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111111dl-rlechanges of the season and Incidents of travel always occasion.iliet-exl*ateEllen E. Shaw, a PluckyHigh School Girl)iREFUSED THE DIPLOMABecause She Had Earned a HigherOne and Considered HerselfUnfairly Treated~The Se-kri,rquel to Principal French’sToy Dorkey.sdree*In11vThe heroine of Woburn is Miss Ellen Eddy Shaw.On Tuesday night at the graduating exercises of the High School she publicly f | refused the diploma offered by Mayor Richardson with the explanation:“Your Honor, I refuse that diploma or any other, except a college course diploma which I have earned.’*It was a great day for the reading pub-i lie when Mr. L. H. W. French became principal of the Woburn High School, for since his reign the erstwhile monotonous proceedings of the school board and uneventful routine of the school year have t ! furnished a series of picturesque news-stories beginning, it will be remembered, with the “Tale of the Toy Donkey,** and reaching its climax of sensationalism in this “Drama of a Diploma/*Yesterday Miss Shaw was besieged by reporters and congratulating friends, andlast night at the reception to the graduating class at the residence of Mr. Beggs, she was the heroine of the occasion, and wore a white gown and a bouquet of blossoms and looked as demure and incapable of dramatics as any other little maid from school.ft was her mother who explained the situation to a. Post reporter in the pretty parlor of the Shaw residence along theleafy lane of South street.“We are sorry for all this sensationalism,” said Mrs. Shaw*, “but no other | * course lay open to my daughter but the one she took. You see, she had taken the college course, had studied hard and had « been successful in her studies, as all her % teachers have cordially admitted, and had looked forward w ith great pride to re- : -ceiving the college course diploma, which she had faithfully earned. She had no intimation that she was not to be given the diploma until on the afternoon ofthe day of graduation she read on the printed programme her name among the four years’ course graduates. She immediately went to Principal French for an explanation, and he gave as his excuse for depriving her of her diploma thatshe had not taken the full course of twoyears in German and was therefore not entitled to the diploma. She insisted that she was, for she had looked over the college catalogues and found that a year’s study of German was sufficient.UNFAIRLY TREATED.“It was then too late to call a meeting of the school committee to settle thequestion; besides, the programmes were already printed. If she had accepted the four years* course diploma instead of the college course diploma she had earned, it would have been a tacit acknowledgmentthat the principal was right and she was wrong, and that was not to be thought of. She considered that she had been treated her very unfairly, and her friends and fellow-students wrere also indignant over the injustice done her. So there onlyfs*!Cltremained for her a public refusal of the di-(ploma. It was the only thing to be clone under the circumstances, and the enthusiastic applauding, expression ut i sympathy, which followed, showed her j independent course met with general approval.“Today she has talked with Superintendent of Schools Richardson and members of the school board, individually, and found them favorably disposed to her, and a hearing will be granted at the next meeting of the hoard, which I will take place on Thursday of next j week. There Is little doubt but that she will receive her diploma, for she has ; -fairly earned It.” .A strong feeling has grown up in Wo- ) \ bum against Principal French because j ■ of his alleged arbitrary treatment of « students. The school committee has played the role of peacemaker, sustained the principal in the interest of discipline j and temporized with parents in the inter- 1 'est of public harmony. A toy donkey’s innocent gambols last wnnter threatened to disrupt the school, and Miss Shaw’s diploma is now rivalling it as a subject for Woburn discussion. The general ver-! diet is that Miss Shaw is a plucky girl, and the entire body of High School students are enthusiastically on her side. Miss Shaw is the daughter of ex-Coun-cllman Marcus M. Shaw, who is superintendent of the Woburn Iron Foundry.At the next, school board meeting interesting developments are expected.I!
Newspaper Details
Boston Post
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Thu, Jun 29, 1893
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 11 Jan 2021
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