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Judge
Reaffirms Opinion in Valedictorian Case
A strongly worded ruling formalized judge's order that
Blair Hornstine is Moorestown's only valedictorian.
by Jennifer Moroz, May 31, 2003,
Philly Inquirer
For more articles like this
visit
http://www.bridges4kids.org.
CAMDEN, NJ - In a scathing 43-page opinion, a federal judge
yesterday formalized her order barring officials at Moorestown
High School from awarding the title of valedictorian to anyone
but Blair Hornstine. U.S. District Court Judge Freda Wolfson's
written opinion, which expands on an oral ruling she issued May
8, castigates school officials and community members for trying
to discredit the achievements of a disabled 18-year-old student
by making her share the top honor "in the name of rectifying an
imagined injustice." School officials, led by Superintendent
Paul Kadri, have argued that Hornstine - who had the top
grade-point average in her class and near-perfect SAT scores -
had an unfair academic advantage over her peers because of a
district-approved schedule that allowed her to take many courses
at home with tutors. In a case that has drawn national
attention, Hornstine, an aspiring lawyer who plans to attend
Harvard University in the fall, sued to block school officials
from changing their policy at the last minute to allow for
multiple valedictorians. Under current rules, the student with
the top GPA is the valedictorian. The district called its
attempt to name more than one valedictorian a move to even the
academic playing field.
Wolfson called it an act of clear
discrimination. "They have lost sight of the fact that
[Hornstine], unlike her peers, suffers from a debilitating
medical condition, which has never been disputed by the [school]
board, and that her accommodations were aimed at putting her on
a level playing field with her healthy classmates," Wolfson
wrote. "The defendants should revel in the success of their
[special-education] program and the academic star it has
produced; instead, they seek to diminish the honor that she has
rightly earned." Wolfson did not stop there, suggesting
that the district's proposed policy change allowing the school
board "to review the program of study, manner of instruction,
and other relevant issues" in its selection of valedictorians -
could have excluded Hornstine from the top honor.
She pointed to a letter from school officials to Kenneth Mirkin,
the number-one student in the regular curriculum, indicating he
would "certainly" be considered for the valedictorian spot.
Hornstine, Wolfson noted, never received such a letter. Kadri
did not return several phone calls seeking comment yesterday
afternoon. John Comegno, attorney for the school district,
declined comment, saying he had not had time to review the
opinion.
But it was not just school officials Wolfson accused of unfairly
targeting Hornstine. She scolded community members for jumping
on the bandwagon in a case that has made an outcast of an
18-year-old girl who may not even attend graduation June 19 amid
rumors that her classmates will boo or turn their backs. It was
based on complaints from parents and classmates that Kadri, new
to the school district in the fall, launched an investigation
into Hornstine's medical and academic record. Much of the
community has sided with Kadri, who in court documents painted
Hornstine's father, state Superior Court Judge Louis F.
Hornstine, as an overzealous parent who would go to great
lengths to make sure his daughter was the top student in her
class. Locally, Wolfson's order bars the school district from
amending its policy on valedictorians to apply to this year's
graduating class. Hornstine sought the order to prevent the
school board from acting before her federal discrimination
lawsuit against school officials could be heard. No hearings
have been scheduled in that case. In preliminary court filings,
Hornstine wrote that she would seek $2.7 million in compensatory
and punitive damages from the district. But Jacobs said
yesterday that that figure was not "definitive."
Visit
http://www.philly.com/multimedia/philly/news/blair.pdf to
read the full-text of the decision.
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