6/18/2003: Overdressed middle-schoolers couldn't graduate

Eighth grade: it's the stupidest time of life, and sometimes administered by the stupidest of adults.

The kids above were dressed like that to attend their middle-school graduation. Their principal, one Wendy Jung, had other ideas, and prohibited the boy on the right and the girl on the left from walking up and receiving their diplomas because they were overdressed.

The girls in the middle were allowed, showing how arbitrary this woman's decision was. But it gets worse: she told the boy he "looked like a pimp".

The boy, who made the honor roll, was allowed to walk up after removing the jacket.

I'm told that the public schools are awash with people who want nothing more than to promote multi-culturalism and understanding between races and etc. Apparently some jagoff administrators haven't been copied on the memos.

If nothing else, she's singled out the kids and parents who actually care. My question is: if this is what happened at graduation, when people were paying attention, what kind of idiocy went on during the previous three years while nobody was noticing?

The last time I saw a jacket like that, it was on the back of Eagles' running back / multi-millionaire Duce Staley as he left a post-game press conference. He looked great. So does this kid.

full story

Pimp?!

Oh, come on. This is a pimp.
The kid just looked good. There's nothing wrong with blue.

what? no hat!

I'm too lazy to read the article...

So if her reason for denying him was because he looked like a pimp, then what was her reason for denying the Girl? and did she get to walk eventualy? And if he looks like a pimp then what does she look like a Hoe? or a princess (too efeminent?)?

I actually ended up reading it. it was short but still never explained what was too dressy about what they were wearing?

I wonder if the administrator is white or black.

Probably White ... Us whiteies are anal retentive like that.

Ms Jung should be taken to the Simon Gratz HS prom here :p

My take on Ms. Jung's personality

Some people just are not happy unless they are making other people feel bad. Unfortunately, those personalities gravitate toward management roles.

I think the kids look sharp. Dressing up for an occaision is a good thing, and they did it well.

With all the crap to truely concern herself with, this stupid TN administrator chooses this nonissue? How completely disrespectful. She needs to concentrate on the kids that aren't at the ceremony.

Meanwhile...congrats students. Keep honor rolling, and looking good- however you wish to define that!

Just because she bugs me:

here is Wendy Jung.

New principal, apparently part of the story was that she had put a ban on fancy dress to help take the "financial burden" off parents...blah blah. It kinda even adds to the insult.

I sent her a link to this page and an invitation.

this one's bound to haunt her.....

I can't understand this at all.
First of all.....the girls, for sure, are not overdressed. They wore their "Sunday Best" most likely....and even though I never had an 8th grade graduation, it's something to be proud of, and certainly worthy of their finest outfits.
The boy on the other hand looks "damn-sharp" and probably very proud of that suit....he should be. He looks good. That lady is an absolute ogre for not allowing that kid to parade around in his suit.
I hope the parents follow through and get at least an apology from Ms. Wendy Jung. Personally, I think she should be fired.
How can you take a proud moment like graduating the 8th grade, and ruin it for those kids by not allow them to strut their stuff?
It has nothing to do with any 'financial burden', even if these kids were poor, they could have skrimped and saved for those outfits and probably felt extremely proud wearing them.

The more I think about this the angrier I get.....she's single-handedly yanked these kids pride right out from under them.

Now wait a minute

Well I hope she does; this is the net, where one can actually talk back to stories. And this is the Cellar, where you can do so as an equal to everyone else.

And if there's more to it, I hope she sues the local rag that published the story without the requirements tidbit, because it's sorry journalism if they didn't pick up her side of the story.

You can email Ms Jung at
jung_wendy@hcde.org
to voice your feeling

this is from a Washington Post article. 6/14

Sensitivity courses? I can't believe they actually have such things. What a bunch of crap!

They're basically attempting to force her to change who she is. That's her decision, and no amount of classes is going to change that. And if she does make the decision to change, then she can damn well do it without some class.

For my grad ceremonies (way, way back) a couple of guys showed up in their Cadet dress uniforms. I wonder what that anal bitch would have done if THAT had happened...

Well, if her intention was to limit what students wore, she should have been very specific about what was and was not allowed. For instance, did she specify no jackets for the boys? I'm sure we'll hear more.

But, wait wait wait, this school is called "academy of fine arts"? In my experience, the kind of kids who go to an "academy of fine arts" are going to have a tendency to be on the unconventional side when they have a chance to dress up.

Oh, and any school administrator who told my son he looked like a pimp would never wake up in the morning again without regretting she or he said it.

I don't think anyone would argue these days that there has to be some sort of rules for ceremonies like this. I recall a few years back a High School student here in Houston who upon receiving his diploma and giving the Principal a handshake deposted a used condom in her hand. As I recall she somehow rescinded him graduating and expelled him. I recall his parents complaining that he was only doing a childish prank and should not have been punished. With parents like that no wonder he did what he did.

But the authorities can go to far. We also had an episode at a HS for performing arts here in Houston where the principal had laid down the rules prior to graduation. No funny stuff on stage, period. Somewhere in the middle of the graduation ceremony a girl whose major was ballet did a pirrouette and the principal shut down the graduation leaving a hundred kids with no ceremony.

At my own kids high school graduation a few years back someone in the graduate seating area let loose of 2 ducks who wandered out into the open while the principal was speaking. Always wondered how they kept them quiet under their robes as they marched in.

When I graduated HS in 1974, I told the teacher in charge of the name list to please put "Esquire" after my name. She laughed and said, "yea, right!"

Still, from what I see in the pictures, the kids didn't look to wild in those outfits, they could have been a whole lot worse.

Yeah, they could have been dressed for the prom!

In my high school, if you had that much flesh exposed, you either had to wear your coat, or go home.

(Nifty belly dancer's outfit though, wonder if she knows what it's for)

Dags

From today's Fark comes this one. Tim Mains is the principal that shows how it's done: he told the math students that if they improved, they could duck tape him to the wall. And so they did.



http://www.democratandchronicle.com/...545_news.shtml

The boy doesn't have nearly enough flashy gold jewelry to be a pimp.

I wonder what type of tape DUCK tape is, does it quack? or have feathers? i've never heard of DUCK tape.
I've heard of DUCT tape though.

They should have used Gaffers tape much stronger, and stickeyer.

Duck Tape

Duck Tape is a brand of duct tape. Seems to leave less residue than other brands.

Doesn't mean that it wasn't a typo, though.

Duck tape is actually the right term, and that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Mr. Mains didn't want no residue.