It's 2011 right? Black girl not allowed to be valedictorian

My impression from skimming a different version of the story elsewhere was that the mess would be caused by the fact that she'd had a baby in her junior year. Or at least that's how the "mess" comment was being explained.

 

She's a teen mom and still had the highest GPA? All the more reason to make her valedictorian. That's pretty incredible.

 

Awful, if true. The cable shouters will have a ball with this.

 

True. It paints the issue differently, but it is still wrong.

 

We can't seem to be "glamorizing" teen motherhood, can we? What's next putting them on magazine covers? Giving them reality shows?

 

To be fair, schools are going to have a different standard from television networks. That said, this was still unfair. I do think the thread title isn't quite right. Doesn't seem like this is a race issue as much as it is an issue with her being a teen mother.

 

I see it mentioned that she had a baby. I do not see that ever being cited as a reason for this decision. Can someone post a link?

This CNN blog has the most complete story I see.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/26/valedictorian-sues-school-was-she-snubbed-because-of-race/

There are two points here that obviously affect the perception dramatically. One, the lawsuit says students were told as a group that the AP classes were very intense and challenging and they should stay away unless they're ready for it, but then white students were pulled aside in the halls by the teachers and invited to join the classes because they weren't really that difficult. I could very much see that happening, and it would be interesting if the plaintiff could produce some witnesses to say so in depositions or in court.

Two, there's some language in the student handbook that although co-valedictorians will only be named if there GPAs are exactly equal, students also will not be penalized in class rank for taking more difficult classes. So if the white girl was taking harder classes and there was one instance that accounted for the lower GPA (the harder class yielded a "B" and the easier one an "A" and there was no difference for honors points, as an example), there would be some gray area.

Also worth noting: The girl who's suing was not overrided as valedictorian. She is co-valedictorian. So in that light it seems to be more about making sure the other girl isn't recognized than it is about making sure she is.

 

Only white single teen Moms are special

fair and balanced

 

You know I could see a problem if teen mom withdrew for a semester and took classes online or was enrolled in a continuation high school - but other than that...

 

How would you vote on who had the highest grade point average?

 

Courthouse News Service?

And just what is (AR) in the dateline?

 

Gould is a lot closer than 90 minutes from McGehee, unless you're riding a tractor. They're basically on opposite ends of the same county.