High Class Gesture By Buffalo High School Principal

With so much attention being focused on declining graduation rates in Buffalo schools, there was no way the principal of Burgard High School was going to spoil the special day for one student.

The young man got his times mixed up, and when he and his family arrived at the school on Thursday, all his classmates were filing out with diplomas in hand.

Calvin Caurthon Jr. thought the ceremony was at 5 p.m., but it was really at 4. He was devastated. He was so proud he had worked hard enough to graduate and had spent the night before laying out his clothes. His special moment had been ruined by a dumb mistake, so with tears in his eyes, he approached principal Brian Wiesinger, hoping at least to get his diploma, but Wiesinger did one better.

For this one boy, the principal gathered together two assistant principals and a board member and did a personal graduation, complete with a shortened version of the speech he had given to the entire graduating class just an hour before.

And with that, a young principal turned what could have been a devastating moment in a boy's life into something positive. Here's more on the story in Saturday's Buffalo News.