High school senior with cancer not allowed to graduate?

Question

Has anyone else seen this?

http://www.news10.net/display_story.aspx?storyid=42732

High school senior has failed to complete one (1) class due to surgeries and radiation treatment. She is all ready doing work to make up the class but won't finish until after graduation. The school will not let her participate in the graduation ceremony with her classmates. They won't even allow her to walk in and sit with them! She is going to sit in the bleachers in her cap and gown and watch. I thought teachers were supposed to care about their students. I guess not in Woodland, CA.

Answer 1

My god...where's the compassion? If anyone has lost a young woman to cancer as my family has....you would turn over the earth to give them whatever possible.  So what she has to finish a class that will take a couple of months!!!! This is a memory that cannot be recreated in a couple of months!!!

I hope the media attention this will get will force the school district to take a second look......Woodland, CA  -  you should be ashamed!!!!

Answer 2

WITWWATS!!!!!!!

Did you even read or watch the story?

She is not like " All the lazy, criminal, pregnant, couldn't-care-less" you refer to.  She is DYING from CANCER!!!! The odds are she will die by the end of the year.

She wants to participate in a CEREMONY for God's sake!!!

All over the country high school and college students are allowed to go to graduation for the ceremony and get acknowledged for their efforts.  It is not about the diploma but the unique and once in a lifetime experience the graduation ceremony is.

She is all ready doing the work which is required of her and she has every intention on finishing..that is if the cancer doesn't put her down again.

I hope you never have to watch your child go through what this girl has.

The fact that the school, and you, can not show any compassion for what this girl has gone through is sad. You have my pity.

Answer 3

Tell them how you feel!

[e-mail] - School Superintendent

[e-mail] - school principal

[e-mail] - vice principal

[e-mail] - vice principal

[e-mail] - vice principal

[e-mail] - School board member

[e-mail] - school board member

[e-mail] - school board member

[e-mail] - school board member

[e-mail] - school board Vice President

[e-mail] - school board President

Answer 4

Gypsy Doodle,

Thank You for the contact info for the Woodland school district.  I just phoned them and told them how unhappy I was with their decision.

I want to praise Ms Freddie Oakley, Recorder for Yolo County who has publicly spoken up for the family (Lupe Ramirez, Leanna's mother is employed by the Yolo County Recorders office). What an AWESOME BOSS!!!

Answer 5

Are you kidding me? There is no compassion in that school. She's been through radiation and trying to finish her work. Do you know how much that takes out of a person. And then I just read through the comments...some people were demeaning the teen as if she was being lazy! What is that? Before anyone comments they should go to CNN and watch the video. This girl has been through a lot and finished ALL of her work except for this one class. AND she has already made the deal to finish the class in summer school. Its not like she is trying to get a "get a diploma for free" She's been working her butt off and this is how the school repays her. Lets put you or your kids in the same boat and see how your views would change. The school wouldn't even make an annoucement to acknowledge how hard she worked to get there. I hope that because it has made national television that the principle and the superintendent change their minds. I really would love this girl to be able to walk.

Answer 6

I saw this story on CNN this morning and it sickened me to watch it. This child has cancer; she went in for two surgeries and also had treatment afterwards. She wasn’t out party nor was she slacking. By reading some of these comment regarding this story that no one has had a family member or a close friend with cancer. Do you realize how quickly cancer can spread?! Do you know what can happen to a person’s body?! Do you know what it puts a family through?! All this child wants to do is to participate with her graduating class in the closing ceremony. She should be able to graduate!!!! As for the principle, someone should have taught you to have compassion and you need to get a new heart because the one you have is make of stone!

From, a person who lost her grandmother to bladder cancer April 21, 2007 and still hurting!

______________________________________...

June 6, 2008

I just was told by Leanna, that she is going to graduate tomorrow. I'm so happy!

Answer 7

I found this information on another website.  Let them know how you feel.

