Stockton senior banned from graduation

St. Mary’s High says her tweet damaged its image

STOCKTON — Alexis Irvine should be looking forward to walking across the stage to receive her diploma from St. Mary’s High School. Instead, she will not be allowed to attend the ceremony after she criticized the school on social media.

“They were very harsh, very unprofessional,” Irvine, 17, said, adding that the private Catholic school in north-central Stockton isn’t following its own motto: “Be who you are and be that well.”

Earlier this week, Irvine posted on her personal Twitter account part of a college admission essay she wrote on the topic of education versus sports programs at schools. She wrote that St. Mary’s High repetitively puts more time and money into improving its athletics program rather than into the classroom.

“Throughout the four years I attended there was cockroaches throughout the high school and cafeteria, we used the same instruments in all my science classes for all four years with half of them being damaged or not able to perform the tasks we needed for the tests,” she wrote.

“If Saint Mary’s would put more effort into the edu- cation, rather than sports and spending all the tuition money we had to pay which was almost $900 a month, towards each student athlete rather than the education and future of each student we would have a lot more students attending a university rather than a junior college.”

On Wednesday, Irvine said she received a phone call from St. Mary’s administration who told her that because of the post, she was barred from walking at graduation, scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday at University of the Pacific’s Spanos Center.

According to Irvine, school officials claimed that not only was the post damaging its reputation and creating a bad image, but parents may begin pulling future students out of admission.

“Then they said, ‘We’re not allowing you to get your cap and gown and we’re holding onto your diploma,’” said Irvine, who finished school early back in December.

“It was really heartbreaking ... I was being disrespected.”

Cynthia Martinez, Irvine’s mother, said administration never offered to hold a meeting to try and resolve the issue. On Thursday, Martinez said she was told the school was sticking to its decision.

“The decision is very much extreme, it’s not fair to take such a big milestone away from my daughter and from our family,” Martinez said.

A meeting between St. Mary’s High and Irvine was announced to take place Friday morning to discuss the issue.

In a brief statement, St. Mary’s High said that Irvine broke the school’s electronic use policy. In it, the school reserves the right to make final decisions regarding use that is deemed unacceptable.

Among the following prohibited examples is the use of the school’s name or logos, or the use “that negatively impacts the school’s reputation.” Parents and guardians also are expected to monitor their child’s social media accounts as well as the content on their electronic devices.

The “Code of Behavior” states that administration “reserves the right to discipline students for conduct, whether inside or outside school, including but not limited to, use of any form of social media that is detrimental to the standards and reputation of the school.”

“The student’s posts on Twitter do not reflect nor support Saint Mary’s High School’s mission and philosophy,” the statement read. “The student is allowed to graduate but will not be participating in the graduation ceremony.”

What should be a day to celebrate a major life achievement as she heads into her next journey in education at Sonoma State University, Irvine will have to watch from afar. She alleges that the school told her if she arrives at the ceremony, she will be escorted out by security.

“My family is devastated,” she said. “The fact that they can take that away so quickly is so very harsh.”

Martinez said she wasn’t aware at first that her daughter posted part of her college essay on social media. While she feels the post was unnecessary to make public in the first place, Irvine has every right to express herself.

“The consequence by St. Mary’s doesn’t match what my daughter did,” Martinez said. “I don’t feel like she truly did something wrong. There was no threat to anyone or anything.”