Selfish, whiny girl sues school to be named sole valedictorian

[Q Classic]

you were salutatorian, if i remember correctly? that too was an honor that means nothing outside of that ceremony.

i don't understand this girl. suing to be sole valedictorian, and then avoiding the one thing where being valedictorian matters... wtf?

[Dr Strangelove]

I'm still leary of the validity of her so-called "immune disorder that leaves her exhausted". There are a number of truly devastating immune deficiency diseaes that involve genetic defects in one or more parts of the immune system. Some of them involve defects of one or more types of white cells, some involve defects of antibody production. The manifestations of these syndromes vary from complete lack of defenses against most viruses and bacteria (the boy in the bubble), to a propensity towards recurrent infections by certain classes of infectious agents, to no symptoms whatsoever.

Asthma can certainly affect a person's ability to exercise, and there are some forms of asthma triggered by exercise. It is possible to have prolonged flair-ups that would require the sufferer to be excused from school and hence tutored at home too, but asthma is generally not classified as an "immune deficiency" or an "immune disorder", but instead is placed under the heading of "allergies", even though one could make a case for placing some forms of asthma with the former categories. The thing is, if she suffered from asthma, why doesn't the article just say so?

There are a couple of relatively new proposed illnesses that are claimed to be immune system disorders and which have fatigue as a primary symptom. One of these is "Systemic Candidal Infection", the other is "Environmental Allergy Syndrome". The first supposedly stems from a colonization of the body by Candida, a fungus, which supposedly triggers a systemic inflammatory response causing the person to feel ill. Proponents point to finding small quantities of candida in the sufferer's airways. Detractors point out that thic fungus can also colonize the airways of the non-symptomatic, and that there are no consistent pathological or serological signs of an inflammatory response in the sufferers. With regards to "Environmental Allergy Syndrome", its proponents have made up entire batteries of tests to back up their claims, but most of these tests resmeble the sort of technology common in the "patent medicine" age at the end of the 19th century.

Neither of these two syndromes are recognised by medical societies, but unfortunately the legal system doesn't have to follow medical opinion consensus, so it is possible that she might have been granted disability status based on one of these bogus diagnoses. I find it suspicious that none of the artilcles names her illnness. It makes me wonder. Maybe Mom and Dad, wanting to make their daughter's dream of being class valedictorian come true found a doctor to diagnose her with one of these bogus illnesses so that she could qualify for tutored learning.

It's possiblr though that the family simply wants their privacy. Some of the legitimate immune disorders have hairy names. For instance, to the uninformed "Combined Immune Deficiency Syndrome" might sound an awful lot like AIDS.

[Vince278]

Originally posted by Sava
And what's funny is that in the real world, being valedvictorian doesn't mean sh1t.

Well said. Good reality check. Haven't seen it on college or job applications. It would be interesting to see what becomes of her after about ten years.

[Q Classic]

i dunno, but i hope she learns what the real world is like at harvard.

her immune system issue should do her a lot of good in the dorms.

[ixnay]

bump for...

ANOTHER UPDATE

Valedictorian who sued is dropped from Harvard class

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/192/region/Report_Valedictorian_who_sued_%3A.shtml

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) A New Jersey student who sued successfully to be the sole valedictorian of her high school has been disinvited from attending Harvard University for plagiarism, according to a published report.

Citing an unnamed source involved with the decision, The Harvard Crimson reported for Friday's edition that the Ivy League school decided not to welcome Blair Hornstine into its class of 2007.

Harvard spokesman Robert Mitchell said the university would not comment on any application to the school.

Director of Undergraduate Admissions Marlyn McGrath Lewis told the Crimson that it would be unusual for Harvard not to rescind the admission of a student caught plagiarizing. Lewis would not comment on Hornstine's case, however.

Calls to Hornstine's father, a New Jersey Superior Court judge in Camden, her lawyer and a second lawyer who has served as her spokesman were not immediately returned Friday morning.

Nearly 2,700 people signed an online petition calling for Harvard to rescind Hornstine's acceptance. The petition drive began before news broke about possible plagiarism by Hornstine in a southern New Jersey newspaper.

In a column published last month by the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill, Hornstine conceded she did not properly attribute material she used in a teen page commentary column.

Hornstine, a student with near-perfect grades and a near-perfect SAT score, had gotten attention from President Bush, among others, for her good works in the community.

