Philadelphia teen denied diploma after dancing on stage
"I was so embarrassed. I couldn't even enjoy the rest of the graduation," Hafsah Abdur-Rahman said.
A Philadelphia teenager said her high school graduation moment was “stolen” from her after she was denied a diploma for dancing across the stage.
Hafsah Abdur-Rahman, 17, said students at The Philadelphia High School for Girls were given advance notice that their families were not permitted to applaud or cheer during graduation proceedings on June 9, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Despite relaying the rule to her family, who remained silent as Abdur-Rahman danced “The Griddy” across the stage once her name was called, Principal Lisa Mesi was seen on video refusing to hand over the diploma.
“She stole that moment from me,” Abdur-Rahman told 6ABC. “I will never get that again.”
“I was so embarrassed. I couldn’t even enjoy the rest of the graduation,” she added.
Abdur-Rahman said Mesi told her onstage that due to making the “crowd chuckle,” she had broken the rule, as reported by the Inquirer.
Despite receiving her diploma after the ceremony had concluded, Abdur-Rahman and her family are decrying the school’s policy — which similarly penalized another student for flipping her hair and making a hand gesture toward the crowd during the ceremony — as unfair.
“It’s 2023, a lot has happened,” her mother, Jaszmine Reid, told 6ABC. “These girls went through COVID together. Our kids are not even living up to see high school. I understand traditions and rules are set in place for a reason, and we’re not saying they should be broken, but it might need to be revised also.”
According to the Inquirer, video footage of the incident was met with mixed responses from social media users. Some of whom upheld that broken rules must have consequences, while others deemed the penalty inappropriate for the context, particularly during an otherwise proud moment in the lives of young Philadelphians, many of whom overcame difficult odds to reach that point.
“Stop policing Black joy,” Keziah Ridgeway, a social studies teacher and Girls’ High alumnus told the Inquirer. “In a time period where you have so many of our children dying, not graduating, this is something to be celebrated.”
In a statement to the Inquirer, the School District of Philadelphia said: “The District does not condone the withholding of earned diplomas based on family members cheering for their graduates. We apologize to all the families and graduates who were impacted and are further looking into this matter to avoid it happening in the future.”
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