Disabled S. Jersey senior is ruled sole valedictorian

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 5/9/03 | John Shiffman and Toni Callas

[shhrubbery!]

A federal judge yesterday scolded Moorestown school officials for trying to make a disabled senior share valedictory honors with a student who has taken a regular load of courses.

The judge ordered the school district to award the title of valedictorian to Blair Hornstine, whose discrimination lawsuit in the dispute was ridiculed by some fellow students and drew national attention.

U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson said school officials violated Hornstine's civil rights by engaging in a "strange and relentless" effort to discredit her achievement. It's a classic case of discrimination, Wolfson said in her Camden courtroom.

"If forced to share the award, the stigma would likely be unshakable," the judge said. "She would be seen as 'the disabled valedictorian,' not 'the valedictorian.' "

School officials had proposed changing the criteria for valedictorian at a board meeting next week. Wolfson's order barred any such change and harshly criticized school officials for considering a rule that she said so transparently targeted one person.

"You might as well call it the Hornstine Amendment," the judge said. "Why haven't you looked at this [special-education] curriculum before? You have pinpointed her."

Hornstine, who has an immune deficiency that forces her to take some classes at home, did not attend court yesterday.

Wolfson also expressed "great concerns" about the motivations of school officials. She rebuked the district for "major flaws in the factual underpinnings" of documents it filed in the case.

The school district's attorney, John Comegno, would not comment afterward. In court, he had argued that Hornstine would not suffer any loss if named co-valedictorian.

"She might be asked to share a stage, nothing more," he said. "We're just asking the court to level the playing field."

But the judge agreed with Hornstine's lawyer, Edwin Jacobs, who said the school district created "the playing field" when it put together her special-education schedule.

Hornstine, an aspiring lawyer, earned a 4.6894 grade point average, including 23 grades of A-plus, to amass the highest GPA at Moorestown High. She scored 1,570 out of a possible 1,600 on her SAT.

Jacobs said Hornstine had been harassed in the week since she filed the lawsuit. She has received threatening notes, and her house was hit with eggs last weekend, he said.

Asked if Hornstine, whose father is a Superior Court judge in Camden County, believes her lawsuit was worth the criticism, Jacobs said: "I think it's a balance."

"She's ill, but she's tough," he said. "That's why she's willing to stand up for her principles."

The senior who earned the highest grades in the regular curriculum, Kenneth Mirkin, intervened in the lawsuit and appeared in court yesterday.

His lawyer, Frances A. Harman, argued that Hornstine had an "incidental advantage" over Mirkin because the special-education curriculum had given Hornstine individual attention, extra time to take tests, and an exemption from physical education class, which is weighted less in GPA calculations than regular classes. "My client is cast in the position of being a victim," Harman told the court.

Afterward, Mirkin, 18, said he believed he would be vindicated when "all the facts" in the case came out. "I'm not concerned with my personal right to be valedictorian," he said. "I did this for the senior class, the school, and the citizens of Moorestown."

Both Hornstine and Mirkin plan to attend Harvard University in the fall, with Hornstine following in the footsteps of her brother, Adam.

The siblings are known as high achievers and have made headlines before. In 2001, they were awarded the President's Community Volunteer Award after starting the Moorestown Alliance for Goodwill and Interest in Community to help the elderly and underprivileged. That year, Blair Hornstine was one of those chosen to carry the Olympic Torch as it passed through Philadelphia.

At the high school, many students were guarded about their comments because the district superintendent had asked students, staff and parents not to speak to reporters. But others expressed anger about the suit.

"I think it's selfish of [Hornstine] to want to be the only valedictorian," sophomore Carl J. Steuernagel said. "If the school decides someone else can share the title, then they should be able to do so."

Senior Alli McGuigan said that many students stood behind the district, and that the matter had cast a shadow on her class. "I am disappointed by the current situation with the school," she said. "It's a shame to think that Moorestown's Class of 2003 will go down in history as the class that had to pick its valedictorian in a courtroom."

[shhrubbery!]

Freda Wolfson is [surprise!] a Clinton appointee to the federal bench.

Wonder if Wolfson will also award this girl the $2.5 million of taxpayer money in 'punitive damages.'

[Pan_Yans Wife]

"But the judge agreed with Hornstine's lawyer, Edwin Jacobs, who said the school district created "the playing field" when it put together her special-education schedule."

The school approved of her chosen classes for her schedule, she completed her side of the bargain, fulfilling all of their obligations. They were just unaware that she would trump all other GPAs, by taking more advanced courses. The school should be ashamed of themselves for complaining, now.

