Student asks judge to name her best in class
 

In another example of how stuck-up some kids are these days, I present you an article of... stupidity.

from - http://www.boston.com/dailynews/122/...udent%3A.shtml

What ticks me off most is the amount of money that she is demanding as Damages. Damages to what? Ego? I don't give a rats ass how disabled you are. You don't try to make an example against a school just because they think you are not THAT special to be valedictorian. I'm sick of this. Valedictorian isn't that special. No one asks you in 40 years, "Hey, what did you do in your life? Were you valedictorian?"

I apologize now if any of you are valedictorians and want to tear my head off. I'm just a little miffed about this story. Valedictorians ARE special, because it shows the dedication and effort on your part to achieve so much in school.

Being English I find the whole valedictorian thing a little bizarre and overly competitive, but then I guess that means it fits well with the American way of life. In England you are encouraged to think that you are really only competing against yourself, and should be judged according to how well you perform within your own boundaries. You might say "but life's not like that", but I think it produces better adjusted school-leavers and therefore does prepare you better for the world.

As for this kid. It just seems that she is so smart that she has come top (or joint top) of her year and realised that the litiguous nature of American society means that the law courts are fair game for makeing as much money as you can in any ridiculous way that you can. The stupidity seems to lie with the system for (a) having valedictorians and (b) not having the rules in place that would make expensive court cases unnecessary.

Three more questions:
1) She has a disability. She was given help to compensate for that disability. It was compensated for. She was back on a level playing field. She got better grades. What's the problem?
2) Why did she only get 4 A+s when she took 5 courses? Is she thick or something? :)
3) Why does something seem wrong with SATs? She isn't the smartest of kids (she dropped a grade) but she got 1570 out of 1600 on the SAT. 30 points out of 1600 (or 2%) seems a small gap to leave for brighter kids (those who got 5 or more A+s) and some must presumably get 1600, and any test where people get 100% is probably failing to show the true range of test-takers intelligence.

Nice avatar though. I could look at that all day.

The position is good for college apps, that's it. I honestly couldn't tell you who my class valedictorian was, and that was less than a year ago. Suing a school is about the worst thing you could do. With our underfunded systems suffering now, taking money from them is only going to make things worse.

I have no pity on this girl.

They should say, ok, until such time as the issue is resolved in court, we can not in good concious allow you to be validictorian.

Therefore, joe blow is validictorian period.

She needs a kick in the ass for being so full of herself.

As a teacher in an American school, I will tell you that this news is appalling. This angers me beyond belief. The school district has already gone out of their way for her, and now she wants money. That's what this comes down to. "You wont give me what I want, so I want ridiculous amounts of money."

We had a situation in our district with the Valedictorian last year. Our district, being 65% Hispanic, has a great deal of parents (and students) who cannot speak or understand English. This young lady wrote her speech for graduation in both English and Spanish. The Board of Education and Superintendent would not approve her speech. She thought it was because she planned on doing it in Spanish. The young lady got the media involved which angered her classmates as well as the school district. She claimed it was discrimination and was bringing the school district to court.

The reason why the speech was not being approved: It was WAY too long. The Valedictorian's speech is limited to 5 minutes in length. Her's was 5 minutes for English, 5 for Spanish. So she doubled the length of speech time. Time limits are important because the location of the event is a theater that has other events taking place. She didn't see the time limit as the offending portion of her speech.

I still don't understand how she could think that the Spanish portion of her speech would be offensive. Every year that we've had a Valedictorian who was Hispanic, the speech has been delivered in both English and Spanish (and kept under the 5 minutes).

If this is any indication of the types of students we are releasing into the world for our futures, I'm a little frightened of the outcome.

This pisses me off as well. Someone need to explain to this spoiled rich brat that no one in the real world gives a damn if you were valdictorian of your high school or not. I can honestly say that I have never seen that question on a job application. I also agree that suing a school is the stupidist thing she could do. But what do you expect everyone in this country is sue happy. I agree whith the line in the song by the Eagles "lets shoot all the lawers"!!!

adolescence is a state of mind.
needing a kick in the ass and being full of oneself are symptomatic of this sorry state of affairs.
I would imagine her parents - as per usual - would be enabling her attitude...

Just another story of some disabled person who wants the world to be in as much misery as they are themselves. What sucks even more is that she wants to become a lawyer, and probably will. Then she can use the legal system to ruin lives to make herself feel better. Eat shit and die, bitch. :mad:

I think that this just goes to show that most of the kids growing up today believe that the only way to get what they want is to just sue everybody. All of these lawsuits are getting more and more ridiculous. One of the first of these ridiculous ones was the lady suing mcdonalds for making the coffee "too hot", but nodoby in the courts thought "Gee, you shouldn't be driving with a hot cup of coffee between your legs". The other lawsuit that I also remember was a bunch of kids here in NY suing Mcdonalds for making them fat (As if they couldn't find someplace else to eat, or actually eat some fruit or something).

