Blair Hornstine Settles

The Weekly Standard ^ | 08/20/03 | Jonathan V. Last

[Pokey78]

The case of the New Jersey valedictorian comes to an end as the teen settles her lawsuit with the town.

BLAIR HORNSTINE has settled her lawsuit against Moorestown Township. Hornstine is the recent graduate of Moorestown High School who sued the town in order to remain sole valedictorian. The settlement was reached late yesterday afternoon.

According to the settlement papers, Blair Hornstine will receive $60,000--$45,000 of which is earmarked for attorneys' fees. Hornstine's original suit sought $2.7 million in damages and by the end of June insiders were estimating that her lawyers' tab was already near $50,000. The board of education's insurance carrier will pay nearly half of the sum--$25,000.

The settlement has no confidentiality clauses to it and, perhaps most important, includes no admission of guilt or wrongdoing in the Hornstine affair. The settlement has been in the works since the first week of August, when a source approached THE DAILY STANDARD claiming that releases had already been exchanged and that the terms--$15,000 for Hornstine, $45,000 for her attorneys--had already been decided. When contacted and asked for confirmation, the township's lawyer, John Comegno, denied the source's claim and called the numbers "absurd."

Last spring a federal judge granted Hornstine a temporary restraining order which prevented Moorestown High from naming a co-valedictorian to share the award with her. In July, Harvard rescinded its offer of admission to Hornstine. The details of the suit and ensuing firestorm can be found in First in Her Class.

[Hildy]

Her Father is a lawyer, or a judge, isn't he? And they're rich. Shame, shame, shame on them.

[WestPacSailor]

Only in America! What's gonna happen, though, when she graduates Harvard and enters the real world? She's in for quite a shock.

[wideawake]

She's not going to graduate from Harvard, because they rescinded her offer when they found out she lied on her application and plagiarized others' work.

[Hildy]

Where did she end up going to school?

[OldFriend]

Of all things, she plaigerized an article written by billclinton. Who knows who he stole the article from!!!!

Perfect irony.

[mondonico]

She isn't going to graduate from Harvard. Harvard rescinded her acceptance after it found out she had plagiarized news articles while a newspaper intern.

(Despite this moment of good sense, Harvard still sucks.)

[WestPacSailor]

She's not going to graduate from Harvard, because they rescinded her offer when they found out she lied on her application and plagiarized others' work

Outstanding! Couldn't have happened to a nicer person. I guess it's Burlington Community College for her, eh?

[Orangedog]

Then I imagine a job at the NY Times would be in her future.

[Loyalist]

Despite this moment of good sense, Harvard still sucks.

Harvard did not rescind Miss Hornstine's acceptance as a defence of academic integrity, but as a preventive measure against a litigious troublemaker.

[wideawake]

That has not been made public.

I do know an individual who was rejected from Harvard because he took someone else's SATs for them in exchange for cash.

He laid low for a year, did some volunteer work and traveled abroad and then reapplied to college the next year and got into Duke.

[Seamus Mc Gillicuddy]

Just another prime example of a self-serving, overly high self esteemed, me first, kind of brat. I read stories stating how she didn't even attend some classes like gym, and did a lot of her schooling at home. She needs a first class kick in the pants. I mean, who the heck would get all hot and bothered over whether they had to share the title of valedictorian with someone?

[Rodney King]

How much do you want to bet this isn't the last that we here from her? She will be in the news suing somebody else within a few years. I'm surprised she hasn't sued Harvard yet.

[Verginius Rufus]

Then there is the case of Edward M. Kennedy...expelled from Yale after he got another student to take a test for him (in a Spanish class), then went to Harvard and graduated from there.

[Hildy]

I guess I wouldn't get into Harvard! I took the SAT's for a friend of mine (25 years ago!). I did it for free.

[Revenge Of Daffy-Duck]

I thought that was The University Of Virginia that kicked him out for trying to pull a switcharoo on the test. An Honor Code violation; good training for the future Democrat Senator.

[CatoRenasci]

No, Teddy was expelled from Harvard law. He went to the University of Virginia law school. When I was a student in Virginia in the mid'60s, I knew a State Trooper who had busted him for drunk driving more than once. Always fixed by daddy with the judges. He didn't have anything nice to say about any Kennedy -- and this Trooper was a Yellow Dog Democrat of the completely unreconstructed school!

[Verginius Rufus]

Whether Teddy was expelled from Harvard Law School, I don't know, but he did receive his undergraduate degree from Harvard--I remember hearing him refer to himself as a graduate of Harvard in a speech. I read about his being expelled from Yale in National Review a long time ago.