Matthew Foster needs a bone marrow transplant, a procedure that could end his four-year battle and cure his leukemia-like disease. But it also has a good chance of killing him.

Before taking the risk, the Minot man decided he needed to do one last thing: watch his youngest son, McKyle, get his diploma.

“This is the only chance I get to see this,” Matthew said. “This only happens once in a kid’s life.”

So when McKyle’s high school graduation was set this year, the family planned everything – including the bone marrow transplant – around it.

But when Poland Regional High School has its graduation ceremony on Saturday, McKyle won’t be part of it.

Because the 18-year-old missed three English assignments, he won’t be allowed to march with his class.

“I can’t believe it; they’re educators,” said Matthew, a former school board member. “These people are supposed to care.”

The family admits that McKyle, who’s struggled to deal with his father’s illness, missed the work and waited until the last minute to make it up. But they say McKyle was stymied when he tried to find out what was overdue and administrators reacted heartlessly to his frustration.

They want the school to let him to graduate with his class.

The school says a Saturday graduation is no longer an option, and only McKyle is to blame.

“I believe the school has bent over backwards to give McKyle every opportunity to meet the established standards for graduation,” said Superintendent Nina Schlikin. “Each of us felt compassion for McKyle related to his father’s illness. On the other hand, however, a school must still abide by policies and procedures and maintain a level of standards of which they can be proud.”

The problem began earlier this year.

McKyle, an average student with no disciplinary problems, missed three English assignments: a paper, a book report and a poetry project. Students must pass in all assignments in order to graduate, but the school allows missed assignments to be made up throughout the year.

Since his classes allowed it, McKyle got in the habit of putting things off.

When students don’t make up the work, staff members meet with parents and send home warning letters. Because some seniors have waited until the very last minute – a day before graduation in some past cases – Poland Regional this year set May 24 as the final deadline.

The Foster family got all those warnings and knew about the deadline. McKyle said he went to his English teacher on May 21, the beginning of the last make-up week, to find out what he had overdue.

The teacher refused to tell him, saying McKyle should already know, the family said.

Frustrated, McKyle wrote the paper he thought was overdue. At noon on May 24, a few hours before the end-of-the-day deadline, the English teacher told him the paper wouldn’t be enough, the family said.

“He told him it’s too late,” said Mary Foster, McKyle’s mother.

McKyle was so upset that he talked about quitting school altogether. His parents say administrators met that with a shrug.

The family discovered work could be handed in after the May 24 deadline, but only if the teacher agreed and the principal approved. Over the next couple of days, McKyle’s mother bounced between the teacher and the principal. Each one pointed to the other, she said.

“I told the principal, the teacher says it’s up to you. You say it’s up to the teacher. I say we all need to get together,” she said.

On Thursday, the family met with Principal William Doughty and Schlikin, the superintendent. The administrators offered to hand McKyle his diploma during an awards ceremony for undergraduates, McKyle’s mother said.

The family was not impressed.

“I’m afraid they’re going to use him as their poster child: ‘Don’t let this happen to you. McKyle wasn’t able to walk with his class because he didn’t do everything right,'” Matthew said.

“That’s not what I’m looking for. I’d like him to get what he deserves,” he continued. “He’s worked for 13 years, too. He hasn’t done everything right, but there are a lot of kids walking who haven’t done everything right.”

School leaders say 105 students met Poland Regional’s requirements and will get to march with their class Saturday.

Two will not.

The superintendent said Poland Regional has graduation policies for a reason and it had to maintain standards.

“Not to do so really undermines the school and what the school stands for,” Schlikin said.

On Thursday night, McKyle completed his book report and poetry project, finishing the assignments he had outstanding. He said he’ll hand them in so he can get his diploma, even if it’s not Saturday.

He wants to walk across the stage for his dad. But he wants to put the ordeal behind him for his dad, too.

“I wish we could get off me so we could focus on him,” he said.