The Cost of Snobbery

Nine girls in the senior class at Royal Oak (Mich.) High School went through graduation ceremonies last week, but they didn't graduate. They got blank diplomas instead. It was Principal Miles W. Marks's way of punishing them for belonging to high-school sororities, illegal in Michigan.

Marks had warned them all a year ago that he would have no organized cliques in his school, and the girls promised to disband. When he found out that three societies were still going, Principal Marks docked each of the 36 offenders ten study credits--to be made up in summer school. For seniors, that meant no graduation.

The issue was one which troubled many a U.S. schoolmaster, and many a parent. In Royal Oak, Principal Marks was damned by some parents as harsh and hasty. But a few supported him. Said Lawyer Gilbert Davis: "My 16-year-old daughter and I knew it was illegal. I drove her home from the initiation when she reeked from the cheese they rubbed in her hair, and I gave her $12 for the pin. I let her do it because there's enough snob in me to be proud when my daughter gets into something exclusive. It was wrong and now we'll have to pay for it."

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