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White student made ‘co-valedictorian’ with black student, despite having lower GPA

P

Piecake

Member
An African American woman has filed a federal lawsuit against a Mississippi school district, claiming a white student was named “co-valedictorian” with her daughter, despite the white student having a lower grade-point average.

The day before Jasmine Shepard graduated from Cleveland High School in Cleveland, Miss., in May 2016, the school awarded her and a white student the title “co-valedictorian,” according to the suit filed Tuesday in federal court in the Northern District of Mississippi. This was a first in the 110-year history of the school, the suit said, and the decision was made.

An attorney for the Cleveland School District called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said the students “had identical grade point averages.”

Sherry Shepherd, Jasmine Shepherd’s mother, said it was easy to calculate the students’ grade-point averages because the community is so small.

The “co-valedictorian” designation also came “on the heels of a federal judge’s ruling that the Cleveland School District had failed to desegregate its schools approximately 50 years” after being ordered to do so, the suit says. The judge, in her ruling last year, ordered the schools to be integrated.

In an interview, Sherry Shepard, who maintains a “Justice for Jasmine” Facebook page, said her daughter was forced to speak after the white valedictorian at graduation, and also was slated to walk behind her before she objected.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...er-gpa-lawsuit-claims/?utm_term=.157a49134f36

Couldn't fit the lawsuit part in the title, but the school is saying that they had the same GPA while the black student is arguing that she had a higher GPA.
 
G

GiantEnemyGoomba

Member
I'm not really understanding how a small community means the GPAs can be calculated by other parents? Wouldn't that mean every students grades are available to the public?
 
N

norm9

Member
Crappy that she had to have a covaledictorian.

In an interview, Sherry Shepard, who maintains a “Justice for Jasmine” Facebook page, said her daughter was forced to speak after the white valedictorian at graduation, and also was slated to walk behind her before she objected.
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Champion should always come out last; this part by itself I'm not against.
 
P

Piecake

Member
Yaboosh said:
How does she know her gpa is higher exactly? Because the community is small? Huh?
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“These children have been attending school with each other since middle school,” she said. “We know the schedule, we know what they take, and we have a good idea where the discrepancy lies.”
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That's their claim.
 
S

Syriel

Member
norm9 said:
Crappy that she had to have a covaledictorian.

Champion should always come out last; this part by itself I'm not against.
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Going to need to see the receipts on this one.

School says the two girls had the same GPA. Having co-valedictorians makes sense in that case. And the school is going to be in a better position to know GPAs than a single parent.

As for the second claim in the lawsuit, the other girl's last name starts with a B. Schools almost always go by alphabetical order for ceremonies, so not seeing how that forms a valid claim of discrimination.

On the information presented this sounds more like a helicopter parent trying to boost her kid than intentional discrimination.

The whole claim boils down to "I don't believe the school has valid academic records."
 
D

Deuce Deuce

Member
It seems like the Valedictorian's (and Salutatorian's) GPAs should be made available to classmates since they set the bar for that year. I guess it's too much information to be made public?
 
F

Faiz

Member
Yaboosh said:
How does she know her gpa is higher exactly? Because the community is small? Huh?
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Our community wasn't even that small but it was well known in our class who had the highest grades. Three of us had all As until junior year, when one dodged the harder English teacher (known for not giving As much). I got the A from the harder teacher, the second got a B, and the one who dodged ended up getting a B in another class. Leaving me. Everyone was watching to see if I'd crack senior year and drop an A making it a three way tie again.

I didn't.

But the point is, these standings can be very competitive and as a result everyone at the top knows everyone else's grades.
 
K

KHarvey16

Member
Deuce Deuce said:
It seems like the Valedictorian's (and Salutatorian's) GPAs should be made available to classmates since they set the bar for that year. I guess it's too much information to be made public?
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Set the bar? What does that mean? I don't understand your point.

Grades should always be private.
 
P

Piecake

Member
GiantEnemyGoomba said:
I still don't see how this means they were able to calculate the exact GPA of the other student, which they would have to do to claim it's lower.
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I would agree with that. I mean, how can you tell if you are student that another student got an A or an A-?

If true, its awful.

If not, I imagine that they think its true based on attending a seemingly rather racist school/community, and just the anger and frustration with dealing with that.
 
N

norm9

Member
Syriel said:
Going to need to see the receipts on this one.

School says the two girls had the same GPA. Having co-valedictorians makes sense in that case. And the school is going to be in a better position to know GPAs than a single parent.

As for the second claim in the lawsuit, the other girl's last name starts with a B. Schools almost always go by alphabetical order for ceremonies, so not seeing how that forms a valid claim of discrimination.

On the information presented this sounds more like a helicopter parent trying to boost her kid than intentional discrimination.

The whole claim boils down to "I don't believe the school has valid academic records."
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I'm arguing in good faith to the wronged student, if she was actually wronged. If their gpa were the same, the school did nothing wrong.
 
9

99Luffy

Banned
Valevictorian wasnt all about gpa when I was in highschool. If you wereent part of any clubs or atheletics etc. as well you werent gonna get get it.
Not sure if that applies here.
 
I

Ishan

Junior Member
This should get sorted out quickly if the courts can access the student records. I dont know how it works in high school but at the university level there are a bunch of rules for releasing student grades etc.
 
