New Rochelle High School sent out a broadcast email earlier today which disclosed the identities of 127 graduating seniors who have failed to make payment of the rental fees for graduations caps and gowns. The email appears to have been sent to the school’s entire list of graduating seniors, most of whom have already paid the $25.00 fee.
The email message reads:
IF YOUR NAME IS ON THIS LIST YOU OWE $25.00 FOR YOUR CAP & GOWN
***ALSO YOU MIGHT HAVE TO BE MEASURED-DEADLINE 3/31/09
YOU CAN NOT MARCH WITHOUT A CAP & GOWN!!!
This email blast is certainly a violation of student privacy. I would hope that the intent was not to shame students on the list to pay up by embarrassing them in front of their classmates. Surely, people at the school district understand that in the current economic climate there may be many reasons why students have not paid for their cap and gown as well as their senior portrait, their high school yearbook, their deposit for the senior prom and many other costs related to the rites of passage often associated with graduation.
Regardless, this was clearly unnecessary. Each of these students is entitled to a direct apology and assurance that this sort of thing will not happen again. I would hope that if some of these student genuinely can not afford a cap and gown that they would inform the community — through this site or elsewhere — of the need so that it might be possible to raise the funds needed to cover the cost.
Doing nothing, however, is not acceptable so if the District is not going to proactively address this issue and provide the public some sort of assurance that they intend to be more careful about guarding student privacy, you can expect the full list of names to be published here next week. We have no wish to compound the error of the district but all residents of New Rochelle have a right to know if the District is engaged in this sort of behavior and is not willing to clean address it in a forthright, public manner when it is pointed out to them.
unbelievable knuckleheads.
unbelievable knuckleheads. maybe we can make them work off the debt by performing community service like mowing the district lawns or wiping graffiti from walls. sure beats embarrassing them in this fashion. hope no one gets hurt as much less than this has caused fights and other forms of mayhem.
once more the district finds yet a new way to demonstrate their incompetent handling of a relatively simple situation.