Texas High School Forbids National Honor Society Graduation Stoles For Fear of Excluding Students
Punishing the kids that work hard
Heaven forbid one of these special snow flakes feels excluded for not working as hard as some of their classmates.
Plano Senior High School, located north of Dallas, has decided National Honor Society students will not be able to wear the iconic white satin stoles to their upcoming graduation.
Local news reported:
National Honor Society (NHS) stoles are frequent sight at high school graduation ceremonies around the country, but one Plano Senior High School student is frustrated that he won’t be allowed to wear one when he puts on his cap and gown next month.
According to school practices, students are not allowed to wear NHS regalia.
Garrett Frederick has been a National Honor Society member since his sophomore year, dedicating himself to maintaining a high GPA and performing community service hours.
“I’m not just an honor student — I’m an NHS student. I worked hard. I put in the hours,” Frederick said, explaining that he committed to 20 hours of community service every semester.
National Honor Society members frequently wear white satin stoles with an NHS seal during graduation ceremonies to mark their commitment.
Until recently, Frederick thought he’d be able to wear one.
“I was really looking forward to wearing it and being able to say I was a part of it, because I have friends that go to [Plano East High School] and [Plano West High School], and they’re all wearing it,” he said. “So it’s like, I don’t know why we’re not allowed to wear it. I don’t get it.”
Frederick’s mom is frustrated, too.
She wrote the principal of the school and said she got a message back, saying that graduates do not wear any club or organizational regalia.
KellyAnn Frederick says a National Honor Society sponsor claimed school administrators want everyone to feel included in graduation and not single students out.
Oh boo freaking hoo.
I mean, really?! What are these administrators thinking?
“What should we do about the kids who worked extra hard, made good grades, served their community, should we allow them to have special recognition at their high school graduation?”
“Nah. That’s not fair to everyone else.”
“You’re right. Might make them think life is unfair or something.”
Why have valedictorians? Heck, why have grades at all? Grades aren’t fair if some students are excluded from the highest marks.
Meanwhile, sanity prevails at two neighboring Plano high schools where NHS members will be able to wear their fancy stoles.
If you need me, I’ll be packing for Newt’s moon colony.
[Featured image a screen grab from included video]
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Comments
But at least they can get dressed in whatever bathroom they feel comfortable with. That’s progress?!?!
Those who can, teach.
Those who cannot teach, become coaches and then administrators.
Welcome to Obama’s fundamentally transformed America. And, if the Never Trump crowd comes through, the soon to be Hillary’s America.
The idiots in Texas…especially Dallas, Houston and Austin…can rival idiots anywhere for shear idiocy.
When you come to Texas, avoid the big cities…!!!
Amen to that!
This is not the Texas I know
The cool kids are all blowing off the school ceremony anyway.
I recommend other orgs hold ceremonies complete with honors and time held traditions such as.
1- Pledge of Allegiance
2- Opening and closing prayer
3- Plenty of acknowledgement to the parts of the class that will pay more in taxes than they will take from the system.
They should just wear the stoles anyways, force the news headline “Plano High School withholds HS diploma from National Honors Society students for wearing NHS garment to graduation.”
Or…. stoles that denote “midnight basketball superstar”, “best sexting”, “endurance in line for Air Jorden shoes while on welfare”, “most siblings from different fathers”, etc, etc…. intersectionalism at its finest.
We should just abolish the NHS – we wouldn’t want to encourage excellence or achievement in our children, would we?
My daughter had so much bling on her graduation robe we didn’t know where to put it all, but she earned every damned piece of it and was determined to display it all.
Shame on these idiots.
I graduated with honors from high school, My parents, family, friends, and others were glad that I have managed to accomplish something in a area where education did not matter to people. So what if some students did not take the time and effort to produce the results to earn it. That is their own fault! Those children need to learn how to accept responsibilities for their actions and the consequences that come with them. At times when I did not receive any academic awards in elementary and middle school, I blamed myself for feeling bad; when I got into high school, I changed and every semester I made sure to work hard to earn those awards at the end. Sheltering the future is one of the worst ideas in the history of bad ideas. It is foolishness!