N

norm9

Member
99Luffy said:
Valevictorian wasnt alll about gpa when I was in highschool. If you wereent part of any clubs or atheletics etc. as well you werent gonna get get it.
Not sure that applies here.
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This is true too. If we by omly academics, my graduating class would have many students in line for valedictorian as they were tons of 4.0s and higher.
 
R

RyanW

Member
I would imagine people talk about this kind of stuff. As with it being a small palace she gets around fast.
 
S

StopMakingSense

Member
Yaboosh said:
How does she know her gpa is higher exactly? Because the community is small? Huh?
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I was in a class of like 800 students, and all of us at the top knew each others GPAs at the end there. Me and another guy had the purest grades (all As), but neither of us got Valedictorian because we had less honors classes, which awarded a bonus point (I did theater and show choir), didn't really give a fuck either way though.
 
K

kirblar

Member
Multiple valedictorians is a really common thing, especially in larger schools.

The transcript will eventually come out and let us know what happened here.
 
A

Angelus Errare

Banned
I'm lost, how the fuck do two people have the same GPA? in my school when two people scored like say a 4.0 the school then looks at the numerical equivalent of each student's "A" to determine which one scored higher. The chances of two people being the same on in a numerical sense is pretty fucking low. Add in extra curricular actives and honors classes...this is so sus.

What this article tells me is that these two students scored the same numerically/had the same GPA numerically based on their class scores over the course of 4 years...

With that stated this is Mississippi, and as such I'm skeptical as fuck about this cause their fuckery and racism ain't new.
 
B

BriGuy

Member
We had seven fucking co-valedictorians in my graduating class back in 1999. It was purely GPA based, so you had people who did the bare minimum standing next to people who took every AP class and a bunch of extracurricular activities. I think they started weighing those other factors the following year and beyond.
 
F

Faiz

Member
norm9 said:
This is true too. If we by omly academics, my graduating class would have many students in line for valedictorian as they were tons of 4.0s and higher.
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My sister would have been happy for that - she was super involved and her advanced classes counted the same as the remedial classes as our system didn't use weighted GPAs at the time. She likely would have been the only one left.
 
L

LastGamer84

Member
Gonna need more facts on this one. Neutral third party both the school and parent can agree on is shown both students' GPA and states which, if true, is higher.

Racism shouldn't be tolerated, and neither should making baseless accusations. If it turns out their GPA is the same, then this is just another parent crying about how unfair it is for their little snowflake.
 
X

Xe4

Banned
Yeah, I'll have to see the transcript, which will undoubtedly come out in court. Shitty if true, though.
 
I

Izuna

Banned
UnemployedVillain said:
It seems like it should be really easy for both parties to be told by the school whether the GPAs are actually exactly the same
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I don't get it

The school said they were the same. The school would have to straight up be lying about it to be wrong there, which would be serious in many more ways.
 
F

Famassu

Member
Yaboosh said:
How does she know her gpa is higher exactly? Because the community is small? Huh?
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I knew the average grade of most people in my class. Children like to discuss about their accomplishments (or the bad boys brag about how cool they are for not giving a shit about their low averages) and have more or less friendly competition with their peers.
 
S

sir_kevith

Member
I wonder if they know because the co-valedictorian told them? Sounds like the community has a fucked up history but I hope the students get along.
 
E

Eye for an Eye

Member
KHarvey16 said:
Grades should always be private.
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Do you teally think kids keep their grades private? Plus these two students would've had to take similar courses in honors and AP classes. I don't doubt that these students were in constant competition, but it's still anecdotal and not factual.

But if the case does get set before a judge, then the truth would have to be revealed. One or the other is going to come down off their high horse.
 
S

Syriel

Member
MastAndo said:
No. Please show more knee-jerk outrage.
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We could talk about making Bronson Lee and Slayven co-valedictorians of Comic-GAF.

Don't have to wait for court filings on that one. ;)

sir_kevith said:
I wonder if they know because the co-valedictorian told them? Sounds like the community has a fucked up history but I hope the students get along.
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The mom who filed the lawsuit only identified the other girl by her initials and was quoted in the WaPo article as saying she was a sweet girl. So that latter part doesn't seem to be an issue yet, but I can see how something like this could destroy a friendship going forward.
 
R

riotous

Banned
Famassu said:
I knew the average grade of most people in my class. Children like to discuss about their accomplishments (or the bad boys brag about how cool they are for not giving a shit about their low averages)
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Weird, i knew zero other peoples GPA.
 
K

KHarvey16

Member
Eye for an Eye said:
Do you teally think kids keep their grades private? Plus these two students would've had to take similar courses in honors and AP classes. I don't doubt that these students were in constant competition, but it's still anecdotal and not factual.

But if the case does get set before a judge, then the truth would have to be revealed. One or the other is going to come down off their high horse.
Click to expand...

Children can share their grades if they want to, just like you can share any of your personal details if you choose. They shouldn't be forced to.
 
Lactose_Intolerant

Lactose_Intolerant

Member
One of my class's valedictorians cried to the teacher when she got a B in physics and the teacher gave her an extra credit assignment.

I could easily see a someone changing the gpa.
 
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