A group of black students who just graduated from the #UniversityOfFlorida on Saturday have received a formal apology from the university. The students claim that one of the staffers forcibly rushed them off of the stage when they attempted to do a celebratory dance after receiving their diplomas.
The incident caused immense backlash from students like Mackintosh Joachin who said, “This is absolutely disgusting, these students have paid more (than) $40,000 in tuition and if they want to dance for 4 secs then it’s their prerogative.”
Nafeesah Attah was one of the students who was ushered off the stage and was deeply offended, because her dance was a “symbolic gesture and a tribute to her sorority,” according to @CNN.
“He really aggressively pushed me and put his hands on me, and really took away that moment of me celebrating my graduation,” Attah told @HLN. “It was directly targeted and contingent upon your race. There were other students prior to us going up there who were white who did back-flips and took selfies, who did a spin on stage and they were not handled in the same regard.”
UF was forced to issue an apology later that day. “The University is proud of the achievements of every single one of our graduates and regrets that any celebration of the day may have been diminished by those monitoring a graduation ceremony,” they tweeted.
On Sunday, the university’s president, Kent Fuchs, tweeted another apology and said that he is personally reaching out to the students who were rushed off the stage.
“During one of this weekend’s commencement ceremonies, we were inappropriately aggressive in rushing students across the stage. I personally apologize, and am reaching out to the students involved,” said Fuchs.
“The practice has been halted for all future ceremonies, and we will work to make sure all graduating students know we are proud of their achievements, and celebrate their graduation with them.”
What are your thoughts, Roommates?
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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/05/07/black-students-celebrating-their-graduation-say-a-marshal-shoved-them-away-from-the-stage/
