Don't leave home without it!
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 ...
Well, if the rules say it is based solely on GPA, then the unfortunately named Ms. Wimberly has a case. However, it sounds like there is some stipulation in the rules about more coursework. At a school with almost half of its population African-American, I have a hard time believing this action was racially motivated. Especially with the mother working there.
Don't leave home without it!
She is not content with the honor bestowed upon her.
She resents the other student being recognized.
Holder’s People!
They don’t want equal - they want to stand on top of you.
My daughter shared a valedictorian spot for similiar reasons. Oddly enough, or maybe not so oddly, the person she shared the position with also sued to be the only one. She lost, and the school ended valedictorian status the next year by using only “highest honors, high honors, and honors.’
No more law suits now.
LOL!! My son graduated with high honors, his friend didn’t have the GPA for honors UNTIL his Mom fought the school. Her child had learning disablities making it harder for him so the school district caved and let him graduate with honors. Unearned merit is like giving everyone a trophy for showing up.
In my senior year many kids were playing catch up since they hadn’t taken the proper amount of credits to graduate. I had 2 classes each semester, the rest were study halls...boring..they had no room for me in any other class. I don’t remember my GPA but 2 classes and NO credit for study halls, it must have been bad. Stomps foot..not fair I should have fought..my straight A’s senior year should have meant something! /s
They’ve been culturally indoctrinated into this victimist mindset for generations, and the hate and desire for vengeance is nearly all-consuming.
The problem grew (and the development of DNA testing intervened) to the point where it could no longer be denied that this is a significant problem.
This nation was more moral in previous generations, but not in every single instance. Plan “B” for society is to willfully not know in individual instances.
Dollars to donuts nobody knows who the father is, and no DNA testing will ever be done. Throwing the girl out in these situations without testing compounds the wrongs.
But they did NOT have the same GPA, that is the issue.
You're not reading what it says. That rule doesn't say GPA, it says "If two or more students take the same or equivalent course work and receive the same grades of 'A'" -- that means they took the same courses and received the same grades, not that they have the same GPA. The scenario means that taking a "greater number" of courses -- extra work -- on top of that "same or equivalent coursework" cannot cause you to lose class rank if they dilute your GPA. There would be no point even having this rule if it was talking about students with identical GPAs.
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Except that is NOT true under this school's policies, which I linked in #28.
WELL SAID! Great analysis - Concise and to the point.
Here is another way of looking at the problem:
"Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim"
-- George Santayana:
I was going to type exactly that. What a culture we find ourselves in.
From your link: “Knowing what you know about the South, does this story surprise you?” Sounds like race baiting to me. Did this young woman have home tutoring fromt he school system while she was pregnant? Did the school discourage the AP clases to students who did not have the grades in prelim classes which indicate AP direction for future classes? There is more to this story than we have yet seen, but the stealth racism of the link you offered doesn’t help clarify the situation.
Just to be contrary, can you state for certain that Kimberly didn’t avoid certain difficult classes to protect her GPA, whereas the other co-valedictorian took that class - such as college calculus (a real occurrence in my high school, oh so many years ago?)?
Our valedictorian didn’t take any college-placement courses.
Including the clause about NOT penalizing a student for taking a heavier course load? The rules were ambiguous. She doesn't deserve 75 cents.
“...particularly when you do so to the disadvantage of an African American teen mother.”
####
Explain.
OF COURSE we’re assuming the facts are complete and correct.
Anything else would be, as they say, “assuming facts not in evidence.”
1. The facts (as we know them) indicate that long-standing precedent and/or rule was set aside in awarding “co-valedictorian” status to someone who, based on those precedents and rules, was not eligible.
2. The facts in Arkansas indicate a history of racial bias. In this case, this cannot be confirmed, but on the suface the possibility exists with a probability which must be considered.
There “may be” a ton of other info, but I’m not speculating on any of that. You begin with “Everyone is assuming...” and then you begin assuming things yourself.
Having said that, I think there's another side to it. 62 years ago I missed being high school valedictorian by a fraction of a percentage point. Well, so what? The girl who edged me out earned it. She went on to become an MD. Good for her. How has missing out hurt me? Not at all. At the time it was a slight disappointment, but even a year later, when I was in college, I didn't even care. Now at our class reunions I don't even think about it. By the same token, I believe this young lady is making too much of it. If she had accepted the ruling quietly, ten years from now she wouldn't even be thinking about it. Now she's making a big deal of it, and that's going to haunt her for the rest of her life. She's making a big mistake, one that even $75K won't overcome.
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