By SCOTT NILES Courier staff writer
May 16, 2008 12:49 am
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ALBIA — There are 81 names on the list of Albia High School graduates this year, but Britt deVisser is not one of them.
The 18-year-old foreign exchange student from Wassenaar, Holland is in the United States with the Associated Study Programs for Educational and Cultural Training (ASPECT) program.
But just four days before the graduation ceremonies commence Saturday night, deVisser was told she would not be able to be a part of the ceremony and would not be receiving a diploma.
“I didn’t know what to think. It was four days before graduation and they were telling me I was not going to be able to graduate,” deVisser said.
Her host mother, Shayla Brittain, said when deVisser came home from school on Tuesday, she had tears in her eyes.
The student was first placed at Ottumwa High School with a temporary host family, but a week later was transferred to the Brittain family where she then started attending classes at AHS.
“[OHS] told me I would be able to graduate and showed me the diploma that I would be getting,” deVisser said. “And when I transferred to Albia [High School], they didn’t tell me any differently.”
School officials insist they are not at fault either and that they have guidelines they must abide by.
“We have to go with what our requirements and policies are. We have to be consistent. This is a major situation when you are giving out diplomas,” said Superintendent Kevin Crall.
“We’ve had numerous years of foreign exchange students that have had great experiences at Albia High School and they have not received diplomas.”
“We have worked with two different agencies [over the years] that don’t recommend giving diplomas. They recommend giving a certificate of attendance if the exchange student is going to be part of the ceremony,” said Albia High School Principal Linda Hoskins.
ASPECT officials agreed with school officials.
“We do not guarantee a graduation. The only thing we guarantee them is a high school year experience,” said ASPECT Midwest Regional Director Linda Mayhugh.
She said it is part of the U.S. State Department’s guidelines that they do not guarantee certain privileges like graduation, driver’s education or a diploma.
“It is up to the individual schools if they give a diploma. If they have a policy, they have to abide by that. The schools can dictate what grade they’re in, whether they can take driver’s education, whether they can go to a graduation ceremony,” Mayhugh said.
“All of this is in our handbook that [deVisser] was given when she chose to participate in the program. It says we don’t guarantee graduation or a diploma or several other things.”
Mayhugh said deVisser has already graduated high school in her native Holland and it would not be fair to American students.
“They don’t come here to get diplomas, they come here to get the American experience,” Hoskins said.
The principal said officials have made announcements since September as to what the students needed for graduation and that deVisser did not come to her until Tuesday.
“When Britt was given a list of classes she had to take to graduate, she enrolled and took all of them and received excellent grades and met the requirements,” Brittain argued.
“That is false information; she has not met our requirements for graduation,” Hoskins countered.
However, deVisser said she was never told that she did not meet the requirements for graduation or even what those requirements were. She said she took all the classes school officials told her to take and thought she would be able to get her diploma for doing so.
“Britt was under the assumption that she would be getting a diploma,” Brittain said.
AHS officials will allow deVisser to attend the ceremony and receive a certificate of attendance.
“Most of our foreign exchange students don’t even get that,” Hoskins said.
“It’s better than sitting in the audience with my parents,” deVisser said. “They are flying all this way to see me graduate.”
She said she still considers herself a graduate of Albia High School, but it would have been nice to have the diploma.
Besides deVisser, Hoskins said only one other exchange student that she knows of has ever requested to participate in the ceremony.
“This has never been an issue before,” Crall said.
“I really think the school didn’t do their part in informing us earlier about these things though,” Brittain said.
Crall concedes ASPECT is a new program that they are working with and everyone involved is guilty of making assumptions.
“I guess we’ll learn for next time,” he said.
Scott Niles can be reached at (641) 683-5360 or via e-mail at sjniles@mchsi.com.
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