Well, it seems that Bonny Eagle had more such incidents during this year's ceremony (oh, the horror!). They confiscated some beach balls, escorted one young man backstage and separated friends. The last thing we want is for graduates to have fun during this event. Anyway, Lukas probably was already in a bad mood when Denney thanked his family on stage.

"He just kind of looked at her because he wasn't fooling around," said Mary Denney. "He didn't consider that fooling around or misbehaving in any sense of the word." According to an interview with a former student, the so-called contract said nothing about behavior like Denney's, and even if it did, it shouldn't have. "There was no misbehavior; Showboating is not misbehavior," Mary told WMTW. "A bow, a kiss to your mom is not misbehavior."

We used to say it was nice.

A couple of years ago, I wrote that graduation ceremonies are fine right up until the part when adults get involved. Administrators put everyone to sleep with their windy, cliched speeches, which pale in comparison to the refreshing, humorous talks given by graduates. Now we've got a woman with no common sense denying diplomas to kids who earned them.

Suggestion: From now on, adults are banned from taking part in graduation ceremonies, period — unless they want to pump up beach balls backstage.

If we have more than 1 million kids a year dropping out of high school, do we care if they get a little silly on graduation day? Denney is described as a good student, a popular, outgoing classmate and a track star who was a good sport and shook hands with his competitors.

Whatever line Lukas was trying to draw in the sand, was it worth humiliating a kid in front of family and peers and denying him his diploma? Was it worth erasing his four years of work toward that goal?

No matter what happens, Lukas ruined graduation day for hundreds of kids and their families.

Doug Robinson's column runs on Tuesdays. Please send e-mail to drob@desnews.com