Imagine it was the end of the second semester of your senior year, and then you are told you cannot walk across the stage. According to the school administration, graduation is a privilege. No matter how hard you have worked over the years for your good grades and outstanding attendance, graduation is not guaranteed to students.  A student would still receive the diploma as long as required credits were earned, but the graduation ceremony itself, the administration says, is a privilege. If students have an outstanding balance or make a bad decision in school, there’s a chance they will not be walking across the stage with their classmates.

While there might be certain behavioral issues that keep students from the ceremony, I have a problem with students’ outstanding balance keeping them from walking across the stage. If students owe lunch money or have a library fine, they will not walk across the stage. This doesn’t seem fair to me. What if students - or parents - cannot afford the fines? Should the graduation ceremony really be withheld from them? Students wait 13 years to receive their diplomas. The diploma itself is important, but walking across the stage is a physical representation of that achievement, and it’s often what appeals the most.

I don’t think it is fair that the administration has the power to take something away from students that they have worked so hard for. The graduation ceremony should be a right, because students have to work for that opportunity.