Principal Blasted For Denying Graduation Walk

Feat was dream of disabled senior


By ANDREA JONES
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

Berkmar High principal Jim Markham said he has fielded a slew of angry phone calls and
e-mails for denying a handicapped high school senior a walk across the school's
graduation stage last week.

But he said Tuesday he sticks by the decision, which the student, Masha Malikina,
considers "incredibly cruel" and plans to challenge.

"It was an issue of safety," Markham said. "It was one of the hardest decisions I've
ever had to make."

Markham forbid Malikina, who was paralyzed after a 1999 car wreck, from using leg braces

and a walker to accept her diploma Thursday night. Instead, the honor student crossed
the stage in a wheelchair.

Malikina had practiced walking across the stage during graduation rehearsal Thursday
morning, and Markham said he was concerned by what he saw.

"She had leg spasms twice and nearly fell," he said. "Her walker was leaning from one
side to the other."

Markham said he believed the portable stage set up for graduation would be unsafe for
the walker, and he tried to convey that to the girl's mother prior to the ceremonies.

Malikina said Markham's decision crushed a dream she'd been striving toward for two
years. "Walking across the stage was the most important thing in the world to me," she
said Tuesday. "It was supposed to be a defining moment, a mountain I had climbed."

Malikina said she begged administrators to reconsider. Her mother even signed a form
that would release the school from any liability.

"I thought it was incredibly cruel," Malikina said. "I had practiced so hard for this
day." Malikina said her doctors had given her the go-ahead, and she was shocked at the
last-minute derailment of her plans.

"I was told that it was a time issue, that they were afraid I would take too long," she
said. "No one ever said they were concerned about leg spasms."

Malikina and her mom, Nina, said they plan to bring the issue before the school board
and push forward with state and federal complaints. "If Mr. Markham said he didn't want
me to hurt myself," Malikina said, "not letting me walk across the stage hurt me worse
than anything he could have ever done."