Just let her wear the damn leis, why is it a problem?
The problem is tiny dick authoritarians with authority over tiny institutions who must nevertheless feel that they are in control of everything at all times.
FWIW, I got banned from my graduation retroactively by giving the principal a frog instead of a handshake. He deserved it.
Worst still, it’s petty dictators with no authority. The actual authorities gave permission, the butthurt low level authoritarians were the ones objecting, stealing her phone, holding her hostage, using intimidation tactics and harassing her. Like, forget whether this is or isn’t an ancestral tradition or whatever. You don’t detain a minor and prevent them from contacting their legal guardians in a disciplinary situation where absolutely no one is in danger. This is appalling for the entire institution and all their teachers.
I got banned from my graduation retroactively
Wait, as in, banned after graduation occurred? If they were setting that standard, you should have upped your game to also get retroactively banned from you senior prom, homecoming, etc. You had 12 years of school events banked you could have drawn from for retroactive bans.
I know, right? More the fool me for not trying harder.
They tried to withhold my diploma in response but it turns out they did not actually have the legal authority to do so. That might be useful information if I ever intended to go through high school a second time… But, uh, I think I’d rather not.
Well at least the inevitable and well deserved discrimination lawsuit will pay for her college, and buy her a house, and a car, and pay for her bills for the forseeable future.
So they already went through some process to be pre-approved by the school board.
Then they forced her to verbally say that she would not participate in the ceremony in order to get her phone so that she could call her parents.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but it’s unfortunate that there really isn’t a way to go back and re-do your graduation.
Her family argues that the school district had already given her permission to wear them, but officials refuse to budge.
[…]
“My sister was denied from walking at her graduation minutes before her ceremony because school staff would not let her wear traditional Hawaiian lei’s. After getting further approval from the district board to wear them, faculty members further then restricted access to having her phone and forced Sophia, A MINOR, to verbally say she was not going to participate in the ceremony in order for her to contact her parents after the fact,” it reads.
“So she held her head high and left…” Self pride is overrated. If the school asked her to remove it, just remove it and complain later. There were several kids at my high school that did stuff similar, and the school told them to take it off or they couldn’t participate. So, they took the garbs off, graduated…and afterwards, tried suing everyone… but for that moment, just do what you need to do and participate in your special moment.
