CNN.com--A recent high school graduate in Arkansas has filed a lawsuit against her former school after the school officials refused to allow her to be her class’s sole valedictorian, even though she had the highest grade-point average.
According to Courthouse News Service, Kymberly Wimberly, a 2011 graduate of McGehee Secondary School, has filed suit in federal court against McGehee School District (MSD), alleging MSD engaged in racial discrimination when it named a white student co-valedictorian even though that student had a lower G.P.A. than Wimberly, who is African-American. The suit charges that despite Wimberly having the highest G.P.A. of the Class of 2011, ”school administrators and personnel treated two other white students as heirs apparent to the valedictorian and salutatorian spots.”
The suit also contends that when Wimberly’s mother tried to protest the decision to the school board, defendant Superintendent Thomas Gathen would not let her speak because she allegedly had “filled out the wrong form.” As a result, her mother had to wait until next scheduled school board meeting to appeal, which was after the graduation ceremony. Wimberly says the school discourages black students from taking honors and advanced placement classes, “by telling them, among other things, that the work was too hard.”
“Because of defendants’ continuous disparate treatment of African-American students, defendants’ actions toward the plaintiff can properly be classed as intentional,” the complaint states. “Defendants did not support African-American students, and did not want to see Wimberly, an African-American young mother as valedictorian. But for Wimberly’s race, defendants would not have selected a student with a lower G.P.A. than Wimberly to also be a valedictorian.”
Wimberly seeks punitive damages for constitutional violations, and an injunction declaring her sole valedictorian of the school’s Class of 2011.
Wimberly's three count legal complaint asserts a violation of her Fourteenth Amendment equal protection rights and claims based on the Arkansas Constitution and state civil rights laws.
In May 2003, Legal Clips summarized a New York Times report that a U.S. district court in New Jersey had ordered Moorestown High School to name a disabled student as the sole valedictorian of her graduating class. Because some parents complained that the student had an unfair advantage based on her disability, e.g. private tutors and exemption from physical education, school officials proposed naming three co-valedictorians. The disabled student filed suit, claiming that the attempt to name co-valedictorians constituted discrimination based on her disability.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Tuesday, July 26th 2011 at 12:17PM
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