Pregnant student banned from graduation walks stage anyway

[davidinalameda]

you go girl!

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/NEWSV5/storyV5ALYSHA0518W.htm

Alysha Cosby waited four years to hear her name called at her high school graduation.

When it wasn't, she took matters into her own hands.

After the last graduate was asked to come forward to receive his degree at St. Jude Educational Institute's commencement Tuesday night, Cosby announced her own name and walked across the stage.

[NYYFan]

1. This happened when I graduated from HS

in 1990 to 3 girls. We were told that it was too close to their due date, and too dangerous. No one bought that.

[CatWoman]

39. CANDANCE!!!!! CANDANCE!!!!!! CANDANCE!!!!!

:hi:

:loveya:

[gollygee]

2. Good for her!

Obvious irony: if she'd had an abortion she wouldn't have had this problem.

[ComerPerro]

13. LOL Great point

I mean, its not funny, but it is.

[deadparrot]

3. If she met all the requirements,

good for her. There's no reason for that.

[MrScorpio]

4. "The father of Cosby's child also is a senior at the school..."

"He was allowed to participate in graduation"

Double standard, I say

[Tsiyu]

9. Yes, welcome to Double Standard High

I'm glad she stood up for herself. She didn't get pregnant alone....

[Skinner]

12. Good catch, MrScorpio.

Fucking disgraceful.

[davidinalameda]

18. good point!

[Left Is Write]

23. A shameful, disgraceful double standard! How dare they?

How dare they take away from this girl's moment to walk in the graduation she earned?

Apparently they don't care if kids are having sex. They only care if it SHOWS.

[China_cat]

35. I got married between my junior and senior

years (not pregnant, just 'in love'). The school wouldn't allow me to take gym class because I'd have to get undressed with the other girls.

I still don't understand that and it's a LONG time ago.

[Left Is Write]

36. I don't understand it either.

I wonder what connection they were making between your being married and getting undressed in the locker room.

:shrug:

A very close friend of my daughter's got married last week. They graduate on Monday. As far as I know, her friend is not pregnant either. She and her new husband have been planning a wedding for over a year.

[China_cat]

40. I guess they thought

that legally having sex would 'show'. And maybe be contagious. :sarcasm:

[July]

24. Whoa, that is obscene. nt

[Heddi]

25. A friend of mine attended a Catholic HS, got pregnant at 16

and she was forced to leave the school once her pregnant status was 'visable'.

The boy who impregnated her, who was also 16, was also a student at the school.

He was not forced to leave the school. He was not asked to leave the school. It wasn't even suggested that he leave the school.

When my friend's mother asked about this double standard, the principal had no comment other than "You're talking about apples and oranges"

The mother then asked why the daughter was being forcefully expelled from teh school for being pregnant. The principal said "Well, both of you signed an agreement stating that she would not participate in premarital sex"

The mother then said "Well, I'd assume the boy and his parents signed the same agreement, right?"

Principal said "We have no proof he's the father. Even if we had proof, it's a completely different issue. HE didn't get pregnant. HE isn't a bad role model for other students at the school. Your daughter is because proof of her pre-martial sex is evident to anyone who looks at her. You're talking about apples and oranges"

He then escorted the mother and daughter out of the office and barred them from ever setting foot on school property again.

Because it was a private school, the mother was limited in her options (re: suing) the school, and the ACLU wouldn't get involved because it was a private school (in South Carolina no less).

The girl left school, had the baby, had an open adoption with another family. The boy went on and impregnanted another girl at the school who was also expelled from school. He went on to graduate from the school, never asked, suggested, or forced to leave.

[MrScorpio]

26. Now he's the father of two children that he'll never raise

Sounds like a budding Republican to me.

[Wapsie B]

29. The amazing thing is that people like this principal

see nothing wrong with what they did.

[hickman1937]

33. So it's not the actual pre marital sex that they don't like,

just the visable consequences of it. Aren't those visible consequences what the Catholic church is so vocal about defending? To the point where focus on poverty and the death penalty have all but been jettisoned, in order to focus more intently on abortion?

