A letter to the Bonny Eagle High School

When I wanted to check my Yahoo! email account this evening, one of the headlines on the frontpage caught my eye: "A kiss costs student diploma". Wow, must've been some kiss.

As curiosity got the better of me, I opened the link and read the article. Apparently some superintendent of the Bonny Eagle High School denied a student his diploma, because he "walked on the stage and blew a kiss to his family".

No, seriously. That's all he did. By now, the news has made it all over the internet, leading to several outcries for justice and more. Email addresses of those responsible have been put publicly on the internet, so people can let them know how they feel about this.

Always one to help battle the forces of evil, I decided to pitch in - so here's my letter...

Give Justin his diploma!

Dear Sir, Madam,

To be honest I still cannot believe the story I've just read on Yahoo! to be true - I simply cannot fathom how someone can be so blinded by rules and tradition that they would deny a person his/her diploma over such trivial matters.

I do agree that there should be some kind of decorum during any kind of celebration, but come on, a bow? A kiss to his parents and family? What were you planning on doing to the boy if he cheered after having received his diploma - a jail sentence?

Being from Belgium, my kids will never have the opportunity to go to Bonny Eagle High School, but after having read the article this only seems to be a blessing.

I sincerely hope all of your inboxes become flooded with emails, hopefully making you realise (while deleting each and every one of them by hand, and reading some of them along the way) how wrong you were.

Give the boy his diploma, and go out into the real world to get some common sense. And when you receive it: please do not bow or blow kisses, we don't allow for that kind of behaviour.

Best regards,

Marlon Bodicker

PS: I think I'll post this on my website in a few days, other people deserve a laugh too :)

Somehow I fear that my mail will go by unnnoticed - so if anyone else wants to give it a try, here are some pointers: bschultz@sad6.k12.me.us, lnapolitano@sad6.k12.me.us, kharrington@sad6.k12.me.us, mlegage@sad6.k12.me.us, SLukas@sad6.k12.me.us.

Have a nice day!