By David K. Li - NBC News
A Texas high school graduation ceremony was suspended after the district found that only five of the 33 future graduates were eligible to take the stage, authorities said Friday.
Marlin High School, about 120 miles (193 kilometers) south of downtown Dallas, had been set to deliver diplomas Thursday before the Marlin Independent School District revealed that a number of students were "not eligible due to attendance or grades."
In announcing the postponement of the ceremony, Superintendent Darryl Henson said students in his district "will be held to the same high standard as any other Texas student."
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"We maintain high expectations, not as an imposition, but as a show of faith in the abilities of our students," Henson said in a statement to the community.
Superintendent Henson and his staff audited student records last weekend to find that only five were eligible to graduate, district spokeswoman Leah Wayne told NBC News, Noticias Telemundo's sister network, on Friday.
The ineligibility stemmed from a myriad of reasons, including low grades, attendance, verification, and documentation issues.
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"They found some shortcomings in the data compared to what they thought it should be," Wayne said. "That's why they gave the students some extra time. They made the decision to postpone graduation so that more students could fix some of those problems."
Those ineligible students have been doing the remedial work and getting the proper forms signed — and as of Friday, 27 of the 33 students can now turn tassels, Wayne added.
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Students in the district's Alternative Education Program were also affected by the last-minute audit, which found that only two of those five students were eligible to walk.
That total is now up to three, so a total of 30 of 38 Marlin ISD students are now ready to cross the stage, according to the district.
The Marlin Institute in Texas was to celebrate its graduation this week, but postponed the ceremony because only a small portion of the seniors could graduate. Google Maps
Despite any inconvenience or embarrassment caused by the postponement, school officials insisted the decision was made in the best interest of students in the state-controlled system.
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"That's been the cornerstone of this administration: We're not going to cut spending. This school district was a bankrupt school district for ten years before it was taken over by the state," Wayne said.
"No student should just be passed through the system and that's part of the reason this audit was taken."
The date of a rescheduled graduation had not been set Friday.
