Kymberly Wimberly was the top student at McGehee Secondary School in Little Rock, Ark. As is customary, the school named her valedictorian. Shortly after, the school's principal, Darrell Thompson, appointed a white student with a lower grade point average as co-valedictorian to avoid a "big mess" at the majority white school.
For some reason, the principal thought this was acceptable, which is why Wimberly's mother is suing the school system. In the lawsuit, she also states that black students are discouraged from taking honors and Advanced Placement classes and that the school is discriminating against her daughter as valedictorian because Kymberly is a young mother. There hasn't been an African-American valedictorian at the school since 1989.
Is it 1911 or 2011? If a teen mother finishes school and at the top of the senior class, then she should be praised, not humiliated. Wimberly does actually have the highest GPA and has earned her place at the top of the class. Students and parents embarrassed that Wimberly is a young mother should be embarrassed that their kids presumably had less responsibility and still couldn't manage to be at the top of the class. Furthermore, to diminish this young girl's accomplishment by appointing a co-valedictorian with a lower GPA so that white students and their parents will not be mad is infuriating. So they're mad? So what. Let them be mad, deal with it and get over it.
Lastly, who is this principal? He should get an F in common sense and administration and be dismissed for making what appears to be multiple bad decisions resulting in this lawsuit. We've said it before and we'll say it again: The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Read more at Alternet.
In other news: Obama: Congress Playing a Dangerous Game.
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