[medscribe]

It was the school district officials who tried to change the rules in the middle of the game (sound familiar?). The kid got the highest GPA, she should be the valedictorian, end of story. Any thought of "sharing" the honor, other than when the top students have the exact same GPA, makes it meaningless. Good for the judge to toss these PC school officials on their behinds.

[Ford Fairlane]

Reminds me of my senior year

I was co-salutitorian instead of valedictorian because the valedictorian & other co salutitorian had taken vocational classes junior & senior year, while I was taking college prep courses

The next year they went to a weighted grade system

[sinkspur]

The school should be ashamed of themselves for complaining, now.

Exactly. Instead of celebrating her achievement, they're trying to shun her to the side.

[friendly]

THIS is a legal atrocity.

This highly intelligent young future lawyer has absolutely no disability. She simply used legal loopholes to fix her bogus Valedictorian claims.

45% of the US population has "immune deficiency" by these phony standards.

She will be a very successful lawyer since she has absolutely no ethics, is a blatant thief, and is completely ruthless and dishonest.

[philomath]

agreed. also sounds like this "special education" was advanced work,not some easier material upgraded on a curve. shame on the wuss "co-valedictorian" for oparticipating in this stinky mess; he was bested.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I understand your frustration, but from the other side.

My GPA would have been higher, if I had stuck with the academic courses, instead of trying for an "easy A" by taking typing. I earned a C in typing, because I just couldn't type well, at all. If I had taken an extra history or English course, I would have had a higher GPA.

It taught me the valuable lesson that just because you think you are highly accomplished, something will come along and test you, when you least expect it. It also taught me that vocational courses are not necessarily easy, for everyone. A humbling experience.

It wasn't until the internet came along, that I learned to type extremely well.

[philomath]

tell us "the rest of the story". i'd like to read more about her situation, 'cause it sounds like a slam dunk for the girl...

[HennepinPrisoner]

Good grief....why do these school officials remind me of the Florida Supreme Court justices?

[HennepinPrisoner]

She will be a very successful lawyer since she has absolutely no ethics, is a blatant thief, and is completely ruthless and dishonest.

Blatant thief? Funny...that's exactly what the Dems called GWB in Election 2000 when he was trying to prevent the Dems from changing the election laws in the middle of the recount.

[Cicero]

It's hard to tell the rights and wrongs of the case, but I'm troubled by a judge that would second-guess the school on this. Also note this: "Hornstine, whose father is a Superior Court judge in Camden County." It sounds like one judge doing a favor for another judge.

Here's an extract from another article, at http://www.sunspot.net/news/sns-othernews-valedictorian-lat,0,2958735.story?coll=bal-features-specials:

Kadri, local school officials and the Board of Education paint a far different picture.

They say that the student's father, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Louis Hornstine, told Kadri during a meeting that he would "use any advantage of the laws and regulations" to give his daughter "the best opportunity to be valedictorian."

"In the end, he flatly told the superintendent that he was going to manipulate rules designed to protect disabled students for the purpose of allowing plaintiff to win the valedictorian award," the papers said.

In light of the judge's statements and complaints from students that they were not able to "compete fairly on a level field," Kadri launched an investigation.

"What he found was a fundamental unfairness, a pattern which suggested that plaintiff had opportunities to gain an advantage no other students enjoyed in competing for the valedictorian/salutatorian award," the papers said.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

It's because they constantly want to lower the bar, make life "fair" from their liberal point of view. Basically, the school is trying to say, we know you met the standard set before you, and we know that you followed the rules. However, we want to make new rules, once the competition has ended.

[I got the rope]

I was salutitorian of my class. It wasn't until five years later when my sister graduated as valedictorian that I found out that Band class was graded differently than P.E. (Track, Football, Basketball, etc.) All my mandatory P.E. classes had a maximum possible grade of 95. I had all 95's for 4 years. The valedictorian of my class beat me by 0.02 points on our final GPA. She took band and scored 100's for all four years and band was considered a substitute for P.E.

Looking back ...I wuz robbed!

[shhrubbery!]

tell us "the rest of the story". i'd like to read more about her situation, 'cause it sounds like a slam dunk for the girl...

It does seem questionable that the girl is truly 'disabled.' She attends school part of the day and partipates in a boatload of extra curriculars.

Some doctors have said the claim sounds medically dubious (but admittedly without having examined the girl).

Some (including talk show host John Gambling) claim the girl and her father (a superior court judge in notoriously corrupt South Jersey) cooked up the disability scheme precisely to game the system.

[HennepinPrisoner]

She took band and scored 100's for all four years and band was considered a substitute for P.E. Looking back ...I wuz robbed!

