The Blair Witch

I got several e-mails yesterday responding to my tepid defense of pathological ?berachiever Blair Hornstine. Suffice it to say the gal doesn't have many fans out there. I followed a few links forwarded to me, expecting to be finally convinced she was the supreme evil. In fact, the comments almost push me MORE in her direction, even as I like her less.

Joanne Jacobs particularly made me want to stand up for Blair. Why? She links to a page (and another) with some catty anonymous comments made by Blair's fellow students, who call her a spoiled brat and a cry baby and say she didn't deserve the grades she got from her home tutor, despite getting a 1570 on the SAT. They may be right?especially if it's true she got the highest grade in Latin but the lowest score on the standardized exam. But I'm certainly not going to count on Hornstine's fellow students to give me an accurate judge of her character or academic performance. Of COURSE they hate her. She's some kind of a social freak, staying home half day, and she's singlemindedly devoted to academic success. Of COURSE they're going to say her grades were unnaturally inflated?especially the other grade-grubbers who weren't clever or dastardly enough to work the system, but are equally competitive and sycophantic. Kids talk, they presume, they pass rumors, they assasinate character between third and fourth period. Ganging up on an easy target like Hornstine is a lot more fun than merely sticking to the books. (I do have to admire the petition to have Harvard withdraw admission on the grounds that Blair is a self-centered whiner. Heh.)

According to this link, Hornstine won: She's going to be the only valedictorian, oh lucky girl. But it doesn't say whether she got her ludicrous, gag-worthy $2.7 mil damages suit.

This link has some discussion about whether chronic fatigue syndrome, which Hornstein purportedly suffers from, should be taken seriously.

UPDATE: Actually, I think the comment made about Blair on Unlearned Hand bests sums up the situation for all involved: "Has everyone lost the ability to sustain a self-identity independent of relative terms? Can't she just be happy with her successes and opportunities irregardless of who does or does not share them?"

Comments

[Brian]

It's a real shame these kids don't have even a tiny bit of perspective. I was valedictorian of my high school, and while it certainly helped get me some financial aid (umm, nowhere near $2.7 mil, BTW), I'd say any prestige it carried wore off about 15 minutes into my first class (calculus) in college. And I went to a state school. The salutatorian went to Stanford, so I think he managed OK.

God, I don't miss being that age even a little bit.

[Rob]

Like all situations all this one needs is a little sex to fix it.

[Keith]

Sara,
I share your sentiments. On one hand, she gave the system the finger and came out on top. (Hooray and good for her!). On the other hand, she was already going to Harvard. She's probably going to be the kind of snot who'll call campus security to get her dorm neighbor's radio turned off at 9:01 PM.
Keith

[thoreau]

I have a story that's relevant:

I left high school a year early. Technically, during what would have been my senior year I was receiving credit from my high school for the classes I took in college. I even got to go back for the graduation ceremony at the end of the year. It was weird.

Anyway, in my home state there was a provision that the top 10 students in each high school class could get certain scholarships. I was one of the top 10. The parents of #11 were upset. The school somehow massaged my GPA so I was demoted to #11.

I didn't care one bit. I was in college already, doing great, having fun, far away from home. Since I wasn't even really a student at my high school anymore I think it made perfect sense to not award me a high class rank. Nobody had to sue anybody, everybody just acted mature.

Maybe I can get some sort of "consulting fee" to give "maturity seminars" at this school.... I have real-life experience in a similar situation, so surely I'm qualified to go on stage and thump my chest about my life and how well I handled things 😉

[Russ]

"Has everyone lost the ability to sustain a self-identity independent of relative terms?"

Of course they have. That's what school is for!

(BTW, "irregardless"! Ugh!)

The article's best line: "When Hornstine asked Kadri about his reasoning, the school superintendent declined to discuss his rationale."

This girl may be a bitch, but she's giving the finger to the public school system. I have to admire that. If I were her, after getting the sole valedictorian title, I wouldn't bother showing up to the ceremonies.

[Chuck]

So there's a petition to have Harvard deny entry to Blair because she is "a self-centered whiner" ? I thought that was required for admission there...

[Joe]

Sure Rob, "...all this one needs is a little sex to fix it" bring on your primal animal male lusts! Shocking, don't you know that all sex is just domination!?!?! Sensitivity training for you!

[Rob]

Alls i knows is sex solves everything.

[Robert Nabors]

Sex is just domination?

So tell that hot little girl to come dominate me 😉

In addition, another way of thinking of this, which is the way I think of it, is like that figure skating thing, where the Canadians were better skaters (They had an unfair advantage! There's more ice in Canada!) but the french judge says,"Oh, how I like life, the Russians fucked up, I give the gold to them." And in the end, they gave out a pair of gold medals. Kind of takes away the point of being the best.

So, yea - maybe she does get a few extra breaks - better access to ice, as the analogy goes. Does that mean that her GPA is any lower? Odd how the only people who say you should be a good winner are the loosers...

-Robert

[Evan McElravy]

So, Robert, would it make me a loser to wonder aloud if this thing here is really worth winning at all?

