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She won.  [pissed]

[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/09/education/09GRAD.html?ex=1053144000&en=bafbe2657f2c6d17&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE[/url]

Judge Rules Disabled Student Will Be Sole High School Valedictorian


A federal judge ruled yesterday that a South Jersey high school senior with an immune deficiency would be the sole valedictorian for her graduating class this year, after she contended that the school district was discriminating against her by proposing that two other students share the honor.

The student, Blair L. Hornstine, 18, sued the Moorestown school district, its superintendent and the township of Moorestown after learning that although she had the highest grade-point average in her class, she might have to share the honor with two others. She maintained that the proposal would diminish the award and her academic career.

But lawyers for the school district in Burlington County argued that because of her immune deficiency, Ms. Hornstine is classified as a disabled student and is granted privileges that other Moorestown High School students are not.

In her ruling today, Judge Freda L. Wolfson of United States District Court in Camden agreed with Ms. Hornstine.

Because of her illness, Ms. Hornstine spends only a few hours a day at the high school taking classes, and the rest of the day at home with private tutors. Because she is exempt from physical education classes, school officials said, she was able to take more weighted academic classes.

Earlier this year, several parents and students expressed their concern to the superintendent, Paul J. Kadri, that Ms. Hornstine had an unfair advantage over other students because of her home schooling and ability to take multiple advanced placement classes, according to court papers.

The school's brief said, "These accommodations were made in light of plaintiff's classification, and truly afforded plaintiff an advantage in competing for the valedictorian and/or salutatorian awards which her peers simply did not enjoy."

Traditionally, a valedictorian is the student in a graduating class with the highest grade-point average. School officials have not yet named a valedictorian, but before the court ruling, had planned a meeting for Monday to discuss the possibility of naming co-valedictorians.

Today, Ms. Hornstine's lawyer, Edwin J. Jacobs Jr. said he was satisfied with the ruling.

"I feel it's a shame that it took a federal lawsuit to get a disabled student what she is entitled to," Mr. Jacobs said. "But Blair is getting the award not because of the disability but despite her disability. She has earned this award."

Ms. Hornstine was not in court today and did not return several messages left at her home. Mr. Jacobs said he had spoken with his client's father, Louis F. Hornstine, a State Superior Court judge, and said the family was pleased by the ruling.

In the lawsuit, Ms. Hornstine asked for $200,000 in compensatory damages and $2.5 million in punitive damages. Judge Wolfson is expected to address those requests in a later ruling, Mr. Jacobs said.

A lawyer for the school district, John B. Comegno II, did not return several messages, and Mr. Kadri was unavailable for comment.

Ms. Hornstine's lawsuit is hardly a novelty. In recent years, students in Michigan, Ohio and Washington have gone to court to prevent schools from naming co-valedictorians.

Mr. Jacobs said that his client would attend Harvard in the fall and that she planned to become a lawyer. He said he did not know what topic Ms. Hornstine would address during her commencement address on June 19.

Oh boy.......

lil bitch, lol

What a bitch!

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What if they gave a graduation and nobody came?

me too...

Or they ALL came and brought newspapers with them so they could loudly read them while she was giving her speech.

[:D]

[rolleyes]So where's Bill O'Riely on this topic involving schools & discrimination? They must all be white kids.[rolleyes]

well yeah, NOW she can go to Harvard because she sued the shit out of the school.

What's up everyone ass on this one?


Valedictorian means the person with the highest grade point average.  Period.  It is absolute bullshit that they tried to take that away from her.

So what if she had tutors at home?  So if your parents have money, and buy you a special tutor to do better in school - your academic acheivements should be DISCOUNTED??? What kind of communist bullshit is that?  

There's nothing wrong with parents spending extra money to get tutors to help their kids do better than others - but there's something wrong with it when the kids NEEDS it because of a medical condition?  


I'm glad she won, because it would have been a travesty to have two other losers on the stage with her.

It's unfair because she had the oppertunity to take ADVANCED classes that no one else could due to her...condition.  That, my friend, is bullshit.  200,000 for dameges???  What fucking dameges???

Exactly.  She had the highest GPA.  If you don't like the school's rules that gave her the highest, then complain about the rules.  Changing the rules after the fact was wrong.z

I [b]totally[/b] agree that there are no damages here (except for court costs), but I firmly feel that this dilutes the ENTIRE concept of valedictorian.  Otherwise, every kid who comes in second can point to some "unfair" advantage the kid in first place had.  Because "fair" is purely in the eye of the beholder.


Boo-hoo - the first-placed person had rich parents who bought her a better computer and broadband internet access.

Boo-hoo the first-placed person had parents who are college professors.

Boo-hoo the first-placed person had two parents and a nice house and I have a junkie mom and live in the projects.

Boo-hoo the-first placed person has a medical condition so she has to take classes at home and can take more classes instead of gym class.



Where's the LIMIT to what's "fair" and "unfair"?  It's completely impossible to decide.  but you know what's easy to decide?  Who has the higest GPA.

