Student Denied Diploma After Blowing Kiss-Superintendent Keeps Diploma From Bonny Eagle H.S. Student

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STANDISH, Maine -- Justin Denney's family watched as he ascended the Cumberland County Civic Center stage during graduation Friday night to accept his diploma, but the superintendent told him to return to his seat.

The Bonny Eagle High School senior's mother said she can't believe her son's taking a bow and blowing a kiss on stage led was grounds for the superintendent to withhold his diploma.

Mary Denney wants an apology, and her son wants his diploma, reported WMTW-TV in Portland, Maine.

"I'm like, 'Did she not hand him his diploma?' I'm like, 'What's going on?'" Mary Denney said.

She said she and Justin both signed a code of conduct regarding the graduation when she picked up graduation tickets on Friday, but she doesn't think he violated it.

"There was no misbehavior. Showboating is not misbehavior," Mary Denney said. "A bow, a kiss to your mom is not misbehavior. There was no need of my son not getting his diploma."

WMTW tried to contact the district's superintendent and the school's principal, but neither returned the calls by Monday evening.

Before the school began handing out diplomas, some students pulled out beach balls. One student was forced to sit away from his classmates with staff while police escorted another student behind the stage.

"No arrests were made," Cumberland County Sheriff's Department Deputy Chief Kevin Joyce said. "The individual that was escorted off the stage was asked to leave the civic center. He was to the point where the deputy was starting to get to the point where he wanted to arrest the individual, but gave him several opportunities to settle down. Eventually, he took off his cap and gown and threw it at the deputy and walked out the civic center."

The deputy returned to the crowd and took another beach ball away from the students, but Mary Denney said School Area District 6 Superintendent Suzanne Lukas was still upset.

"When she got up there and started speaking, they threw out a couple more balls and she turned around and said, 'More people may not be graduating today if this continues,'" Mary Denney said.

While in his seat or waiting in line for his diploma, Justin Denney never touched a beach ball, his mother said. After his name was called, he took a bow, blew a kiss to his family and pointed to friends, but he didn't get his diploma, leaving a whole family in disbelief.

"I said, 'What did she ask you?' And, he goes, 'She said, 'There's no fooling around up here,' and he just kind of looked at her because he wasn't fooling around," Mary Denney said. "He didn't consider that fooling around or misbehaving in any sense of the word, and she goes, 'Why do you feel you deserve your diploma?' He goes, 'Because I worked hard and I earned it,' and she goes, 'No, go take your seat.'"

The crowd booed, but Justin Denney still doesn't have his diploma. Now, his mother wants her son to get what he's worked so hard for.

"It was appalling, and I want justice for my son. I want her to apologize to my son and I want her to hand him his diploma while he is in his cap and gown," Mary Denney said.

Both of Justin Denney's grandparents are ill and one of their wishes was to see their grandson graduate from high school, Mary Denney said.

Mary Denney said she is planning a graduation party for her son in two weeks, which, by then, she said she hopes she will have a photograph of her son with his diploma.