Miscommunication, lack of restraint

You might have seen it by now, that viral video of the principal of the Col. Ruperto Abellon National High School in Barangay Guisijanon, Laua-an, Antique, sternly ordering students wearing togas during a graduation ceremony to take them off, or else they cannot get onstage and receive their diploma.

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She reasoned that those wearing togas violated Department of Education orders to keep graduation ceremonies simple and inexpensive.

When some students and their parents resisted, she threatened to no longer distribute diplomas and instead told graduating students to get them from her office, before launching in a diatribe about how students should learn about discipline.

The tension further heightened after a student badmouthed her in front of the assembly and had to be restrained by his own mother.

How could all this have been avoided? Proper communication could have helped.