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 ...
there’s got to be more to the story
maybe being an 18 yr old baby mama is not the example of leadership that being valedictorian used to require
but somehow I suspect the school just handed “Kymberly” a full scholarship and 15 minutes of fame
She’s right and $75,000 as a consolation prize for diluting her achievement seems fair.
You can’t change the rules in the middle of the game.
This situation points out a developed problem in our educational system. There are many fluff courses which allow a student to get by in order to get that diploma. Such is hardly more than certification of time spent. Then there are courses that require real intellectual concentration at level higher than the fluff courses. As much as it is a dishonor to not recognize the top fluff student it is also a dishonor to not recognize highest intellectual achievement. The educational system went bonkers when it tried to fit in all kinds of social adjustments.
what were they thinking? everyone knows you can only disadvantage white males.
there also are schools that grant credit for “life learning” and other non classroom crap
Maybe Kymberly got an “A” for a semester of baby mama 101 and “Infant care”
I’d like to hear the rest of the story from the school, people just don’t divide the valedictorian position between two races, there is more to it than that
I have to say that if I was black and this happened to me, I’d assume racism.
When I was a loan officer I was doing a refinance and was taking the app at a black lady’s home. She said she had been working with another mortgage company and was told she had the loan and all was good. But when she mailed in her driver’s license they called and told her she had been declined. I had already pulled her credit and everything was fine. It was obvious what was going on. I advised her to threaten to file a complaint against the mortgage company. She did and she got the loan. So, racism does happen.
This is absolutely the way our school handles it. Simply play this by the numbers. It their gradepoint is identical after weighting it, then you’ve got a tie. It if they’re different, then you’ve got a clear winner.
This should be simple.
http://www.edline.net/files/_IKIuU_/398988b9b7b02eef3745a49013852ec4/MHS_2010_Handbook.pdf
Page 12, under 'Class Rank':
"If two or more students take the same or equivalent course work and receive the same grades of “A”, a student with a greater number of courses will not be penalized."
I wonder how many times a white person has qualified to be valedictorian, only to have a black co-valedictorian appointed in the interest of promoting "diversity?"
Mark her name down as a “no hire”. People like this are a drain.
Our district does it this way... all students who successfully complete the state scholars' program, which consists of at least 10 honors classes with no grade lower that a B in any of them plus some hours of community service, are ranked at the top of the class, regardless of GPA. So if there are 10 scholars, then they are ranked 1-10. The highest GPA without earning the scholar's diploma would be ranked 11.
We are a small country public school, but I'd put our Honors curriculum alongside the best private school.
More: if a student takes Biology I, the course meets the state standards for Biology. If a student takes Honors Biology I, then same standards but with deeper content emphasis, plus a paper summarizing 10 scientific articles and three separate webquests. My son's sophomore Honors Biology paper was 15 pages long, and took him approximately 25 hours to complete over a couple of months. I wouldn't have been ashamed to submit it to a college professor.
In addition to qualifying for the scholar's diploma, Honors students earn a three point bump to the grade in the class.
So how does affirmative action work again?
The single mother status may have not been in keeping with the idea that the valedictorian is usually the smartest kid in the school.
They said Bill Clinton was brilliant, he could do the New York Times crossword puzzle while talking to Arafat, while getting his helmet polished.
He regularly acted stupidly.
While it seems like this girl was treated unfairly it may not have been a race issue but a morality issue. At least she did not have an abortion which is highly commendable, but overall a poor role model.
Does the school offer credits for not getting pregnant while a student?
This is an accepted practice in reverse.
Paul got what was coming to him....
Fair?
Not sure.
The rules appear to have been GPA, not a weighted GPA.
If the school suddenly changed the rules or departed from previous procedure on this, she may have a case.
This is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate what happens when race is used as a factor in any manner of selection. It’s not “reverse” discrimination, just plain discrimination.
In my school, one girl got straight A’s all through high school. She took mostly business classes. The guy who was valedictorian took college prep classes, most of which were “weighted”...worth 4.25 for an A. Even though he got a few B’s throughout HS, his total GPA came out ahead.
So, the mortgage company’s racism was more important than making money on a mortgage to a qualified buyer?
I really doubt it. And so does Walter E Williams.
True, but it IS Arkansas.
“I hand it to Kymberly, and she should fight for her honor. The other student should be salatutorian.”
I agree, all this other stuff about her being a “mother”, the salutatorian having more hours, etc...are just so much bull crap....doing sports, extra-curricular activities, who is the better looking, etc are also crap unless they are spelled out before hand.
The school administration is trying screw Kymberly. Don’t know why, maybe because she is a person who happens to be a Negro who wants what she has honestly worked for and earned.
Our schools have become the cash cow for re=distribution of wealth.
We’ve already lowered the bar so that girl could have her chance. Yes, she should’ve been recognized and honored for her scholastic work. But then so should the other one.
For Petes sakes, get some sense. The only difference between those two girl’s grades was that one of them got up one morning with a case of PMS and flubbed a test.
I think everybody who got within .5 points should’ve been recognized as the schools highest achievers.
Let them ALL get up and make a speech and show off the scholastic achievement of the school. Then if more than one of them got up and started spouting off the communist krap being taught in our schools, EVERYBODY should sue the school!
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