Let’s Squash Some Palladium Rumors
The staff of Park Cities People has been busy reporting on what happened at the Palladium Ballroom on Thursday night. I just wanted to clear up a few misconceptions from the earlier post.
1. We’ve spoken to the freshman girl’s mother. She said her daughter was released from Children’s Medical Center on Saturday and returned to school on Monday. “Just know that she is healthy, and she is fine,” the mom said.
2. The three arrested seniors will be allowed to walk across the stage at Moody Coliseum on Friday night and receive their diplomas along with the rest of their classmates. “The students were cited for something that occurred off campus, which is an important distinction,” said HPISD spokeswoman Helen Williams. “If there had been alcohol use on campus, one of the consequences might have involved graduation ceremonies.”
3. The Secret Service is helping the Dallas Police Department investigate the fake IDs. The FBI is not.
We’ll have more in this week’s edition of Park Cities People.
49 comments to "Let’s Squash Some Palladium Rumors"
Please tell me you are kidding. Walking across the stage to receive one’s diploma is an honor and a privilege; does the district sincerely believe that illegal, unhonorable behavior is award-worthy simply because it occurs off campus? I am honestly shocked by this; you could not send a worse message to the graduating class with this decision. Way back in 1968, my own brother wasn’t allowed to participate in his own commencement exercise due to a similiar offense and he was also a winner of an Arts & Languages prize. You can bet this made an impact on him, just like it would if these 3 guys had to sit at home and watch the proceedings on the HP TV channel. Would this ridiculous policy still hold if a student had been charged with rape off campus? Or assault? Or a drunk driving fatality? I really can’t believe HPISD is willing to do this…such a disappointment.
I have a middle school son and daughter. I keep telling them there are precious consequences to thier choices and actions, some that I control and some that are controlled by others. Help me out here. Show that there are consequences to this behavior.
Everything we do teaches a lesson – some good, some bad. Unfortuntately with the school’s decision, they are teaching that the actions of these kids is acceptable.
I believe just possessing the ID’s is a crime let alone selling it. Did every student that had one keep it at home or did they keep it in their possession?
Flash back: Last Thursday afternoon the Man-in-Black, in the body of an SMU student, showed up at HPHS and handed out fake ID’s to really good, but slightly disillusioned, kids with a promise to get them off the island (high school property) and make the wildly popular if they would just follow him to the other side of Dallas (Palladium Ballroom).
Flash sideways: Once there, the freshman girl drank herself to a .40 before passing out face first in commode water and vomit. The “others” didn’t find her until she had already suffered permanent brain damage but she was alive so it was no big deal. In the mad dash to get back to the bubble the 3 boys took off the wrong way down Wycliff and met an eighteen wheeler head on. Two of the boys were killed but the driver lived, albeit as a paraplegic.
Flash forward: Every spring the girl with brain damage and the paraplegic boy are delivered to the high school in their wheelchairs to tell their stories (at least the boy tells his story because the girl can’t really talk with the brain damage and all) at the “Don’t Drink and Drive” and “Don’t Drink till You Pass Out in Commode Vomit Water” assembly. The students look away because that all happened a long time ago and they have video messages to send on the G17 iPhones. The Man-in-Black, now a senior at UT, smiles and hands out more fake eye scans as the students exit the assembly.
The Bubble Circle of Life.
plenty of other students were there and were engaging in the same illegal activity as these three boys (one of whom was caught because he, unlike the others, chose to help the freshman girl) but they weren’t caught. why should the lucky ones that didn’t get any consequences get to walk while the scapegoats don’t?? it isn’t for you to decide. I’m glad you aren’t the spokesperson (who by the way doesn’t make the decisions.)
they should get to walk. they were doing nothing worse than the other seniors there. you should get your facts straight. it wouldn’t be fair for them to miss out on this huge ceremony because of this when their friends who were drunk w/ fake IDs at the palladium too get to walk. and by the way, seniors have been getting pulled out of class all week about their fake IDs. it is a large fraction of the grade. you can’t just penalize these guys without penalizing the rest of the grade as well. stop being so closeminded and cruel. why do you care so much that they miss out on this opportunity? I think they deserve it even more than the people who didn’t get caught. at least one of them helped the girl and they all had to deal with the public humiliation and scrutiny of it all. lets just be nice! they aren’t any worse than any one else.
and @huh-there are drugs sold on campus (discreetly of course) too which in my opinion is worse and you have no way of knowing if he sold them on campus or off.
