After missing high school diploma for owing just $4.80, US man finally gets it six decades later
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The school still had the original diploma of Sams in an old filing cabinet. When he finally walked across the graduation stage to receive the diploma at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, he was full of pride. Sams now plans to hang the diploma on a wall at his home
A man in the US has finally got his high school diploma at the age of 78. Ted Sams, could not get it back in 1962 even after sitting for the exams as he owed $4.80 for a book. In the last six decades, Sams regretted missing high school graduation and the joy of holding the degree or adorning the cap and gown. But finally, he was able to fulfill his dream and call himself a graduate as he got his diploma with the class of 2022 at Southern California's San Gabriel High School on Friday.
In 1962, Sams, who was a high school senior, got in trouble. He was suspended for five days before the end of the school year. Sams missed a crucial final exam and had to make it up over the summer, he said.
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"When I went back with my grade, they wouldn't give me my diploma because I owed $4.80 for a book. And so, I just walked away and said forget it," Sams told KABC-TV.
“Over the years, I complained to my kids a number of times about how $4.80 kept me from having my diploma,” Sams added.
But the school still had the original diploma of Sams in an old filing cabinet. When he finally walked across the graduation stage to receive the diploma at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, he was full of pride. Sams now plans to hang the diploma on a wall at his home.