Woodland High telephone: [phone]

E-mail the principal: Evelia Genera - [e-mail]

Call the school district office: [phone]

- ask for the superintendent, Jacki Cottingim

Answer 8

This is unthinkable! Why would this be allowed, a young lady who spent her K-11 grade working toward the goal of obtaining her education then obstructed by quit literally the fight of her life. Now a Principle so unfeeling, uncaring to not let her walk the isle with her friends and classmates. She is not asking for her diploma without earning it, only to go through one of the life changing moments we all strive for. Graduation, walking the isle is not only a mark of grand achievement but the gateway to adulthood. Pass way to a new era of life, such as obtaining you drivers license, turning 21 or 30. College, marriage, children need I go on; those life changing moments that are strength enhancing memories of you life. I only hope the parents of the future graduating classes take time to ask , is this the tutelage I want my child to spend formative years under. Please parents voice yourself! This administrator needs to be educated in compassion and understanding. Hard fast laws are for criminals, not young people with life threatening illness.

Answer 9

Even colleges let students walk even though they are shy of the college classes they need. I know I did and did not receive my ACTUAL diploma until I finished the classes I needed. I was able to walk with my classmates that I started with.

Answer 10

May 6, 2008 Headline: Cancer teen to graduate Saturday at Woodland High School

"Elizalde received good news when Genera stopped by her house yesterday afternoon. The teacher whose class she didn't pass had a change of heart."

May 5, Healdine: SHE IS GOING TO BE ABLE TO WALK WITH HER CLASS! The principal just needed sometime to "think" and then reversed her decision.

Original Post: Just an update for those of you who are interested... I am actually from Woodland and news of this situation is not only causing a huge media uproar but a public one as well. Community members, teachers and students, in particular, are all speaking out, writing letters and showing Elizalde a ton of support. It is basically the Principal (who is relatively new), vice principals, and certain members of the school board who are against letting her walk, but from the commotion and plotting that is taking place in Woodland right now, I am sure the decision will be over turned by the graduation this Saturday if not at the School Board meeting that may take place tonight. And if the School Board does convene many Woodland citizens are gearing up to show up and show their support to let Elizalde walk with her class.

Student and teachers who are scheduled to speak at the graduation have also volunteered to mention Elizalde and her fight in their speeches.

For those of you who support the cause... keep your fingers crossed! Not all of Woodland is terrible just the Administration at Woodland High!

Answer 11

I bet she'll be allowed to participate now that this has hit the wire and there will be a media uproar.

Answer 12

Sure, we should just give away graduations for free.

All the lazy, criminal, pregnant, couldn't-care-less should just have  a diploma given to them to be "FAIR".

She has to complete all the classes.

Let me say that again, because it seems to be the issue:

SHE HAS TO COMPLETE ALL THE CLASSES!!!

Did she?  NO?  You sure?

OK, she doesn't graduate.

It may not be her fault, BUT IT'S NOT THE SCHOOLS FAULT, EITHER!

Give her yours, if you like, but DON'T ask the school to LIE.

Answer 13

I used to work for the American Cancer Society and I was so outraged when I saw the story (I live up in the foothills outside of Sacramento, CA) that I wrote the Superintendent of the school district a nasty-gram email.  She gave me this BS response that the files are "confidential" (which is true) and she can't share her side of the story and how the media is one-sided.  I'm a freelance writer so I know about confidentiality with sources and I can respect that but it has to do with empathy and being a community leader and doing the RIGHT thing.  I worked with pediatric cancer patients and I've seen the pain and suffering cancer patients endure.  How sad that they couldn't allow her just a few minutes of happiness after all the pain and suffering she has endured.  I hope her parents sue the school district--I would.

Woodland is a small community outside of the Sacramento area--supposedly a tight knit community that wouldn't turn its back on one of its community members but obviously not in this case.  It's absolute BS and of course, they are going to get national media coverage--this is wrong and it's discriminatory against that student.  I would be suing if it was my daughter!

Answer 14

She has failed to complete one (1) class. Case closed.

Answer 15

Yes I have and I plan on writing to this school because it makes me so angry. She isn't asking for a fake diploma only to be recognized by this class. She was trying to save her life and is being rewarded by a jerk for a principal. by not being allowed to sit with her fellow students, sounds fair to me.

Answer 16

With gas at over $4.00 a gallon, chaos in our economy, rising food prices, and thousands dead because of typhons or earthquakes in Asia,  there is an opportunity to provide a moment of inspiration and hope for the truimph of the human spirit.  

She's a cancer surivivor and despite her treatments,  she just missed the requirements to graduate. She just wants to walk with her friends and classmates.

I am surprised that this school system has not jumped on this opportunity as a source motovation during these troubled times.

Let her walk and participate with her class.