Open Season On Black Girls?

Let's see ... we have one black girl who cannot walk in her graduation because she is pregnant (yet the father can), another black girl who was listed only as 'black girl' in the yearbook because no one knew how to spell her name and now a black girl who says she suddenly became a target once she started dating a white boy and will not be able to participate in her graduation either.

"An honor student says she is being banned from graduation because she is involved in an interracial relationship. CBS 2 News first brought you the story Tuesday night at eleven. Now hear what the archdiocese has to say about it.

The school, through an archdiocese spokesman, says the student in question has a history of disciplinary problems. But the black student and her white boyfriend say the problems seemed to coincide with their budding romance.

Aisha O'Gilvie remains barred from Saturday's graduation ceremonies at our Lady Of Lourdes high school in Poughkeepsie. The cheerleader and honor student has filed a racial discrimination complaint with the Dutchess County Human Rights Commission claiming her troubles are the result of her teenage romance with Nick Hoxie, a popular school athlete.

“It never happened before until me and Nick started dating. That's when all this started happening,” says Aisha O'Gilvie, barred from graduation.

Not so, says a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York.

But, Aisha, her parents and her boyfriend are all upset over the decision, which came to head last week over an attempt to retrieve a yearbook during class. Nick was disciplined but she got hammered.

“I'm the one who did the serious act and I'm still in school and she did nothing of the sort. She was following the rules and she got kicked out, “says Nick Hoxie, the victim’s boyfriend."

I'd like to discount the girl's claims but it is so similar to something that happened to me (albeit 20+ years ago) that I'm going to err on her side. I had a part-time job as a cashier at a major department store and had a casual friendship with a white stock boy (he had a girlfriend, mind you). We worked in the same cashier booth so, naturally, spent a lot of time chatting.

This drove a couple people in upper management crazy and everytime they saw us talking, he'd get sent up to the dark stock room to "straighten out the boxes of lamps." I ultimately called them on it when they decided that, after two years, I needed to be moved to a different department. The response "well, yes, you and are always talking!" (Since when do co-workers in the same department for 20 hours per week not talk)?

When the Operations Manager couldn't come up with any answer other than that, I decided that - despite being one of the top two cashiers in the store - I could take my cash register skills elsewhere. Did my friendship continue for quite some time afterwards? Most certainly.