“Respect Is Earned” — Girl Refuses to Shake Hands With Principals Who Didn’t Help Her With Bullying

One student is going viral at her high school's graduation for refusing to shake hands with her principal because of their purported lack of assistance when she was getting bullied. Sarah Delaney (@sarahdhammond) uploaded footage of her sister making her graduation walk on TikTok, where it accrued nearly 40 million views.

A text overlay that's visible from the onset of Sarah's video delineates the young woman's grievances with her school's administration.

The text reads: "POV: Your baby sister was bullied all year and her principals did nothing to help, so she refused to shake their hands at her graduation."

In a caption for the post, the social media user indicates that she respects her sibling's decision to demonstrably showcase how she was unsatisfied with the school's lack of a response to her bullying woes.

As she walks across the stage, two of the school's administrators extend their hands to shake Laura's hand.

However, as the young woman walks past them, she indicates that she is unwilling to shake their hands. With her left palm, she waves them away as if to say, "no" before heading towards a woman handing out degrees on stage.

As she continues to walk across the stage, she does clearly shake the hand of another woman on the stage before ultimately descending the stairs on the opposite side. Here, other students gather and wait on the floor for what seems to be a chance to pose for a group picture.

In a follow-up clip, Sarah thanked folks for liking and sharing the video of her sister's refusal to shake hands with her school's principals.

She posted on-screen captions that were appended to a series of pictures documenting her sister's day.

"To every single person who blew up the grad video of my sister taking a stand for herself ... THANK YOU! On behalf of our little family, THANK YOU! Here's some more photos from her grad weekend."

The first picture is a black and white snippet of her posing in front of a parking lot wearing her cap and gown.

The next picture appears to be a family photo including both Sarah and Lauren. Several women smile into the camera, all of them wearing sunglasses. Following that is a picture of Lauren in her gown again, wearing a yellow dress, posing beside Sarah.

It seems like they all went out to enjoy some time at a carnival, as two of the images in the slideshow shows the girls seated together on a theme park ride. They're all seated beside each other in one of the attractions designed to spin passengers around in circles.

School administration's being ineffective at, or downright reluctant to assist with bullying, appears to be a common enough occurrence for Psychology Today to write about.

The outlet highlighted a series of actions folks can take when it comes to an institution's lack of help for students who are being bullied.

The first suggestion listed in the article is for those affected by bullying to "document everything." Nailing down accurate dates and times for said incidents is paramount for this kind of work. This is especially the case for those who must escalate issues to county/superintendent leadership.

It's also vital if said bullying snowballs into a problem where law enforcement may need to get involved as well. Dates and times will allow investigators to have a timeline in which matters were addressed or if they were summarily ignored, and provide a strong case should legal proceedings take place.

Furthermore, the same write-up urges parents to "empower" students with coping mechanisms should they find themselves being bullied. Having them vocalize what a solution to the problem would be can help isolate the root cause of bullying, and then, parents can reverse engineer situations that'll assist in how they can work through these scenarios.

Additionally, Psychology Today recommends that bullied students surround themselves with advocates who have proven to be invested in assisting with the problem. Locating guidance counselors teachers, or other faculty/staff members could help in this scenario.

Above all, the article says that "facts" and evidence take precedence over all in matters pertaining to bullying. The aftermath of experiences and feelings, while difficult to manage and navigate for many can be overwhelming. However, whoever instigated said bullying, words said and actions taken matter most.

Numerous commenters who replied to Sarah's video stated that they agreed with her sister's decision to withhold a handshake from the school's principals.

As one person put it: "Respect is earned not given. Why would she show respect to someone who wasn’t there for her?"