Videos of an usher dragging several black graduates off stage prompted outrage and an apology from the university’s president.
The University of Florida apologized after students complained about an usher who aggressively dragged several graduates — many of whom were black — off the stage during their commencement ceremony on Saturday.
Christopher Garcia-Wilde, a 22-year-old graduate, told the Gainesville Sun that two of his friends wanted to celebrate getting their diplomas by strolling "which is a cultural tradition in historically black fraternities and sororities."
"It’s a tradition to stroll at graduation if you choose to, and people have been doing this for years," he said, adding that he was "too afraid" to stroll because he saw the usher shoving other people.
University of Florida President W. Kent Fuchs acknowledged that the employee was "inappropriately aggressive in rushing students across the stage" and apologized to the students involved.
He also said the practice had been halted for all future ceremonies.
"We will work to make sure all graduating students know we are proud of their achievements and celebrate with them their graduation," Fuchs said in his statement. He repeated the comments at another commencement ceremony on Sunday.
University spokesperson Margot Winick told BuzzFeed News that the matter was still under review and did not address questions about wether the official would face any disciplinary action.
She said Fuchs had personally called each of the students impacted to apologize and "to let them know that the practice of physically interfering with students’ celebrations to rush them across the stage has been stopped from the graduation ceremonies thereafter."
Attah said she had planned what she wanted to do on stage "to celebrate my story, all of my hard work I'd done at the University of Florida."
"I tried to do one of my stroll moves, but I was instantly like blocked by one of the officials on stage and they aggressively pushed me off the stage after that," she told ABC News. "So I was definitely disappointed they took that moment from me because I can only get my bachelors once."
Describing his experience to the Gainesville Sun, Telusma said, "I had just started... and he picked me up and turned me around, which I thought was kind of embarrassing and degrading to be handled in that manner. It was just really uncalled for, especially for anyone not martially trained to do that."
Telusma said he believed the situation was racially motivated.
"It’s a situation where time and time again the university has made black bodies feel unsafe," he said.
from BuzzFeed - USNews https://ift.tt/2wk1VZM
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