As has been mentioned before, being valedictorian only helps you get into college, most jobs won't even ask for your gpa or academic history, they just want to know that you can do the job they ask.

sadly, we live in a victim society, where victims are .. almost idolized.

anyway, so she wants 2.9 million dollars US because she was named equal first? whatever happened to a tiebreaker competition like they used to do? =)

It doesn't have to be like this you know.

If you want to live in a society that isn't dominated by a blame-and-sue culture then stop it being one. A culture will only develop in ways that its members let it.

TFP is the perfect example. I wrote a post that challenged people to think about whether blacks were less intelligent than whites (based on the book Bell Curve). I thought that this would be an interesting, contentious issue (with genuine academic underpinnings) for people to discuss. My post was removed. I didn't like that the Mod was stiffling debate, but they clearly thought that to keep the friendly open-hearted nature of TFP you have to rule borderline cases out of bounds. A line must be drawn somewhere, my post was it. And I accept that and think they may well be right.

But there aren't Mods in real life. Or are there. Next time you are asked to be a juror, don't give millions to the coffee spillers. The next time you see someone jumping to put the blame on someone else, tell them to stfu. The next time you are in a car accident, don't be a jerk and refuse to be kind to the other person in case it goes to court and your kindness is misconstrued as guilt or admittance of responsibility. Don't let the term "brain-storming" be removed from the classroom because it seen as un-pc towards epileptics. Don't hold back from hugging an upset co-worker for fear of sexual harrasment charges. You will be taking risks, but you will be upholding your right to be a caring, autonomous human being. We are all Mods and must all take responsibility for the state of the world around us.

And she wants to be a lawyer.

Irony or destiny?

In our case it has not gone to court yet.

The valdictorian this year is a JUNIOR who is gratuating early.

The seniors are really up on arms about it, because she was
not part of their graduating class---there is a lot of talk now
of a boycott by the rest of the class.....yea she has high scores
and did it in three years (also partally disabeled).

Just one more example of why we need a "loser pays" court system. Being named valedictorian if of no value, other than pride. It should be based on more than grade point average, and should go the best overall student. That is the one with good grades who participates fully at the school in sports and arts and academics. Any one who would sue over becoming valedictorian automatically disqualifies themselves because they clearly have not developed appropriate priorities in their life.

I bet, with her attitude towards sharing and thinking she's the best, she's got all kinds of people clamouring to be her friend.

*Bangs head against the wall*
She's valedictorian and still a dumbass. Sorry, but why take away from other students who have done well just to satisfy her ego?

The part that bothers me the most is how this makes other people with disabilitys look bad.
From now on when a student with a disability asks to level the playing field and make the system meet the standards of the ADA, someone is going to say, "You're just like that girl who sued the school."
Petty, single minded behavior like this is not the standard by which all cases should be judged.

Just goes to show, book smarts cannot substitute for common sense

Hey, if she can win the lawsuit, she's anything but a dumbass. But something tells me this suit will get thrown out pretty fast.

complete lack of common sense... *sigh*

I guess things have come a long way from when you would take things as they came.

I happen to think that the majority of lawyers choose the job for money .. (Not all..)

And it looks like she's getting an early start. ..

they should just fail her and kick her father out of his seat.

In cases such as this shouldn't total class participation be the tiebraker? Both of our valadictorians had straight A's all through High School and were hardcore sports players. The girl did track, softball, basketball, volleyball, and chorus while the guy did basketball, football, and baseball. To me that is amazing to juggle all that stuff and they were recognized accordingly.

Honestly as far as college is concerned you can still put Valedictorian on your application isn't not like they want to know if you're Valedictorian #1 or #2

She needs to give it five years. Maybe the case will be tied up in the courts for that long...

Five years later, she'll get it. Being valedictorian plus $3.75 will get you a grande skinny frappuccino.

What is up with people anymore. Granted I haven't been around as much as some people have but it seems every day more and more people get on the sue happy bus. What happened to only suing people when you were in an accident and they wouldn't pay for your medical. And the amount of money. Good lord, don't anyone call this girl a bitch. You'll be looking to pay like $5 million when she sues you for definition of character.

The fact that she's suing to take away other's accomplishments is the worst part. Did anyone else notice that her father is a judge? That doesn't play into anything, right?

This is plain sickening.
What a whiney, rich brat. I'm sorry but I don't even remember who the hell was Valedictorian was when I graduated. It's not important except for maybe college. But then what college would want a sue happy brat going to their school just waiting for the chance to sue them also?

Obviously, having been accepted to some really expensive schools, she's looking for a way to pay for it. ;)

Um, One question, what happens to her college acceptance if she loses the case? I mean she wants to be a lawyer and she loses this case? That'd look mighty bad, and ya know.. I want that to happen. She asked for way to much money, shit i don't know why she asked for any money. I hope she loses, this is sickening. Sure she's looking for a way to pay for it.. but she got a 1570, she can get some good scholarships.

What is this world coming to people?