were given a warning prior to their Friday ceremony at the Kimmel Center: Tell your families no cheering, shouting, or clapping when you walk across the stage to accept your diploma.
Hafsah Abdul-Rahman, 18, was keenly aware of the restriction. As she waited for her name to be called, she even looked at her proud family and put her finger to her lips as a reminder.
Graduation was especially meaningful to Abdul-Rahman, who had endured a year of health challenges and felt she was collecting her diploma not just for herself, but also for her sister, Aisha, who was killed in 2014, at age 14, by gun violence.
[…]
When she reached Girls’ High principal Lisa Mesi, Abdul-Rahman reached for her diploma, only to be rebuffed. “She said, ‘You’re not getting your diploma because you made the crowd chuckle,’” Abdul-Rahman said.
Stunned, she kept walking, but “I was humiliated,” said Abdul-Rahman. “You only get one moment like that, and it was taken away from me.” She eventually received her diploma after a family member confronted another Girls’ High official, who initially refused to hand it over.
[…]
She and her mother, Jaszmine Reid, feel that Abdul-Rahman was targeted — other girls waved, or blew kisses, or made other silent gestures as they walked across the stage. In fact, Abdul-Rahman said, an assistant principal told the girls to walk across the stage in style just before graduation began.
And though someone did laugh as Abdul-Rahman sashayed across the stage, her family was quiet; they are furious not just at the policy, but also that she’s being penalized for someone else’s reaction.
“With the climate in the city of Philadelphia, these kids have lost so much,” said Renee Haniyah Reid, Abdul-Rahman’s grandmother. “The dynamics have changed. And my granddaughter wants to be an entrepreneur; if she’s not going to college, this was her last walk. They told me, ‘Oh, well, she’ll get over it.’”
[…]
Saleemah Burch, 18, also had to walk off the stage without her Girls’ High diploma.
No noise was audible in a video provided to The Inquirer, but Burch did flip her hair and made a brief gesture with her hand as she walked across the stage. In the video, her mother, Delsa Burch, whispers, “Why she didn’t get her paper? Why she didn’t get her diploma?”
Saleemah Burch said Mesi told her, “I’m sorry, I love you so much, but one of your family members clapped.” She was confused; she had told her family not to make noise, and they didn’t, but she moved on, she said, because she didn’t want to make a scene or ruin anyone else’s experience.
AT 4:30: This is video of Hafsah Abdur-Rahman dancing across stage to receive her diploma at the Philadelphia High School For Girls’ graduation.
— Briana Smith (@brianasmithnews) June 15, 2023
But she says her principal didn’t give it to her because she broke the rules by making the crowd laugh.
Tune into @6abc for more. pic.twitter.com/wF41NCaAP8
If you watch the video, it’s even more ridiculous. For Burch, her mother is “livid” at seeing her daughter denied a diploma onstage. Burch’s mother couldn’t graduate high school and very much looked forward to seeing her daughter accomplish something she couldn’t. There are some in the ‘rules are rules’ camp. These rules are stupid. If there’s a mail-in option, I’d hope most of next year’s graduating class chooses it because this isn’t worth it.
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