10-05-2003 11:36									#1
	Selfish, whiny b**** sues school to be named sole valedictorian Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/05/09/v...t.ap/index.html

quote: CAMDEN, New Jersey (AP) -- A high school student who sued to claim the title of valedictorian as hers alone doesn't have to share the honor with two other students with lower grade point averages, a judge ruled Thursday. U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson ordered the Moorestown school district to name Blair Hornstine the sole valedictorian for the class of 2003. Hornstine, 18, who completed many of her courses during the past two years with tutors because of an immune deficiency, argued that she should be the only valedictorian at next month's graduation because she has the highest grades at Moorestown High School. The school district argued that the shared honors were fair because it was impossible for the other two students also chosen as valedictorians to match Hornstine's GPA. As non-disabled students they were required to take classes such as gym that receive less weight in calculating the average. But Wolfson said the school's decision "would send the message that we have two valedictorians this year, a disabled one and a non-disabled one." In a written statement, Hornstine said that sharing the valedictorian title would have left the next disabled student unprotected. The school board president said she did not know what step the board would take next. The case will move forward to trial on Hornstine's claim for damages. Her lawsuit seeks $500,000 in compensatory and $2 million in punitive damages, as well as legal fees and costs. Hornstine, who said she plans to become a lawyer, is not the first student to sue over the right to be valedictorian of a high school class. In the last year alone, judges have been asked to consider similar cases in Ohio, Washington and Michigan. In two of the cases, students who wanted to be included as co-valedictorians were allowed by judges to be included. The third case, in Michigan, involves a student who wanted an A changed to an A-plus so he would be more likely to be valedictorian.

My god. If this goes ahead, I sincerely hope she gets booed off the stage at graduation. What a whiny *****. Does it harm her to have 2 other valedictorians? NO! People like this are what's wrong with the world today.

	10-05-2003 11:37									#2
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I'm glad my school never did that valedictorian stuff.

	10-05-2003 11:40									#3
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This whole thing sounds just too stupid to be true. If I was the judge, I'd compensate her with punch in the face and 40 pounds of pure fat injected into her butt.

	10-05-2003 11:43									#4
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The more important question is why the hell is a Federal judge even hearing this case? To get it into Federal court, it had to be filed on a civil rights theory, but at the same time, the court could dismiss the suit on it's own motion, for failing to state a valid cause of action for which the court could grant relief.

Administrative decisions by a school to give awards should not have, and to my knowledge do not have (except for bullshit claims by lawyers) any basis for being litigated. There's no economic issue, there's no discrimination or civil rights issue, and there's no harm sufficient to create a cause in tort.

The judge should be shot, forget about the twit bringing the suit. I hope the school district appeals (which would stay the judge's order from going into effect ), and the appellate court reams out the judge and the plaintiff's attorney both.

	10-05-2003 11:43									#5
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What a *****. I say the teachers should all refuse to write letters of recomendation for this **** sucker.

	10-05-2003 11:45									#6
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Well she starts impressively. She can put this suit on her resume. I wouldn't hire her.

	10-05-2003 11:46									#7
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right, cause colleges are going to like this.

i say we take her off her meds on sneeze on her.

	10-05-2003 11:48									#8
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quote: Originally posted by UberKruX right, cause colleges are going to like this. i say we take her off her meds on sneeze on her.

Be careful.. soon she will be here too, reading these posts and suing every single one of us too .

	10-05-2003 11:51									#9
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no, she'll get the Xupiter virus and die before she gets close to reading my posts.

	10-05-2003 12:02									#10
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If you're deserving to be valedictorian, you should have the talent and/or skills to be successful without such a trivial distinction. Valedictorian today has nothing to do with who is the smartest or most accomplished, and instead has everything to do with who manipulated their GPA the best. What a load of ****! All she deserves is a swift kick in the ass!

	10-05-2003 12:13									#11
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This is good news. This proves she should be valevictorian, because she understand how the U.S. operates. Those who sue are the winners in our society.

	10-05-2003 12:54									#12
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quote: ...because she understand how the U.S. operates. Those who sue are the winners in our society.

Sad but true.

What a whiney *****

	10-05-2003 12:57									#13
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but seriously I'm not too bothered by this. It's not like she was getting special treatment because she was disabled. If she had an equal or lower GPA then that would be another matter entirely...

Although perhaps the school should rethink their policy about gym class. why should physical fitness take a lower level than academic fitness? Perhaps the gym class should be rated higher. But it is too late to do that for this year. They should rethink their policy for next year.

	10-05-2003 16:06									#14
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quote: Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat The more important question is why the hell is a Federal judge even hearing this case?

Probably because her father is also a judge and somehow managed to pull some strings.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/...cal/5765325.htm

quote: On April 3, Hornstine, whose father is a Camden County Superior Court Judge, filed a notice that she intends to file suit in state court against the school district for what she contends is humiliation over the valedictorian dispute. She seeks $200,000 in compensatory damages and $2.5 million in punitive damages.

