The Valedictorian Lawsuit

Straight A's and a 4.50 GPA, accepted to Stanford with an engineering internship at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to boot but that's not enough for some parents. No, they wanted their daughter to get the top honor of valedictorian ... even if they have to sue for it:

And to Elisha’s mother, Carol, the second-place finish means that her daughter's "sleepless nights" were essentially “for nothing.”

"It's flawed. It's wrong," Carol told The Times. "All her hard work is not being recognized. All she had was straight A's. Not a B, ever."

Nelson said his family is considering suing LAUSD for failing to award their daughter the honor of valedictorian.

Link


Back in 1976, I was second in my class, salutatorian, because I'd smarted off in 9th grade Home Ec and got a non-A. That didn't bother me.

But that was the year the head cheerleader decided it might be a good idea for the students to vote on who would speak at graduation instead of having the top two students speak, as was tradition. The administration went for it, and the head cheerleader and the valedictorian were graduation speakers.

I still think that was all engineered because they thought I might smart off in a graduation speech. But I didn't sue, because that's life.
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This Carol is obviously deluded. Her daughter did fantastically well for herself, nabbing a NASA internship. But she calls her daughters accomplishments "nothing".

Is it just me or does it seem as though she's more invested in [i]being[/i] the parent of a valedictorian than she is in her own child..?
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Here's hoping that once the girl gets out in the "real world" like Ninabi said she'll realize that it's ok to fail at things occasionally. It's what makes us human and how we learn. One of the best things we can learn as a human being is that its ok to suck and fail at something also hope being away from such a controlling and domineering mother will be good for her as well. Best thing for her is get away from that. Parents can be irrational when I comes to kids and their success. Instead of telling them the'yre not going to be the best at everything the parents try to manipulate the system to bend to their will. It's sad and very dysfunctional at the same time.
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Does the mother believe that being valedictorian conveys magic powers? Does she feel her daughter will get special
treatment by her professors this fall? That her resume will be enhanced to the point where she will magically get any job she wants?

It says a lot about the mother's ego.

In a few short months, her daughter will be among many, many bright people at Stanford, where valedictorians likely roam in herds. Difficult classes will oftentimes make her feel like she's a "C" student no matter what her GPA was in high school. Mom can't file a lawsuit every time a TA takes points off her kid's fluid dynamics midterm.
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