Seems odd that the author of this post left this particular quote out of their piece on this:
“At Plano Senior High, students with a GPA of 3.6 or higher can wear a plain honor stole, but not the National Honor Society stole that signifies both grades and community service.”
So it is not that achievement is not being recognized, it is that membership in a particular club or organization is not being recognized. They are basically saying that, given the option of taking an “all or nothing” approach to allowing clubs and organizations to add special “bling” (as labrat put it) to the graduation caps and gowns, this high school chose the “nothing” approach. I.e. it is a fashion choice, not a PC choice.
Are all the posters in here with their panties in a wad about this also opposed to schools that require students to wear uniforms? Because that is basically all this school is doing.
And the kids who were in National Honor Society still get special sashes for their high achievement in grades – they just aren’t the “National Honor Society” brand of sashes.
There are real instances of PC going too far out there that are objection worthy but, IMO, this isn’t one of those instances.
Actually, I think the NHS, which was established in 1921, is not just another club or organization – particularly in an educational setting where character, leadership, community service and academic excellence are supposed to be things that are much desired and, when achieved, suitably rewarded.
I think I have a pretty good idea of the characteristics of the decision-makers at this particular high school.
Sorry to interrupt your outrage at the outrageous outrage of this school “not recognizing achievement” by introducing the fact that the school actually DOES recognize those who have achieved a GPA of 3.6 or above with a special stole – just not the “National Honor Society” brand of stole.
Is it your argument that this organization, the National Honor Society, should be exempt from this school’s rule against club/organization paraphernalia being added to their graduation apparel? Is that based upon the organization’s age or their stated purpose?
Age of the organization seems like a rather arbitrary reason to grant such an exemption.
As for the stated purpose, I agree that the stated purpose of the National Honor Society is certainly laudable – but then so is the stated purpose of many clubs and organizations that operate within the school – the Math Club, the Model U.N., Mock Trial, Junior Big Brothers and Big Sisters, community outreach programs, etc. If you allow paraphernalia from laudable clubs and organizations, I can see that a student’s graduation attire might become overburdened by all of the various paraphernalia. And I am pretty certain that EVERY club or organization at the school considers the goals of that club or organization to be worthy of praise – so where, if at all, does the school draw the line? I don’t know.
This school has decided that they will honor graduates who have achieved a high GPA with a special stole to be worn with their graduation attire, but that paraphernalia from clubs and organizations should not be worn. That doesn’t seem unreasonable to me, as I would expect that membership in clubs and organizations would be recognized in other ways, such as special mention in yearbooks or even notations in the graduation program.
Before we burn this school’s administrators at the stake, perhaps someone could answer a few questions:
Is the school NOT recognizing membership in the National Honor Society or other laudable organizations in their graduation programs or even their yearbook?
And if this school is so opposed to recognizing achievement, as so many on here are claiming, then why are they allowing special stoles for graduating students that have achieved a 3.6 or higher GPA?
Or you can simply ignore these fairly reasonable questions and continue on with your outrageous outrage, just like so many of today’s SJWs do.
Also, the decision to not allow club and organization paraphernalia is not part of the recent PC wave. It has been a tradition at this school for the past 40 years. And they acknowledge that the policy is not set it stone – they review it, most recently in 2008-2009. I admit my source on this is from a news outlet that some might claim has a bias:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/06/01/texas-high-school-nixes-honor-society-recognition-to-avoid-hurt-feelings.html#
“The school said in a statement, “We are aware that many honor students may not also be members of the National Honor Society, but the school has opted not to include additional regalia per tradition. This long standing practice was questioned by students twice in the school’s history, once in 2004 and again around 2008 or 2009. Both times, the tradition of not including any regalia for various student clubs, honor societies, leadership roles or other activities was explained to them, and in 2008/2009, class officers and student congress were given the opportunity to consider a change in the practice. The student leaders opted to uphold the tradition. The campus will look at the practice again next year if students wish.”