@MK: Instances of rape and assault are addressed in the code of conduct and extracurricular code of conduct:
http://www.hpisd.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=jV7-aHjX15w%3d&tabid=15617
http://www.hpisd.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=oey00Kfc3k0%3d&tabid=15618
come on guys! this site needs grammar police
Listen, I did many of the same things as a kid, but I always knew that it was wrong, and that if I got caught that there would be consequences. But then again, I had parents who held me accountable for my actions, and made many hard choices that made me “hate” them, but in the long run instilled values and a code of conduct in me that I hope to pass on to my children.
To suggest that there are no real consequences, that this is, after all, “no big deal” (based on the fact that the district wont punish these young men), that children fighting in middle school will face a more severe penalty, etc., ignores the reality that these young men will be punished, in a manner far worse than being denied participation in a high school graduation ceremony, and at a significant financial cost. They will have at worst a misdemeanor conviction, and possibly a felony conviction, on their records that will stay with them forever.
I just don’t understand that logic. When you knowingly break the rules/laws, you understand that you are taking a risk of getting caught and receiving the consequences, right? At the same time, you are hoping you don’t get caught and get away with it. It just doesn’t always fall in your favor.
Thankfully, people don’t get arrested every time they do something stupid. Apparently, you and I would both be in trouble there. They get arrested when they are caught breaking the law to the extent that it warrants arrest.
The writer “seriously?” proves my point in eloquent ways I couldn’t even imagine. If this is what passes for ethics and morality, the next generation is in serious trouble.
AMEN!!
what point did I prove? I just don’t think this is fair no matter how we handle it. is it fair for a senior who decided not to help the girl to get to walk while the one who did doesn’t because he helped her and got caught b/c of that? of course it would be better if no one got drunk or had fake IDs or broke the law, but this IS high school and of course we are going to have issues like that. the problem is how many people are doing it. as a high school student, the initial shock of drinking/drugs/etc has worn off and its crazy how commonplace it is. Kids with 4.0s and up are smoking pot and drinking all the time. these aren’t just the stupid partiers. you’d be amazed. I bet you 80%+ of our school is involved in something illegal whether it be fake IDs, drinking, etc etc. it hasn’t really become a serious health/safety issue till now since most kids don’t drive after drinking (one good thing about us haha) but since someone almost died, everything is blowing up. I don’t really know what the argument is here. I don’t think they should get a huge punishment and I think that they should get to walk at graduation but that is because they have learned their lesson (she almost died! if that doesn’t put them in their place, I don’t know what will) and because the school/law hasn’t punished the other 75% of kids who drink and break the law in other ways, so why these 3? especially since what caught them was a good deed.
Sorry for partying.
I hope that everyone involved in this case learned their lesson before something tragic occurs.
If I ever need a firing squad, I know where to go.
It’s like a law of nature. When there are no consequences for misbehavior, the misbehavior continues and gets worse.
I would hate to be the school district trying to make decisions knowing that they could get sued (or worse called out on this blog
) for making a decision that parents were unhappy with.
Apparently, some IDs cost as much as $400.
Only the best for HP kids!
You are absolutely right … you have made a great point!
@M I was eighteen when I graduated, maybe he had to repeat when he was younger, so how is that in any way sad at all?
Matt–I think they made a movie once about a high schooler with a lucrative side business. I’ll give you a hint: the star uttered the infamous line “Who was I to say no?”
If a few of these parents would get some backbone and actually be PARENTS, a lot of this crap could be stopped immediately. You want to go out with your friends tonight? NO! You want to have a beer party here at our house this Friday? You want $200 to buy a fake ID? NO!
Sheesh – it’s not that hard parents. Grow a pair and grow up yourselves!
You’re my hero. Sheer brilliance. The “aura of aloofness”, shared by many this district, as well as a couple of the PCP bloggers and their minions, is nauseating.
Money is power, but will definitely not buy you class!
I know for a fact that there are decent, hard-working and humble families here, yet it’s those who think because they write “Big Checks” to Mad for Plaid, or any other HPISD organization, that this gives them sense of entitlement to bash others.
All is not lost my friends, look at KMOM’S post about how all of those wonderful, well-behaved HP teens at her pool-party. That gives comfort to a parent of an MIS’er staring down 7 more years HPISD.
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