But your mandatory PE class is only an hour a day.....band requires and extra 6 hours/day about 4 weeks before the Fall semester begins...attendance at all football games and sometimes other sporting events, etc....and of course during football season 2 hours AFTER class.

I'm sure you are every bit as intelligent as the person that beat you. However, I DO understand why people in the band should get a bit of a bonus over PE takers! :)

[friendly]

Unconventional Wisdom
Student's lawsuit shows lack of class
By Tanya Barrientos
Philadelpia Inquirer Columnist


AKIRA SUWA / Inquirer

Blair Hornstine, 18, leaves the federal courthouse in Camden with her lawyer, Edwin Jacobs Jr.


There's a saying that everything we need to know we learned in kindergarten.

Blair Hornstine of Moorestown must not have been paying attention the day her class learned about playing well with others.

Not that it kept her from doing well in school.

On paper, the 18-year-old Moorestown High School senior looks like every parent's dream.

Her grades are top-notch. Her SAT scores fall a few points short of perfection.

She's won numerous national, city, county and school district accolades for her academic achievements.

With her older brother, Adam, she founded a volunteer organization that helps the underprivileged. And she and Adam got a 2001 Presidential Service Award from the White House applauding their success.

That same year, she was picked to carry the Olympic torch along Broad Street.

On paper, Blair seems like the perfect antidote for the average underachieving, monosyllabic, television-loving, won't-even-make-the-bed teen.

She has a medical condition that leaves her too fatigued to attend all her classes at school. And yet, she still got accepted to Harvard University.

Yep - on paper, she's a darling.

But, in the flesh, Little Miss Perfect is a petty crybaby.

She and her legal-minded parents (her father is Camden County Judge Louis Hornstine) are spitting mad because Blair might have to share the valedictorian spotlight with some other student at graduation.

The superintendent wants to name co-valedictorians, because he believes the school's weighted grading system (and a reduced class schedule) gave Blair an unfair advantage.

Two other students with near-perfect grades were required to take on-campus classes such as physical education (which is weighted less in the grade-point-average calculations). And that made it impossible for them to achieve a GPA as high as Blair's, the superintendent claims.

The Hornstines have made it into a federal case. Literally.

They've filed a discrimination lawsuit asking for $2.7 million in damages. (Which these days is probably just enough to cover books and board and tuition at Harvard.)

Can someone please explain what life lesson Blair's parents want her to learn from this?

That the girl who already has everything should throw a temper tantrum when things don't go her way?

That overcoming a disability and making it to the top is only worth celebrating if you're up there alone?

That even though life isn't fair, hiring a slick lawyer is?

I'd feel differently if being the school's sole valedictorian would affect her in some way. But she's already been accepted at Harvard. She's already won scholarship money. She's well on her way to forgetting all about high school.

Don't get me wrong. I don't want to take away from the girl's secondary-school accomplishments.

She and her parents are doing a perfectly good job of that on their own.

Whatever happens now, Blair Hornstine of the graduating class of 2003 will not be remembered as the school valedictorian.

Nor as the exceptionally smart, hard-working and talented girl that she undoubtedly is.

She will be forever recalled as the sulky, churlish child who took her pomp and circumstance to court and ruined graduation day for everyone.

[blam]

Congratulations Miss Hornstine, you deserved to win, you earned it!

[liberalnot]

They say that the student's father, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Louis Hornstine, told Kadri during a meeting that he would "use any advantage of the laws and regulations" to give his daughter "the best opportunity to be valedictorian."

personally, i found this offensive, when i read it in the print editionof the los angeles times a couple of days ago.

something has changed in this country. i think we've moved from a competitive society of individuals to a tiered society. obviously the children of professionals enjoy advantages unavailable to others. kids are no longer competing against each other, they're competing against each other and the parents and extended their families as well. what if you don't have a lawyer or judge in your family?

[philomath]

from the sunspot.net article:
The superintendent concluded that while other students were limited in their class schedules, Hornstine could take as many honors courses as she wanted because she could schedule them with her home tutors, giving her the opportunity to earn higher weighted grades than her counterparts attending classes full time at school.

Court papers said Kadri also discovered occasions that when it appeared Hornstine would be unable to earn a high grade while enrolled in a difficult class in school, she withdrew and sought home instruction.

Kadri found that some teachers in school had tougher grading standards than Hornstine's tutors, most of whom had not taught advanced placement classes and did not confer with teachers at the school about implementing the same grading standards.

sheds a different light, esp with the "chronic fatigue syndrome" described as the illness.

now it sounds more like the sos judge dad and his unscrupulous pos daughter gamed the system, esp where she took a larger number of ap courses than full-time students were allowed.....