[tjwmason]

43. But sureLy you reaLise

It's just normaL for a guy to pLay around when he's young - sew a few wiLd oats - but those girLs who even dream of Looking at a guy before marriage are just totaL sLuts and harLots.







Just incase anybody though I was being serious :sarcasm:
It is pretty grotesque the doubLe standards stiLL meeted in many parts of our society.

[Bunny]

5. Isn't it interesting that the father of her child was allowed to walk,

but she wasn't?

What the f*ck is WRONG with these people? She met the requirements, why wasn't she allowed to walk?

:wtf:

[havocmom]

14. Only those kids who don't remind adults that teens have sex allowed

Delusional people get quite upset when confronted with evidence which refutes their delusions. Explains a lot about America these days, doesn't it?

[skygazer]

6. Shit like this infuriates me

Who needs a high school diploma more than a young single mother? The frigging freepers don't want anyone on welfare, and they don't want them to have abortions but god forbid the kid wants to graduate with her class! Does anyone realize how much of an achievement that is, to both carry a child at a young age AND graduate? She shoulda got a standing ovation!

[ComerPerro]

11. RW hypocricy on abortion and family values really bugs the shit outta me

Great point.

And, as a poster mentioned above, if this girl had an abortion, she would be allowed to walk the stage.

[KitchenWitch]

15. I am sure they would have mailed her the diploma

They just did not want her to walk across the stage, with her belly, because after all, unwed motherhood is a shame and an abomination.

[LTR]

7. You'd think that the wingnuts would want to celebrate life

Granted, I doubt that this pregnancy was planned, but she chose to keep the baby and, in effect, is giving the best gift one could offer: Life.

Guess this shows the school's real contradiction in reasoning. Would she have been allowed to walk across the stage if she had an abortion? I notice the father was allowed to participate, so why not her? The school was dead wrong here.

Good for her, and best of luck to mother and child.

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. Good ol' republican family values of fairness and inclusion

[NYYFan]

10. There's that whole crap about "embarrasing the school"

is a crock. Look, teens get pregnant, they always have, they always will. Deal with it. She met the requirements, she should walk with her class.

[xchrom]

16. family values! moral clarity! family values! moral clarity!

family values! moral clarity!

i'm so sick of their hypocricy, double standards, lies and the rest of it.
and there's not going to an end of it any time soon -- there will much more of this shit to come.

amazing that i can still feel rage afresh.

[tigereye]

17. I hate hypocritical crap like that

she managed to finish high school, give her the diploma in front of everyone. I loathe that kind of pettiness. :roll:

[xchrom]

20. indeed. pettiness it is.

and to take it out on a lovely young person -- even worse.

[bertha katzenengel]

19. Took AWAY from the ceremony?!

"Her decision to do so prompted cheers and applause from many of her fellow seniors and dozens of people in the church. Some, however, murmured that her act was in poor taste and that it took away from the ceremony."

Many years hence, Ms Cosby is going to tell this tale to her child, and she will tell the tale with pride. "Your mom did not drop out like so many other pregnant high school students would. She finished school and was rightly proud to do so."

The closed-minded individuals who think she took away from the ceremony, who think she acted in poor taste: They should be ashamed of themselves.

[Rabrrrrrr]

21. I wrote a letter to the editor, I was so pissed

Shame on Johnny Mitchell and the administration of St. Jude Educational Institute in denying Alysha Cosby the right to walk the stage and receive her degree, her honor, and maintain her dignity like every student who earns that right.

She met the requirements for graduation, so singling her out for humiliation and punishment simply because she is pregnant is plain vindictiveness. The reasoning of the myopic and spiteful administration stem solely from a prejudice that felt shaming a young woman for the “crime” of being pregnant was more important than showing her the common human dignity that Jesus asks us to show.

