Selfish, whiny girl sues school to be named sole valedictorian

[Urban Ranger]

It's silly. After college, how you did in HS wouldn't make a difference.

[Sava]

High school is a cancer... the whole system needs reform...

[St Leo]

But Wolfson said the school's decision "would send the message that we have two valedictorians this year, a disabled one and a non-disabled one."

Everyone here seems to disagree with her. Why wouldn't it send that message?

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Sava
I don't think the tutoring is the issue here. It's the self-serving, frivilous lawsuit.

I rhink it does if for the past 2 years she has been essentially home schooled. Being placed in classes of one would definitely give her an advantage over someone in classes of 25 to 35, especially if her illness is not debilitating. Again, I'd like to know more about the nature of her illness.

[Sava]

I'm not against someone getting tutors and such. I'm against frivilous lawsuits. I really don't care about the whole valedvictorian mess. I'll leave that debate to others. She just shouldn't be suing... that's my point.

[Victor Galis]

My school had two valedictorians and salutatorians. One for the regular people and one for the Magnet program people. It didn't bother me that much that the regular valedictorian had a lower GPA than me (Magnet salutatorian). I mean, in the long term none of this matters much. At our school at least the competition for the top spots was decided well in advance and not based on selective course taking. I got the number two spot, even though I had a 4-5 Bs, the valedictorian had a B in something at somepoint, but we just had so many more AP classes than everyone else that it didn't matter much.

[Frogman]

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

Aside from the honor that goes with it, being valedictorian can be worth some scholarship money, especially the local stuff, which usually goes to the top 2 or 3 graduating students. Its not nothing, but it sure is overblown.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Frogman


Aside from the honor that goes with it, being valedictorian can be worth some scholarship money, especially the local stuff, which usually goes to the top 2 or 3 graduating students. Its not nothing, but it sure is overblown.

So if this girl is too sick to go much further then taking the valedictorian postion from the other student really hurts the school, since college admission commitees often place some value on the school an applicant is from based on the performance of students they've had from that school.

[Alinestra Covelia]

What's a valedictorian?

[Imran Siddiqui]

A. The case is in federal court because the girl filed it as a discrimination action. This does have some basis, because apparently the school board basically changed its rules THIS YEAR when they saw that she was going to be valedictorian. It was basically a rule change solely focused on her, which makes the thing very, very fishy.

B. She shouldn't have won, and it'll probably be reversed at a higher level, because there is a reasonable explination for this discriminatory classification (handicaps aren't a suspect class).

So if this girl is too sick to go much further

But she isn't. Apparently she and the other guy involved here are BOTH going to Harvard.

[Spiffor]

IIUC, a valedictorian some honorific title that goes to the kid who has the best grades in his high school ?

The very existence of it sounds stupid to me. It only leads to rabid and unfair competition, especially since kids most often don't give rats about fairness when it clashes with their pride (it is much worse by them than by adults, as I see it). This ****ty trial is an absolutely unsurprising result of the valedictorian system.

For the record, I agree with everything Pekka has said in this thread

[Az]

yeah, god forbid we introduce some competition on things other than "how good one looks" in highscool.

[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 *******)...

[Frankychan]

I think her parents should give her a good swift kick in the a** to straighten her up.

[Static Universe]

Being valedictorian can be very important to some people.

I see this guy I went to high school with every year or so, and he never fails to tell the story about how he missed out on being valedictorian by just a few points, and that was like 15 years ago.

He still drinks wine coolers, too.