	10-05-2003 16:18									#15
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Is anyone surprised she plans to become a lawyer?

	10-05-2003 16:37									#16
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quote: Hornstine, 18, who completed many of her courses during the past two years with tutors because of an immune deficiency, argued that she should be the only valedictorian at next month's graduation because she has the highest grades at Moorestown High School.

It's a reasonable arguement but I don't really see why its worth pitching such a fit over.

	10-05-2003 17:14									#17
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This is absolute garbage...

	10-05-2003 18:14									#18
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Notice that the person in question is planning to become a lawyer. Just shows what kind of insecure* ****ers that tend to choose that profession.

* A person with a decent solid self esteem wouldn't care about such things.

	10-05-2003 18:37									#19
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The poor girl is disabled. I am not seeing a lot of compassion around here!

Besides she deserved it. She had the highest GPA, the other students did not. Why should get something they don't deserve?

	10-05-2003 18:48									#20
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quote: Originally posted by The diplomat The poor girl is disabled. I am not seeing a lot of compassion around here! Besides she deserved it. She had the highest GPA, the other students did not. Why should get something they don't deserve?

She also had tutoring, which the other students didn't. I wonder what fraction of the past two years she actually spent at school?

We don't know what kind of immune deficiency disease she had. It could be something very serious, in which case she may not even make it to law school. It could also be one of the bogus new "environmental allergy" syndromes which some people classify as an immune deficiency (but others deny the existance thereof).

	10-05-2003 18:50									#21
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She doesn't deserve it because she wasn't held to the same standards. If you read the post, it says she was exempt from taking phys. ed. which in turn raised her GPA because it isn't a weighted course, hence the other people have lesser GPA's.

Sure, I have compassion for her disability and her struggle. My father had a stroke when he was 36 in front of me and my sister when we were 6 and 4 respectively. Do you know what it's like to see your father suffer a massive stroke at a young age? Half of his body is paralyzed. He managed to work hard to be able just to walk, but on top of that, he was able to go back to work and provide for our family. So I feel for this girl and her struggles.

But just because she's had to deal with hardship, doesn't mean she can be a dumbass, abuse the legal system, and waste the resources of the justice system for the satisfaction of her ego.

	10-05-2003 19:02									#22
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****ing *****. All she does is waste the school's money. Money that COULD be used to pay higher teachers' salaries, buy schoolbooks, etc. ****ing *****

	10-05-2003 19:04									#23
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quote: Originally posted by Dr Strangelove She also had tutoring, which the other students didn't. I wonder what fraction of the past two years she actually spent at school?

Her immune deficiency probably prevented her from going to school full-time. Without the tutoring, she would not have been able to graduate at all!

	10-05-2003 19:08									#24
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I don't think the tutoring is the issue here. It's the self-serving, frivilous lawsuit.

	10-05-2003 19:12									#25
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The school system could decide to stop including non-academic courses like phys.ed in their GPA. I wonder if that would have made any differnece in the other student's GPA.
Again, we don't know the extent of her disability. I've heard of cases where students claiming "Systemic Candidal Syndrome" and "Multiple Environmental Allergy Syndrome" have been allowed to enroll in school sponsored home tutoring programs. Neither condition is generally accepted as a valid diagnosis by most medical societies.

She could on the other hand have a legitimate immune deficiency. It would be nice if someone had additional information on this case.

	10-05-2003 19:15									#26
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quote: The school system could decide to stop including non-academic courses like phys.ed in their GPA. I wonder if that would have made any differnece in the other student's GPA.

	10-05-2003 21:04									#27
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Oh boy, this is beyond absurd. This whole thing, from that pathetic person who wanted to sue to her father who rigged the system to the idiot who decided to sit on the case, is just a total farce.

So what difference does it make if she's not the only valedictorian? Sub-human cretin.

	10-05-2003 21:14									#28
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quote: Originally posted by Dr Strangelove The school system could decide to stop including non-academic courses like phys.ed in their GPA.

This is what my school (and many others I know) does, it works out rather well.

	10-05-2003 21:34									#29
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My daughter is in the hunt for valedictorian. The problem is that it comes down to manipulating the courses and racking up the most bonus points. All the kids at the top have straight A's. My daughter probably won't be valedictorian because she stayed in band too long and lost a point to some others. They are all bunched up at the top and a single extra point is usually all the difference. Exempting a student from taking gym and allowing them to take an honors course in its place is a big advantage. Its unfair and she should have been forced to take a non honors course in its place or have the gym class grade taken off the other students averages and then figure the valedictorian.

Really I hate the whole thing because it becomes this big competition and the parents are usually more into it than the kids. I'm sure her parents were behind this so I wouldn't just tag the girl with the blame for the lawsuit.

Sadly the world is a competitive place, not a cooperative one.

	10-05-2003 21:37									#30
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And what's funny is that in the real world, being valedvictorian doesn't mean sh1t.