She attracted national media attention in May, when she sued the public school system in Moorestown, the wealthy Philadelphia suburb where she lives.

Hornstine suffers from an immune deficiency, and during her last two years of high school received much of her instruction from tutors at her home and was exempted from classes such as physical education.

Though she had the highest grades in her class, the school administration wanted her to share the valedictorian title with another student.

She sued in federal court to be the only valedictorian and she won based on a discrimination complaint.

She also sued in state court, seeking $2.7 million in punitive and compensatory damages. That case has not been resolved.

Hornstine returned to the news when the Courier-Post published her explanation of her failure to properly attribute material for columns and essays in newspaper-sponsored contests.

The writings appeared to borrow themes, structures and, in several cases, lengthy verbatim passages from sources ranging from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and presidential proclamation to foreign affairs analysis.

School officials in Moorestown have said they were reviewing Hornstine's school work to see if any of it was plagiarized.

She skipped her school's graduation ceremony last month.

Hurrah for even more karma!

She brought this on herself. If she hadn't sued, she wouldn't have gotten the publicity that would cause someone to look into whether she'd plagiarized or not, and she'd still be in Harvard.

[Velociryx]

Outstanding!

-=Vel=-

[Az]

Justice has been served.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Timexwatch
If I were the other kid with her in Harvard, I'd ridicule her mercilessly, much like I did when I ran into the valedictorian of my class (who was still an *******)...

I hope everybody in her entering class finds out exactly what sort of a whiner she is...

Along the lines of what Doc's been saying, I don't know whether this girl has legitimate problems or not, but I can't stand it when students get a bogus medical excuse and use it to boost their GPAs. Wasn't a problem in high school, but in Uni there was this one guy who was taking one course a semester for some ****ty medical "necessity (the guy was fine). Every prof hated him because he *****ed to the administration about every grade he received. Snooze. I don't know what happened to him, but I hope he hit a brick wall somewhere.

This other girl was in my girlfriend's medical physics master's program, as well as being in some of her undergrad classes. She claimed that she got headaches in every single exam she ever took (due to stress), and was always given 6 hours to complete exams rather than the usual 3 (which in physics or math exams in an enormous advantage). This one prof she got in the first semester of her master's program wasn't taking that ****, though. She was given the standard time to do it, and after two hours apparently crumpled up her exam and walked out of the room, never to be heard from again.

If you can't hack it, then leave. Whining to get grades or honours you don't deserve degrades everybody else's accomplishments.

[KrazyHorse]

Hadn't read the whole thread.

[Az]

6 hours to do a test?!


could use it in that Diff. Eq. final...

[KrazyHorse]

Ordinary or partial?

We were once given 6 hours to do a PDE test. That wasn't a prof doing us a favour; it was a prof being an ******* and giving us a 6 hour test. I stopped doing any useful work after 4 hours (since I had run out of both knowledge and motivation for creative thought by that point).

A C taken with pride, sure in the knowledge that I would never have to deal with that jackass of a prof again.

[Az]

A course of ODE together with first order PDE, and second order PDE of waves, heat, and la-place (sp?).

I am biting my nails in hope that I pass. I'd hate to retake the test in october.

[KrazyHorse]

Why so much together? How many class hours is it?

(Standard courses here are 15 weeks of 3 hours)

[monolith94]

The moral of this story? If you have a wicked dirty background, don't attract attention to yourself. She went for double or nothing, and got nothing.

Watch for her autobiography, coming this Spring.

[Az]

They cut down some on ODE, I think. My limits of ODE solution are non-homogenous equation of the N-th degree with constant multipliers, or the Euler (sp?) form.

It's a special cource of DE for Mechanical Engineering, but they decided to cram Bio-technology and Chemistry students there as well, 'cause it suited their obligatory cource list structure. Luckily, they've decided to cancel that course beginning this autumn, and force everyone to take the two DE course of ODE and but I hope that I won't have to "enjoy" these new measures next semester, i.e. take Diff. Eq. again, and now double the trouble.

3 out of 5 questions on the tests were 2nd order PDE. one was 1st order PDE, and only a single question in ODE. And even that question I failed to solve.

The class is also 3 hours a week, plus 2 hours tuition, and is worth 4 points. ( In comparison, Calc 2 is worth 5, and Physics 1 is worth 2.5 )