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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.

That's interesting.

Anyway, I'm sure this is all just a non-issue and the above was a coincidence.

 

[Wafflecakes]

That's interesting.

Anyway, I'm sure this is all just a non-issue and the above was a coincidence.

First part is disgusting yes, but doesn't change the law preventing them from making grades public.

Second part was already explained since they appeared in alphabetical order.

 

[Faiz]

This post made me spit out my drink laughing. High school, such stupid silly drama. "Everyone was watching to see if I'd crack" lmao.

Umm ok? It was stressful. *I* thought I might crack. Came close to losing my A in calc II, even. It was a long competitive situation and because of how close scores were one bad grade on a quiz would change the outcome incredibly.

Kind of a dickish post there, to be quite honest.

 

[Yeoman]

Yup. This would be the INSTANT response to a release of grades.

"Well the school changed the grades because racism!"



...which may or may not be true, but is unverifiable at this point and is 100% not the other girls fault.

There are literally people in this thread already making that claim.
It's a lose-lose situation for the other student.
It's possible something fishy is going on but the parent of the allegedly wronged student seems to be going about this the wrong way.

 

[Raylan Targaryen]

My wife was kinda sorted out of getting valedictorian, and instead got salutatorian. The other student shouldn't have been awarded anything, but her mom was on the school board, and things were done.

The other student was failing an AP English IV class, and she dropped the class AFTER the cutoff date passed. The cutoff date, if done before it, the class isn't recorded. If you drop the class after the cutoff date, you're recorded an incomplete class, which affects your GPA.

So, when near the end of the year, when things were being sorted, my wife's GPA was a point higher than this other student, and the second ranked student was a .8 higher. Well, school board mom works her magic, gets the incomplete class off the record, which takes the negative points off, and GPA goes up and is the same as the GPA my wife had. Now this other girl happened to be captain of the tennis team, that my wife was on. So that gave the other student the merit and she got valedictorian and my wife got salutatorian. The other student got "3rd place ribbon".

Well, my wife had a child her senior year, worked part time, had a baby, still went to college, got her degree, and is making three times more per year than that other girl. /shrugs

Is it that important that you can't be "CO-valedictorian"?

Yes, I think it would be that important for a black girl to be the sole valedictorian considering the school that apparently didn't desegregate until recently has never had a co-valedictorian.

Context is needed, unless you think a teen mom being salutatorian is the same situation

 

[KHarvey16]

Let's state facts.

This was the first time, in 110 years, that they've done a co-valedictorian.

There's no way this was the first time, in 110 years, that 2 students had the same GPA.

That is the long and short of it, yeah?

School claims it's policy to make them co-valedictorians in the event of a tie. The interesting question might be when was that policy put in place, because it is quite unlikely no students have ever tied.

 

[the_darkness]

Has the school ever had a black valedictorian before?
Edit: appears they hadn't.

 

[shira]

Around here valedictorian is the best all-around student

If it was just top GPA it would just be some student from Asia who transferred in and was already doing University level work.

 

[the_darkness]

Gives me the feeling the mother might just be a lunatic. I cannot believe someone would write something like this in the civilised world in the year 2017.

Invoking religion makes her a lunatic?

 

[Wafflecakes]

Around here valedictorian is the best all-around student

If it was just top GPA it would just be some student from Asia who transferred in and was already doing University level work.

Schools have many different systems.

Some only award if you attended the school for the full 3/4 years.

Some weight AP and honors classes so you can get over a 4.0.

Some include extracurricular activities.

Some use ACT/SAT scores as tiebreakers so they virtually never have two winners.

 

[Syriel]

Yes, I think it would be that important for a black girl to be the sole valedictorian considering the school that apparently didn't desegregate until recently has never had a co-valedictorian.

Context is needed, unless you think a teen mom being salutatorian is the same situation

If the school is doing it based on GPA and it just desegregated (aka combined two schools) the chances of having a tie go up.

Double the number of kids and you've increased the chances that multiple will get top marks. The smaller the pool, the less likely there is to be a tie.

 

[the_darkness]

I was referring to the student, who will have heard about what's happening.

If she refuses to release her grades, doesn't paint a very good picture about her or the school.

Bullshit.

A schoolgirl is under no obligation to release her grades to slake the general public's thirst for a scandal.

 

[superdeluxe]

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.

Ok so there are conflicting reports on the GPA. The title made it look much more heinous

 

[hollomat]

I was referring to the student, who will have heard about what's happening.

If she refuses to release her grades, doesn't paint a very good picture about her or the school.

Guilty until proven innocent, huh?

 

[Aselith]

SAT scores... Etc. Tiebreak. Honors courses.

Why break the tie? They both had the highest grades since it was even. There's no reason to try to beak the "tie" They're being honored for an achievement that both made.

 

[The Cowboy]

Invoking religion makes her a lunatic?

After reading some of the Facebook posts, whilst I wouldn't go as far as a lunatic - she really does go way overboard, and some of it really seems very weird (like the son in law being sent by God to give her a message from God? - just way over the top).

 

[K.Jack]

School claims it's policy to make them co-valedictorians in the event of a tie. The interesting question might be when was that policy put in place, because it is quite unlikely no students have ever tied.

If we've gone 110 years one way, then it suddenly changes when a black person wins, I have to side eye the situation.

We'll never really find the truth though, unless a court compels it come into the light.

 

[Prototype Viktor]

How is this not extremist? She at the same time belittles and elevates her daughter by her talk, by making her achievements less of her achievements and more of a tool for a god, while at the same time elevating her to some sort of deity's darling. She's having a dispute over whether someone else got honours that the other person may not have had the right to get and is calling it a fight for some god and in the name of some god. How is this not extremist? What would an extremist viewpoint actually look like? If it was a muslim who was writing this, I assume a whole lot of people would be concerned it would be the next person with a bomb belt. Now, please do not misunderstand: I do not want to claim she is about to harm anyone, but this is more than just believing there is some magic earth creator, this is downright middle ages level of "everything is controlled by god". If this is standard in the US, I would certainly feel very estranged talking to people in the US.

shhh we don't talk about people who choose to go above and beyond to do things then say it had nothing to do with them

 

[elrechazado]

Bullshit.

A schoolgirl is under no obligation to release her grades to slake the general public's thirst for a scandal.

But a forum poster won't be satisfied until she does.

 

[hollomat]

Suing over it is kind of extreme but the school obviously shit on the black student

Re: GPAs, in my high school ours were printed on the report cards to two decimal places, and we definitely knew what everyone had

So because they did that at your school they clearly shit on the black student at this completely different school? Can you post the screenshot that shows both gpas and proves the black students was higher because I didn't see it in the article. After reading the article and your post I'm clearly missing something that you saw.