I’m taking great care with my wording, so please, if something I say causes a knee-jerk reaction, please ask me - in your own words, what you thought I meant & give me a chance to clarify. Don’t forget that good written communication skills aren’t a privilege we all enjoy, but after reading this thread I feel like there is an angle that perhaps needs discussion/examination. Or not. I have been known to make mistakes, from time to time. If I’m well off the mark - plz just disregard this post.
It’s been my experience when visiting schools (I’m decades past this event but sometimes work InfoSec with schools) is that “Zero Tolerance Policies” have run amok. Recall that ZTP were instilled because school admins “couldn’t be trusted” to make case/case decisions & in the name of achieving the exact same result for a variety of transgressions - in the name of equality - which in many cases, that was truly needed.
Fast forward to now and ZTP is micro-managing admin to student interactions. It is quite possible that there is a ZTP in place for “any disruption” during graduation that results in the offending student being ejected. It’s also possible that any deviation from established dress code instantly equates to a “disruption”, and per ZTP the local admin has zero discretion in determining what is or is not a disruption, but that anything that deviates one iota from absolute conformity == disruption that must be stamped our per the school boards ZTP.
Along this train of thought then, it is equally possible that ZTP exist that forbid the administration from interacting with the student body for disciplinary actions and, that being the reason LEO’s were there - per ZTP, that it must be a LEO that interacts with a “disruptive student”.
The admins could well be horrified by, and powerless to change, this result. In my heart of hearts tho, I think this but one cog in this particular machine… anyway.
With the above said, I would think that any admin stepping in to defend this child’s actions would be admirable- but with the way the job market is & how hard it could be to get another school job after being fired for going against both policy & LEO’s… I dunno.
I do see that there is a MASSIVE problem here, but I fear race sometimes distracts us from the underlying systemic issues that not only allow such a travesty to take place but go even further and encourage LEO’s to act as jackbooted thugs where our - OUR - children are concerned.