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Student Denied Diploma For Tossing Cap at Graduation

By Alabama Public Radio

New Market, AL – The parents of a student who tossed her mortarboard at graduation are facing off with the school administration over their daughter's punishment. Don and Beth Drake say their daughter Adrian won't serve the 60 hours of community service the school ordered as punishment. They say that's too excessive...and that Adrian is only guilty of a Class one failure to follow a directive. That carries a penalty of a parental conference. But Buckhorn High School Principal Tommy Ledbetter disagrees. He banned mortarboard tossing in 1981 out of concern that someone in the audience could be injured. Ledbetter says Drake's diploma will be withheld until she performs 60 hours of community service.

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