This is especially sad because St. Jude is ostensibly Christian, at least according to its claims and its charter. I fail to see anything modeling Jesus in denying this public honor to a hardworking young woman, in showing the malicious audacity not to even print her name in the program, and to heap further indignities upon her by having police escort her and her family from the church sanctuary.

My kudos to Ms. Cosby for her Jesus-like courage to show civil disobedience against the money-changers of St. Jude’s. I pray for a day when all teenagers will know a similar wisdom and courage to stand up for what is right and to refuse to cooperate with injustice and oppression.

[Left Is Write]

27. Bravo.

Thank you for doing that. It's beautifully written.

[Rabrrrrrr]

28. Thank you!

Concise, terse, and to the point. Just what I like in a letter to the editor!

I'm really tempted to write a letter that Johnny IdiotFuck who runs the school, too.

[geniph]

22. So...let me get this straight...

her unwed motherhood is such a "disgrace" to the school that it "detracted" from the graduation ceremony because it...why? reminded people that sometimes teenagers have sex? that sometimes they have babies? Yet the unwed fatherhood of the boy who, I might remind them, ALSO had sex, is not similarly considered a "disgrace"?

Jeebus, I thought we'd left this kind of stupid double-standard puritanism behind us!

[Art_from_Ark]

30. They opened up the stupid double-standard puritanism floodgates

and shouted "Let Hypocrisy Reign!"

[Scout1071]

31. Good for her! I cannot believe they have no problem with the father

"walking."

Way to go Alysha!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

32. Thank you for bringing this story to our attention, dwickham!

And Kudos to Aysha for her courage and determination. She will need both of those qualities on her road through life. I suspect that she will do well. I'm sure her child will be proud of her someday when s/he hears the story as well...

Shame on the school for not awarding her diploma in the ceremony the way they should have...Double standard, indeed...

[davidinalameda]

44. I'm glad I did

and you're very welcome!

[gaia_gardener]

34. Oh geez

I grew up in a very conservative, small OK town. Every year we had pg girls walk across the stage. If there wasn't one that year, then it was because she'd already had her baby. We had 4 pg girls walk across the stage for their freshmen graduation (we did freshman rather than 8th grade grad, no idea why).

If my conservative town could handle it, why couldn't other schools. And this was in 1987.

[spooky3]

37. She should file a sex discrimination suit.

[Deja Q]

38. And I thought that graduating with only your parents clapping was harsh.

This is worse. Much worse. Can't walk because it's a "safety" concern? That's bull. (unless there's substantial medical evidence to back up the school's claim but that seems very unlikely.)

And I can relate, albeit for a different reason, though I wish I could do what she did.

[NMMNG]

41. Good for her!

Cosby, who is pregnant, was told in March that she could no longer attend school, due to safety concerns.

What safety concerns? Do they ban pregnant teachers from working due to 'safety concerns'?


More right-wing moral-fascist BS.

We won't promote birth control, but we won't allow abortions, but if you decide to keep the baby we'll ostracize you. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, just plain damned!

[roguevalley]

42. What a brave girl. May her life be as boldly lived as this moment.

Kudos to you, Alysha.

[Telly Savalas]

45. So the big question is:

Does Life imitate "Footloose" or does "Footloose" imitate Life?



I can't believe shit like this happens in reality. I thought it was just fodder for bad movies.

[Samurai_Writer]

46. Wow, I think I'm having a flashback to 1978...

when I got pregnant my junior year of high school. As soon as I started to 'show', I was expelled from school and sent to an unwed mother's home by my parents. Of course, some of my friends knew (because I told them before I was locked up), and my parents soon found out the whole damned school knew anyway. So much for keeping it a secret and 'saving my and my sisters' reputations'. My son's father, of course, suffered no consequences, immediately started dating another girl, and was valedictorian of his class.

I cannot believe 27 years later this shit still goes on. Wait a minute... I can believe it. This is the US fundy-christian-talibornagain south. My incident happened in Texas, in an upper-middle class suburb of Houston.

My story is here:

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2991/marybb.html