Yeah, if you drill down into the actual sources, that appears to be what happened.

The school got a stack of certificates. They sat on the principals desk for a while, then they sat with the guidance counselor or homeroom teachers before being passed out.

The parent is basically complaining because:

1. They didn’t notify the parents via email.

2. They didn’t find out in time to put in on an college early admission application.

3. The school didn’t make a big deal of handing out the awards in an assembly or similar.

This sounds more like a complaint from an overbearing helicopter parent than any sort of issue that HN would care about.