Selfish, whiny girl sues school to be named sole valedictorian

[Velociryx]

The ceremony has already come and gone, so it is indeed "case closed" They can't very well go back in time and undo it. Having said that, three times a trend doth make. It is not up to me to furnish proof of any sort as to this girl's academic behavior, but surely you recognize that a willingness to commit not one....not two, but three separate instances of plagarism somewhere (*anywhere*) makes the entire of her body of academic work suspect, and therefore subject to close scrutinity.

I'm not saying they should reverse the decision without looking into it, I'm saying that her own actions make her suspect.

-=Vel=-

[Boris Godunov]

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=348380

"When it learned of the Courier-Post’s plagiarism concerns, Hornstine’s high school conducted its own investigation into the student’s academic portfolio, but found no history of academic dishonesty, said Kudatzky."

[Imran Siddiqui]

I'm seriously doubting that anybody is hanging onto the edge of their seats to find out what we, the folk of 'poly think about the case under discussion.

Then should we stop discussing everything then?

--

And as Boris has shown there is no evidence that she plagerized during school work... so she gets to be sole validictorian, but is a whiny loser, who deserves to have her acceptance from Harvard taken away because of plagerism. So there .

[Velociryx]

Good. It was suspect. They looked into it. I'm glad they found nothing, and equally glad they looked into it.

As to stopping the discussion....nahhh.....that hasn't changed, and it's never stopped us before....

-=Vel=-

[Q Classic]

an interesting article...

[Ben Kenobi]

And they certainly shouldn't have, once the exemptions were granted, backpedal come graduation and say her exeptions are going to penalize her status.

Good point, Boris.

However, all this says is that one or the other must be wrong, either the exemptions were wrong in the first place, or the subsequent backpedalling. I favour the first explanation that the school erred in offering her PE exemptions.

I should also mention that in a civilised country like Canada, PE is only required up to Grade 10.

[CyberGnu]

Q Cubed, what do you think the IQ of that author is?

The whole article is just attempt to whitewash Bush... "Yes, Bush might be incredibly stupid, but thats' a GOOD thing"...

Of course, his article is flawed... with passages like this:
Answering that question brings us back to the president. Well, President Carter, anyway. As the fictitious Lovenstein Institute reminded us, Jimmy Carter's stellar intellect has become an article of faith. This nuclear engineer was also a poet. And yet, he looked Leonid Brezhnev in the eye (perhaps he gazed into his soul, as Senator Barbara Boxer claimed to have done with John Ashcroft), kissed him on both cheeks, proclaimed him a partner in peace--and then watched the Soviet Union invade Afghanistan. A quarter-century later (around the time Carter kissed Kim Jong Il and returned from Pyongyang proclaiming peace for our time), President Clinton, a man who devoured whole libraries on his vacation, did the same with Yasser Arafat--and ever since, Israel has been paying the price for Clinton's belief in the power of his intellect. Rwanda, Somalia, and Srebenica paid similar prices.

Minor details such as that Breshnev just had signed the SALT II treaty, that Carter had just defused a situation that many though would lead to a new Korean war and that Arafat wasn't the source of Israels occupation of Palestine is naturally not mentioned. Wouldn't fit with the right-wing hatred of Carter and Clinton, would it?



That said, he does have some good points. Intelligence is not enough to be a great leader. You also need wisdom. Maybe you could even get by on nothing BUT wisdom... After all, one of the first insights a wise man would have would be to trust his intelligent experts on complicated issues...

Sadly, Bush is neither. And this is exacly what makes him so dangerous...

[CyberGnu]

So, back on topic: Is Ms. Blair wise? I don't know... Maybe it would have been better just to suffer in silence.

Is she right?

Yes, definetly. Imagine the outcry if she was the first black valedictorian ever, and the school decided to change the rules and make her share the honor with two less accomplished white students...

[mrmitchell]

Maybe you didn't read the entire article...it was impossible for the abled students to score as high as her because she was exempt from classes such as PE that were weighted less in the GPA. Also, it turns out that her disease is mostly bogus.

[Apocalypse]

Originally posted by obiwan18
I should also mention that in a civilised country like Canada, PE is only required up to Grade 10.

I disagree with that. I'd think PE would be even more important considering your health care system.

[Mao]

Wait...wha?

Kenneth Mirkin had hoped to become the co-valedictorian. According to the school district Superintendant, Mirkin actually has a higher GPA.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/050803_nw_valedictorian-update.html

[CyberGnu]

Maybe you didn't read the entire article...it was impossible for the abled students to score as high as her because she was exempt from classes such as PE that were weighted less in the GPA.

I'm sorry, but that isn't her fault.

Look, while the whole idea that you can have a GPA of 4.6/4.0 revolts me, you can't change the rules halfway through. Even less after the race.

So if you are looking for someone to critizise, go after the school board who didn't make sure that every class was weighed equally, or the state education board, or whoever is in charge higher up.

The fact remains, though: The girl played the hand she was dealth, and the school board tried to take it away from her by chaning the rules...

Also, it turns out that her disease is mostly bogus.

Well, the judge didn't agree with that assessment...
Judge Freda Wolfson agreed and ruled that "evidence has shown Miss Hornstine earned the distinction in spite of, not because of, her disability."

[DinoDoc]

Wouldn't fit with the right-wing hatred of Carter and Clinton, would it?

Why? They have more than enough to gripe about from thier foreign policy.

[CyberGnu]

Why? They have more than enough to gripe about from thier foreign policy.

? I don't follow you.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by CyberGnu
? I don't follow you.

Why would right wingers care about the events you listed when they have more than enough evidence to justify thier dislike of the respective presidencies? Would you like Bush if he did one thing you could support?