Odd graduation situation

Not as odd as you might think... none of what you list matters. What matters is when colleges or jobs call asking for a final transcript from the school. Does that transcript say he graduated or not. I can guarantee that right now it says nope.

I'd be up at the school getting answers.
Perhaps he passed the exams but the overall grade was not passing.  IDK
Perhaps the admin had a heart and let him participate...............or perhaps there is some clerical error.

My thoughts?

LOUSY school administration!

They do this all the time with college graduates. They may need to come back and complete a few more units in order to complete their degree, but can walk with their graduating class. This student might have been told that it was a conditional graduation and either misunderstood or failed to relay that information to his parents.

Here, because of scheduling conflicts with tons of schools and school districts trying to use the same venues for graduation, there are schools that hold graduation 2 or 3 weeks before the end of the school year.

There are many kids who walk and don't know if they actually graduated because final grades aren't in.

So totally not unheard of or unusual.

However, two peas is the only place I have ever heard of actually getting your actual diploma during the actual graduation.

For my high school, college, law school, and the schools of everyone I know, your diploma is mailed to you at a later date.


And all of those pieces of paper called diplomas are meaningless. As other posters said, it's only the TRANSCRIPT that counts.

A class of 130 is big enough to need several people working through the process.  Doesn't matter that it wasn't mentioned the last week of class.  What matters is he has been told NOW.  He needs to follow through or screw up the rest of his life.  When I admit students I am looking at the transcript sent from the school. When the transcript says "not graduated" and a diploma shows up I assume the diploma is a forgery.  

This happens every year at our school. It's only a few kids, but it happens. The "walk list" has to be figured out a couple of weeks before the last day of classes and the actual graduation ceremony. Seating charts have to be arranged, programs printed, etc. That cannot be done in one-two business days. Guidance counselors are making calculated decisions on whether or not a kid can walk based on discussions with the student and teachers. They will err on the side of caution and assume the kid will pass. It's the right choice. They don't want to deny the kid a chance to walk.

At the actual ceremony, every kid is handed an empty folder (those faux leather ones with the school named embossed on it). Many schools do not hand out the actual diploma on stage. As they walk out of the ceremony, they are directed to classrooms where they pick up an envelope that has their actual diploma, cards from teachers, projects they didn't pick up, etc.

Also, with online grading programs, it is highly unlikely they had no idea he was failing. Possible? Yes. Likely? No. I am almost positive they could have been checking his grades at any time. The parents would have been more pissed if their kid hadn't been allowed to be part of the graduation ceremony with his class because he was missing a few assignments.

I agree with volt.

First of all, I find it almost impossible to believe this story. My money is on the kid knew he was close to failing and just doesn't want to fess that up to the parents.

Regardless of that, regardless of whether it's fair or harsh or whatever, the kid needs to do whatever he needs to do to graduate.

If he doesn't, he is, in fact, screwing up the rest of his life.

I know this doesn't seem like a good thing, but my son was told he might not graduate and I would have given anything for him to graduate with his class and return to finish up. Instead he left school just weeks before graduation day and got a GED rather than risk being left out from graduating with his peers.

At our high school if a student is close or may need just a week or 2 of summer school they are allowed to walk with the class.

Back when I graduated, everyone was allowed to walk, even the kids who hadn't quite completed everything or were a class or two short. We were handed empty diploma folders. After the ceremony, we gathered in an auditorium and were given the real thing. It doesn't take long. My class was about 70 kids. You either got a signed diploma or you got a photocopy of an unsigned diploma stapled to a letter listing the summer school requirements that needed to be done to obtain the signed one and have your final transcripts produced. Of the four kids who received the unsigned version, only one was mildly surprised. The parents of three of the four students were shocked.

I'm not sure either, but in our district a piece of writing was collected each year for a "file." I loved getting the file to see the K-12 pieces that teachers saved.

We have two high schools in our district.  One gives the actual diploma and the other does not.  

While I would not be pleased that my kid did not let me know about poor grades (we can check electronically), I would think that two weeks was a small price to pay.  In our district the entire class has to be retaken in summer school to pass.

I have a friend who had 3 daughters graduate this year (she has twins and married someone with a daughter the same age). Anyways, one of the girls busted her butt to get her grades up to graduate with honors with her sister. The week before graduation she was just shy of it (like a 89.98 or something like that and wouldn't move her up). She even called (with no response) on grad rehearsal. Fast forward to report cards being released, her final grade was a 90 and she indeed was an Honor Grad. She was able to get her cords but still didn't get to walk as an honor grad and be recognized.

For this reason and the reason of the OP story, I wish that they'd make sure that all Senior grades are completed 2-3 days before graduation.