Publix is a grocery store chain that operates in the Southern United States, mainly in the area known as the Bible Belt. This means they’re bound to have some wacky policies, including censorship regarding what they’ll write on a sheet cake. And when a proud mother ordered a cake for her son who was graduating summa cum laude, that sheet cake policy wouldn’t let employees write the word “cum” on the graduation cake.
#Publix censors a smart word on a graduation cake — because it looked dirty.https://t.co/lxXnEhRjMN @MiamiHerald @Publix pic.twitter.com/yfjYQsOoBg
— Howard Cohen (@HowardCohen) May 22, 2018
My first question is how is this the first time this has come up? Summa cum laude, magna cum laude, and cum laude are pretty common terms most high schools and colleges give to students graduating at the top of their class.
“The cake experience was kind of frustrating and humiliating because I had to explain to my friends and family like what that meant. And they were giggling uncontrollably. At least my friends were,” said Jacob Koscinski.
Jacob is the student, and I have no idea why a bunch of adults and high school students wouldn’t know what the word “cum” means.
Jacob graduated Saturday with the highest honors from a Christian-based home-schooling program.
Well, that explains it.
This is not the first time someone has made this joke about the phrase “cum laude”.
My high school just had honors and high honors, probably to avoid exactly these kinds of shenanigans.