Posted on 07/29/2011 5:59:45 AM PDT by ConservativeStatement
Kymberly Wimberly is an 18-year-old mother who was valedictorian of her graduating class at an Arkansas high school. Well, co-valedictorian.
Wimberly, who is black, alleges in a lawsuit that McGehee Secondary School Principal Darrell Thompson assigned a white student with a lower GPA as co-valedictorian after she was named the sole valediction. She’s asking for $75,000 in damages and for the school record to be corrected, according to the suit.
Molly Bratton, Wimberly’s mother who works as the school’s media specialist, learned of her daughter’s honor from the school counselor. But shortly after, said she overhead someone in the copy room saying the happy event was a “big mess.” Bratton confirmed that her daughter was top of the class with Superintendent Thomas Gathen, but Thompson then informed Gathen he had named a co-valedictorian.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Keep playing that card and you will go far. /sarcasm
She's also asking the court for a stay over people breaking out with the Name Game song or talking in a baby voice when her name is mentioned.
The co-valedictorian took more course work ...it’s fair, how is sharing the honor a demotion?
I wasn’t aware that the honor came with cash prizes. I demand a do over!
Still, the fact that she had the highest GPA should mean she is the sole valedictorian. Making someone else, with lower GPA, a co-valedictorian is not right. She deserves her sole spot on the stage, she worked hard to be so successful.
I always wonder what happens to the brains of people when they become public school administrators — they usually aren’t boneheaded to begin with.
You simply can’t change the rules on valedictorian selection in the middle of the game, particularly when you do so to the disadvantage of an African American teen mother.
As long as she had the best GPA and was a full time student, she should win.
The other girl worked harder, which is why they gave it to her too and it was by the book. Students who take more credits cannot be penalized.
It’s a silly thing to call racism over. Everything and anything is racism and there’s an industry in suing the taxpayers and corporations over imagined slights.
It’s all about merit. If she had the highest GPA, she’s valedictorian. I’m not sure I would go to court over it, but I do think she has a very valid beef.
It sounds to me more like a case where the rules are not clear, and therefore subject to interpertation and manipulation. It sounds like there was a clear academic stand out in the school and a clear affirmative action stand out. My guess is that the affirmative action winner aced a bunch of gut courses while the alternate winner took more challenging courses. Everyone at the school understood the situation and the principal tried to split the baby in half, thereby enraging both contestants and their supporters.
How’s that diversity thing workin’ out for ya?
Why "particularly"? There was a better time in our society when being a "teen mother" was shameful, discouraged, and AVOIDED.
The problem is that mathematically, somebody with equal academic performance who worked even harder could end up with a lower GPA. Suppose two students take 30 identical classes and get straight A's. One of the students takes one additional elective course and gets a 'B', while the other student just sleeps in study hall. Which one is ranked higher?
Or, for an even more bizarre scenario, suppose the school "weights" advanced or AP classes by grading them on a 5-point scale instead of 4 (like mine did). Then the student above could actually lose their valedictorian spot by taking one more regular class and getting an 'A' (4.0) that drags down their GPA from, say, 4.40 to 4.38.
Back in the good old days, that right their would disqualify someone from this type of honor on moral grounds, no matter what their GPA was. But nowadays if you even mention the M-Word you are accused of being a racist, sexist, homophobe, who's trying to force your belief system on others..
The co-valedictorian had 1/2 credit more and either a .03 or .05 GPA less. It’s a puzzle as to why the school can’t figure that GPA.
I hand it to Kymberly, and she should fight for her honor. The other student should be salatutorian.
We had this situation in my highschool. One student was male and from an influential family... He had chiseled for every grade his whole student career. The other student was a quiet Chinese girl who just did good work and made good grades. They tied for the GPA.
The aggressive male talked the school authorities into letting them flip a coin for the honor. Rumor was that Paul provided a double headed coin. He won, went on to become a wealthy attorney, built up a lifetime of chiseling deals, and eventually went to jail for insurance fraud. Jes sayin’.
I suspect that there's more to the story.
If she did it on her own, then I could probably see her point, but it
she had tutors, then there is a problem, and precedent.
I believe it was a NJ teen, white, w/o child, that claimed just about
every thing she could under the ADA, and got a lot of private
tutoring to get the highest GPA, while at home, iirc, and the
bottom line is that her "HS" did something with the
valedictorian award and Harvard, or some other desirable
upper tier school, withdrew their offer of admission as well.
Romans 12:19
History shows it's difficult to put in the hours necessary to get knocked up in high school while maintaining a straight-A average.
And by the way, according to the article, the actual school rules state that in determining rank, a student "shall not be penalized" for taking a heavier course-load. That might be the real reason the white kid shared the honors. It was way down in the article's text.
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