WATERLOO, Iowa – Recent graduates in Iowa are mocking their high school after hundreds received misspelled diplomas in “Waterlook.”
“In witness whereof, we have hereunto affixed our signatures at Waterlook, Iowa, this thirteenth day of May, 2017,” the diplomas read, according to KCRG.
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“Everyone thinks it’s really funny just because you wouldn’t expect that to happen,” student Ben Hadzidedic told the news site, adding that some are joking online about graduating from “Waterlook” West.
“Everyone’s just been talking about it,” he said.
Principal Andy Miehe issued a statement to parents blaming the district’s print vendor, Indiana based Herff Jones, for the error. He also promised that the district is working to replace the diplomas over the next couple of weeks, KCCI reports.
“I want to apologize to each of our graduates and their families for the mistake and I would like to assure you that a solution is in the works,” Miehe wrote. “West High is in the process of re-sending our graduation list to Herff Jones so that they can reprint each of our diplomas.”
Herff Jones also apologized.
“We are deeply sorry for our shortcoming in delivering a quality product to the graduates of Waterloo, which has in turn marred the significant and most celebrated milestone of commencement,” a Herff Jones spokesman told WREX. “We accept full responsibility for the error and we are working diligently to reproduce each diploma with the correct spelling at no cost, which will be directly mailed to each graduate.”
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The spokesman said the company added a second proofreading process to avoid another problem in the future.
Students who spoke with KWWL didn’t seem to care the diplomas, which they on Tuesday, weren’t correct.
“I actually never looked at it,” graduate Katie Pond said. “I got so busy right after the ceremony I never seen it until someone else had made the comment to me.
“It’s so minuscule I didn’t even notice it,” she said.
Her mother, Heather Pond, simply shrugged it off.
“I think if parents start to make a big deal about it, it takes away from the whole graduation,” she said. “I mean be proud of them, they did it … the paper is getting fixed it’s just a minor thing.”
Kaite Pond said she thinks most of her classmates share her perspective on the misspelling.
“I just think we are all happy that we did graduate,” she told KWWL. “It’s just a piece of paper … we all know we graduated and it doesn’t reflect on our last four years, we all had a great time.”


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