So another question might be, why is this being brought up now?
Another question might be, considering this practice is a long standing one at this school, was this student not made aware of this practice before the week of his graduation?
Or should we not attempt to ask such questions, as such questions might challenge the idea that this is some type of outrageous PC outrage that should be outraged against?
Next steps for the Plano Senior High School:
1. Abolish graduation ceremonies altogether — do not embarrass drop outs who could not graduate.
2. Abolish high school diplomas altogether — do not give an advantage to high school graduates over drop outs in the job market
3. Abolish high school classes altogether — do not give serious students even a chance to learn something that drop outs do not know; such classes might alter the level of the job playing field for young people.
Of course, double the teacher/administrator to student ratio and significantly increase teacher/administrator salaries and pensions so that the above steps are taken in a timely and correct manner.
That’s kind of sad and dismissive of effort. That’s coming from someone who went to a high school, now gone, that gave no grades or allowed any competition, like sports teams or sing.
It was just basically pass or fail. But you could do self study courses and take extra classes. I didn’t go to my graduation and have no idea if we had a prom or a valedictorian …. because they also gave us the option to graduate early whenever we racked up enough credits. Yay. Incentive!
I have a daughter who has been working her butt off to be Valedictorian.
Is the purpose of Education these days just to make everyone Average so no feelings get hurt?
Yes.
Making everyone average seems to be the current direction, which is frightening. Changing the rules midstream is just plain unfair. I hope your daughter isn’t discouraged.
In my crazy high school the reason for removing grades and competition was to encourage individuality and freedom of thought, not sameness. My HS grade point average was crap. Many kids had to transfer out because they took advantage of the freedom and just hung out and weren’t self motivated.
But, I happened to be obsessed by a non curriculum subject and got a lot of help from my teachers and actually won a four year competitive scholarship for college based on my individual study. In college I maintained a 4.0 because I was interested 🙂
In retrospect, I think my HS was trying to teach us how to learn, and I’m grateful.
And so now being born smart is an unfair advantage. What this inane movement is doing is driving everyone down to the least common denominator. In a world where competition is fierce, is there any faster and more efficient way to reach the bottom by making smart people be stupid?
At my HS graduation, the NHS kids wore red gowns with a gold sash rather than black gowns.
Somehow it is just not FAIR to reward success?
Time for parents to speak up and speak out. There will be retaliation from the school but the students deserve better.
News break! In real life everyone does not get a trophy!
This is the goal of ” SOCIALISM.” They want to ” Dumb Down,” everyone so we are all the same with no incentive to excel in anything. We are easier for Gov. leaders to control us. We must not let this COMMUNIST plot succeed in this Country. The Gov. wants the power to totally control the people. The continued attack on education must be resisted. Trump has been accused of all kinds of things. I have never seen so many Politicians so scared of another Politician.
The left has been in charge of Public School Education for a couple of generations now. This is to be expected. Rewarding excellence would undermine the group. Everyone is the same, we are all socialists now.
Is excellence as demonstrated by membership in the National Honor Society not “rewarded” by being mentioned in the graduation program or in the school’s yearbook?
Is the excellence of achieving a GPA of 3.6 or higher not recognized via a special stole added on to the graduation cap and gown (though, admittedly it is not the National Honor Society brand of stole)?
Living in the Metroplex, this refers to Plano Senior High School. They already have a tradition of giving those with a high GPA a white honor cape, regardless of their membership in the NHS. They have done this for decades.
I see that someone else has already noted this above. Boo-freaking-hoo for the NHS elitists who apparently just cannot stand to have achievement honored without having THEIR stole and Imprimatur.