I say good for her!

I also hope the judge forces the school district to pay $200,000 plus the 2.5 million dollars.

School are totally screwed up!

According to the school logic, PE classes are more important that AP Honors classess.

I don't think so.

Ok, I agree about the school rules.  However that said, one must agree that allowing her to take courses BASED on her condition that even with money the other parents couldn't have gotten for their kids because they wern't...special is crap (albeit that's the schools fault) but I know I would be quite pissed to know my child was in a race they could have almost [b]NEVER[/b] one because of school rules that wouldn't allow for the same classes to be taken (as I'm sure you would too).

Oh, I see now.  Rape the already strapped school system out of $2.7 million screwing the already disadvantaged kid's even more for this special student to be set up for most of her life, brilliant.........[rolleyes]

P.S. Adding yet another frivolous lawsuit to the books.

I agree completely, I was the valedictorian of my high school and college because I had the highest GPA, to share the stage with someone else with a lower GPA, regardless of circumstances would have been bullshit and something I would not have tolerated. My parents were not rich and I had no special treatment, I just studied my ass off. If I did not have the highest GPA, I would not expect or want the award.

I guess the "normal" people just can't stand to see a "gimp" beat out all the other "normal" kids. Good for her.

Here is a good example of why it is valedictorian has been rendered BS. I worked as a PCA (personal care attendandt) for a while. I worked with severly disabled children and adults. One kid had a functional IQ in the  high 50s to low 60s. Thanks to mainstreaming he was in a regular HS class setting most of the day. Amazingly he had a 4.0. He made an A on every test he took. Why? Because the teachers just plunked one down for him. This kid couldn't make change, couldn't spell, couldn't read, couldn't count past 8, yet his algebra test had an A on it veen though he didn't set pencil to paper. Should he have gotten valedictorian DK? I think not. If you are getting over because the system is biased due to skin color or physical handicapp then you shouldn't get the reward. Real life isn't like the Special Olymipcs. In real life when you come in last, you don't get a hug and a medal, you get to live in your car.

Wrong, re-read my post Hell.  If the playing field were level and the "gimp" wasn't able to take classes that "non gimp's" couldn't and she had the highest grades, then by all means she should take the Val title.  As stated by SG however, here specialness [b](although didn't garuntee her Val spot)[/b] most certainly gave her an unfair advantage.

I agree w/ Dk-Prof. She has the best GPA, she wins...END OF STORY.    However, awarding her $$ is just STUPID!  Gee- we have an eduaction problem in this country and you want to pull ~$3M out of the school system to pay this girl off...PLEASE!

Actually that's not a good example at all because it's not realistic, we don't see many "special ed" type kids winning Valedictorian awards and winning scholarships.

Where the problem really lies with the Valedictorian system is that it relies only on GPA and does not take into account the classes taken. It's easier to get a 4.0 GPA if you take easy classes rather than honors classes.

Yes I see your point, I just don't agree with it. It's like saying rich kids should not be allowed to compete for Valedictorian because their parents can afford special tutors and summer study camps while the poor kids have to work after school jobs and don't get the benefit of the extra academics that are available to the rich kids. Yeah, it's not fair, but that is the nature of this world.

When I first heard this story, I thought she got it handed to her, too.  But read the article, guys!  Here is a quote "Because she is exempt from physical education classes, school officials said, she was able to take more weighted academic classes."  Come on!  The classes she took were MORE DIFFICULT.  THey were harder and more challenging, and she STILL got better grades.  The other kids got to take PE!  When Iwas in high school, if you passed the "jock strap check" and didn't hide behind the bleachers instead of playing basketball, you gat an "A" in PE!  She deserves the award, but the $$ is a load of fertilizer.

JimH

I thikn we can all agree that undeserved grades hurt and undermine ANY educational system.

I wonder if the schools were that happens have a scpecil notation of something on their gradesheets so everyone involved (including the parents) understand that those "special" kids are getting "feel-good" grades - and won't actualyl be considered for acdemic honors liek valedictorian.  

It's like college athletes who get passing grades, and sometimes even "A" that don't even show up to class.

That's just plain wrong, and I don't think anyone would disagree with you there.

She was right to sue...this "Co-valedictorian" stuff is bullshit. Whatever happened to having ONE valedictorian and ONE salutorian (2nd place)like we had back in the old days?

Seems that HS are giving out valedictorian status to anybody with a pulse nowadays, apparently due to the rantings of parents hellbent on making sure their kids get scholarships or acceptance letters into the "right" colleges.

She had after-school tutors?...OH THE HORROR!!!
Did it ever occur to the other students/parents to hire a tutor too?

And what of all the GPA enhancing classes i.e. college prepratory where you can boost your GPA ABOVE 4.00? ( this one always chapped my butt, either an A is an A or its not).

And should we disqualify all the other hardcore students who enhanced their GPA by taking voluntary summer school classes instead of spending summers parked on the couch watching MTV 24/7 ?

