Students to get diplomas originally denied over cheers at graduation

GALESBURG, Ill. -- Five students will get diplomas they were denied because of cheers at their high school graduation, after school officials relented Wednesday on a get-tough decorum policy.

Galesburg school officials defended efforts to curb commencement rowdiness, but said the stalemate over the diplomas and the national media attention it attracted has taken up valuable time and energy.

"It is time for the good of the community, the school district, the families and the students involved to move on .... I have decided to grant to the students involved their diplomas," superintendent Gene Denisar said in a written statement.

Denisar also cited talks with the Illinois State Board of Education, which has said it cannot support the district's decorum policy because it makes students responsible for behavior they cannot control.

Graduate Nadia Trent, who picked up her diploma from the school secretary shortly before 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, said she's "just happy it's over."

"If they would have apologized, it would have been better," said Trent.

Peoria attorney Jeffrey Green, who took the students' case at no cost, sent a letter late Tuesday threatening to sue the district if officials did not apologize and deliver the diplomas by 5 p.m. Wednesday.

He said Wednesday that he suspects the threat prompted the board to release the diplomas.

"They met with the families two or three times and had a chance to get this thing right," Green said. "I've been involved less than 24 hours and now they have their diplomas, so you draw your own conclusions."

He said he will speak to the students and pursue an apology if they still wanted one.

The central Illinois school district will review its policy and continue efforts to make commencement a "respectful and dignified occasion that all graduates and their families can enjoy," school board President Michael Panther said in statement. He did not say what the review would entail.

School officials declined further comment.

Green said he hopes the district has "learned some valuable lessons in this whole experience punishing actual wrongdoers, which this case obviously did not."

He said he had not reviewed the entire graduation tape, but expected to receive it Thursday. But he said he had seen tape of three of the students and saw only clapping and low cheering, "nothing over the top."

"It's a situation where they put ceremony over substance and achievement," Green said.

School officials told students and their parents last week that they would hand over diplomas if they received apologies -- even anonymously. The students say tracking down the culprits is impossible because they don't know who might have cheered among the crowd of about 2,000 people.

Students and their parents signed a contract about a month before the May 27 graduation promising they would not disrupt the ceremony. Violators were warned they could be denied their keepsake diplomas and barred from an after-graduation party, but still would officially graduate and receive their high school transcripts.

School officials say the get-tough policy followed complaints after a 2005 commencement where shouts and even air horns drowned out much of the ceremony in this central Illinois town of about 34,000 people.

The students and their families contend the policy quieted those problems in 2006, and that administrators were nitpicking this year, punishing them for a few seconds of cheering. Families also maintain that they didn't cheer and say it's unfair to make students responsible for everyone in the auditorium, which could even include people trying to get them in trouble.

Some also have accused school officials of targeting students because of their race, saying four of the graduates who were denied diplomas were black and another is mixed race. Cheers also erupted for white students, they contend, but none were denied diplomas.

School officials have denied allegations of racism, saying administrators who monitored the ceremony only reported disruptions they considered significant, and all turned in the same five names.

Parent Pam Kelley said she was disappointed that school officials did not apologize and that her daughter, Amanda, was handed the diploma by a high school secretary, not principal Tom Chiles.

"At least he could have come out and shook her hand and said congratulations," Kelley said, adding she hopes the school relaxes its policy to allow a little cheering for graduates.

"You're showing them support and that you're proud of them," she said. "I don't see any harm in that as long as it doesn't drag on."