School district to allow teacher to ring his cowbells at graduations
After a brief silencing, Michael Armstrong’s cowbells will be heard at the conclusion of four Columbus public school graduations today.
Armstrong, an eighth grade math teacher and coach at East Columbus Magnet Academy, has a decade-long tradition of attending the high school graduations of his former students. As part of that, he waits until the names of all the graduates are called, then he starts ringing his cowbells.
Friday night before the Shaw High School graduation, a Muscogee County School District administrator sent Armstrong an email asking him to stop the practice of ringing the bells because the district had asked parents not to bring artificial noisemakers into the ceremonies at the Civic Center.
Armstrong’s tradition was reported Thursday in the Ledger-Enquirer and on ledger-enquirer.com.
Armstrong posted on Facebook that he would be halting the practice, one that students say they look forward to when they make it to graduation. What happened then can only be called a social media firestorm.
An example of the reaction came from Danita Gibson Lloyd on Facebook.
“What a shame the ringing of the cowbells by Michael A. Armstrong Sr. is being disallowed,” she wrote. “What a disappointment. Those who have banned this much-anticipated ringing of the bells have no idea the very strong symbolism and meaning this has for students. With every ringing of the bell, Mr Armstrong is keeping a promise. He promised to be there figuratively and literally to the end of that chapter of their academic journey culminating in their proud march across the stage, moving of the tassel and then at the very end when you think it's all over but the shouting, HERE COME THE BELLS!!!”
The school district’s Chief Academic Officer Keith Seifert met with Armstrong briefly Saturday morning before the Hardaway High graduation and told the teacher he would be allowed to ring the bells at the end of the graduation ceremonies.
“Our concern is that this takes off and individuals names can not be heard,” Seifert said. “Mike hasn’t broken the rules.”
Armstrong said he shares Seifert’s concerns and has always waited until the final name is called before ringing the bells. The school district has a strict policy that if anyone cheers or makes noise while the names are being called, they will be escorted out of the building and their child will have to do community service.
“Mr Seifert brings up a valid point,” Armstrong said. “We share the same concern about making sure every child’s name can be heard when it is called. This is about ‘The Moment’ and I would not do anything to deny a child and his family hearing the name called.”
Not long after he was cleared to bring the bells into the Hardaway, Jordan, Carver and Spencer graduations today, Armstrong alerted his large social media following of the district’s change of heart.
“The bells will ring!!” he posted. “THE BELLS! WILL!! RING!!!!!!!!!”
Armstrong has two former students in the Hardaway class, two at Jordan, 17 at Carver and 45 at Spencer. He has at least one student in all nine of the graduating classes. He has a total of 118 former middle school students graduating.
This story was originally published May 21, 2016 at 9:32 AM with the headline "School district to allow teacher to ring his cowbells at graduations."