The only real shame is that she had to get a judge to do the principal's job since apparently he/she lacked the required vertebral column to run the school the correct way.

Are you the guy who sued Mc Donalds for the coffe being hot and them not having it written on the cup?

WTF? For what??? What damages? Just because they were CONSIDERING co-valedictorians???? Some people will do anything to get free money.

Indeed......

I'm sure she's headed to college and in a few months, it won't mean squat that she was  valedictorian or co-valedictorian.

Do you know another way to change a flawed system?  The school systems only listen to one thing.  

MONEY.

But in the process of this lesson you'd be giving the school system, how many kids would you screw?  Already teacher's have to pay out of pocket for quite a bit of their school supplies, and are [b]GROSSLY[/b] underpaid.  Would you be willing to screw these people for a lesson that really doesn't need to be taught?

When I graduated in 97 I was co-validictorian because our GPA's matched. It didnt bother me one bit and in fact it was nice to have someone next to me making the graduation speech(very nervous!).

Well, when school districts ignore court orders, parents/student advisory panels, PTAs, etc.  There is nothing else left.

Sure, it painful, isn't that the point.

Edited because I can't spell

As I read the news article, school district tried to change the standard by which all the students were judged.

Is this what you want to teach?  Some folks are more equal than others?

I'll agree it's painful, but it's painful lesson that will affect the wrong people.

A much more targeted approach would work, for example: Black ball the school board.  Send them compramising photo's of their hottub adventures! [:)]

As a caucasian LD student that was ignored for years by an ultra PC school system and labled simply as a "trouble maker" I'm happy she won. See the other students "self esteem" was hurt because they had to play nasty sports to meet the mean old state phys ed requirement that she is expempt from. When you have an illness it automatically makes you smarter, or so the school would lead one to believe. She deserves the top spot, she earned with her brain. She deserves the 200K for what the school admin tried to take away from her. The 2mil is pie in the sky bullshit.

Wrong, because she had a GPA without a non-academic score (with a lower weighting) for Gym.  

If Valedictorian is an academic honor then the school should not count the Gym score against anyone and the highest ACADEMIC GPA should count.  If I had the SAME academic GPA as her and also had any score except 'A' in Gym, then my average GPA would be lower.  The system is (and should not be) giving the disabled kid a free 'A' in gym for being disabled.

If Valedictorian is an all-around honor, then she needs some 'balance' score to equate with gym and then be ranked against everyone else

It's called EQUAL OPPERTUNITY for a reason.  

If I read this right, the main complaint is that she was exempt from PE because of her disability and was able to take  higher weighted classes than the others who were mandated by the state or feds to take lower weighted PE classes.

I don't see where her actual handicap comes into play at all.  Tutors and dollars don't have a thing to do with it.  

This was not a level playing field to start with, but one akin to grading a 150 lb student wrestling against an equally physically adept 265 pound one.  

When everything was added up she was high man on the totem pole because the others didn't have the opportunity to take the higher weighted classes.

Why not throw out PE credits and then her credits for classes substituted for PE and then do the math.  

So far as the School's policies and requirements for Valedictorian, that seems like the area which needs revamping and which although unfair in this instance, everyone has to live with this year.

I wish this approach would work.

My experience has been a little different.  I have had the misfortune of suing a school board.  I did this only after the school board was cited by the state/federal government for not meeting state/federal guidelines, yelled at by parents, yelled at by the PTA, and several members were recalled.  The only thing that got results was throwing school board members in jail for contempt of court.

On the other hand, maybe you’re a better "sweet talker" than I and I wish you success in changing the corrupt system that currently governs our schools.

I remember a couple girls that were trying for valedictorian at my high school.  They want it for their transcript to college and for their resumes for jobs.  It is all B.S. and unfair.  The two girls took the toughest classes they could and studied and worked to receive straight A's.  But, one girl was able to take AP Art and got more credit for her A than another because there was no AP musical class to compensate.  Otherwise their courses/grades were identical.  And, WTF is AP art???


I bet the loser in this case would have gladly substituted harder classes for phys ed and the other courses from which the "special" student was exempted.  Except they were not allowed since they weren't ill.  Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the tutors taught courses of higher GPA value than necessarily offered during the same semester at the school.

Are you the guy who rode the short bus to school?
Did I say ANYWHERE that the girl should collect monetary damages?...No.
The Only thing I agreed with with the lawsuit is plainly stated in the last line of my original post.
What I disagree with is the spineless school officials handing out multi-valedictorian status like candy to everyone in the school so they won't don't have to deal with overbearing parents who want their cherub to be able to attend the "right" school. It cheapens the award for the student...why do people have a problem with awarding excellence? Some of you sound like you're part of the touchy-feely crowd that " oh, we can't hurt these other kids self-esteem"

All that said, guess what...once you're in college, "valedictorian/salutorian status don't mean squat. Everybody starts at square one again.