[Keith]

And one followup:

The district has a $37 million budget (http://inquirer.philly.com/specials/2002/report_card/schoolinfo.asp?id=87&view=distnj), so a 2.7 million award would represent 7.3% of their budget. She can tango with the bureaucracy all she likes; if her tort cost me a 7.3% property tax hike, I would be viscerally irate at the family.

[Robert Nabors]

No, because then you're wondering aloud, and not stating that she should be "a good winner."

Basically, whereas, I would agree, who gives a rat's ass about that title, she does, for whatever reason care. Maybe it's just the principle of the idea. I could understand that.

However, if she is the best, then she should be awarded the award. Fuck being "the better person" or "knowing for yourself." She earned it, so she deserves it.

-Robert

[Sir Real]

If everyone in the district had access to the same (AP) class oportunities, and she took more and did better, then she earned it. Case closed.

If, as I understand it, her home schooling gave her access to AP classes denied to other students, and those unavailable classes were more weighted, then there isn't even a pretense of a level playing field.

In that case, she should be validictorian- of her class of 1. Her class rank should be #1- of 1. She can have her own graduation, and leave the speech and recognition to those who excelled given the same opportunities.

ps: the Harvard petition is silly, but I believe Ms. Blair is going to be surprised at how often she's going to be Googled in the future, and the ramifications thereoff.

[Kevin Carson]

Everyone involved in this dispute reminds me of people I knew in school. You know, the kind like Bill Clinton who started building their resumes in kindergarten, and probably never had an honest interest in anything unless it would be on a test. I always wanted to ask these people, when you make it all the way up the ladder, what do you actually want to DO just for the sake of doing it, rather than the brownie points it earns?

[Brian]

Kevin--

Well said. I can honestly say getting knocked off my high school pedestal in college was the best thing that ever happened to me. Once I realized I didn't have to be the best (because not being the best wasn't fatal), I was free to do what I wanted. Not that I wasn't always...I just didn't realize it.

Hopefully Ms. Hornstein and her classmates will be similarly "lucky" in the years to come. I imagine some of them will look back on this time and feel pretty silly about it.

Lord knows I do.

[Plutarck]

Quote from here: "Has everyone lost the ability to sustain a self-identity independent of relative terms?"

It is not enough that I win; others must lose.

As to "irregardless":

irregardless
adv.
Non-Standard. Regardless.
[Perhaps from IR (RESPECTIVE) + REGARDLESS.]

USAGE NOTES: The label Non-Standard does only approximate justice to the status of irregardless. More precisely, it is a form that many people mistakenly believe to be a correct usage in formal style but that in fact has no legitimate antecedents in either standard or nonstandard varieties. (The word was likely coined from a blend of irrespective and regardless.) Perhaps this is why critics have sometimes insisted that there is "no such word" as irregardless, a charge they would not think of leveling at a bona fide nonstandard word such as ain't, which has an ancient genealogy.

------------------------------------------------
Excerpted from American Heritage Talking Dictionary
Copyright ? 1997 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

As to the girl...she's obviously a bitch; meaning, I'd like to have her as as a worker, for a manager whom I must manage - but good heavens, I sure as hell don't want to work with her, for her, or have to manage her and the back-biting little bitchyness that will surely follow her wherever she goes.

[Anonymous]

From Demosthenes:

"You'd be surprised the lengths some people will go through to "win." In Texas, a mother will actually KILL to get her daughter special cheer-leading privileges. In Detroit, a student will KILL to get special basketball shoes. In Oklahoma, some kid will actually KILL to get a lady's red mercedes.

Where do these ideas come from?"

I'm gonna go with Genetics. People use to commonly kill for things of an even more ephemeral nature. "People" meaning "our ancestors", that is.

[Unlearned Hand]

Re: irregardless

Oops! I guess you can make it through Harvard and still carry some improper grammar with you. 😉

[Anonymous]

I wish to change my statement of opinion!

Not only would I not want her as any form of employee, or otherwise - I'm very much begining to feel genuinly sorry for her, primarily after reading through at least the first bit of this: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/04/brooks-p1.htm

Along with some additional bits of information about her father...seems she is being quite thoroughly screwed up by the, well, "societal paradigm" as a whole. The brutal efficiency of the market is one thing in business - it is quite another when it encompasses the entirety of your life, leaving little or no rooms for "luxuries" like play, intimate and meaningful relationships, real heart-felt...well, anything, fighting foolish establishment and authority, and individualism.

One thought comes out more clearly than any other, for me: I am so glad that I have, so far, been sparred such a nightmarous existence.

[Plutarck]

Err...the above post was by me. 😮

[Demosthenes]

You'd be surprised the lengths some people will go through to "win." In Texas, a mother will actually KILL to get her daughter special cheer-leading privileges. In Detroit, a student will KILL to get special basketball shoes. In Oklahoma, some kid will actually KILL to get a lady's red mercedes.

Where do these ideas come from?

[Anonymous]

"Has everyone lost the ability to sustain a self-identity independent of relative terms?"

Of course they have. That's what GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS are for!

BTW, "irregardless"! -- well, this is what GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS are for, too!

[Miss Prim]

Re: irregardless

Does Harvard also teach that "inflammable" means that something cannot be burned?

I saw a gasoline truck drive by with the word INFLAMMABLE emblazoned on it.

Fine, but next time I see it in the parking lot, I still won't be so stupid as to lean against it while lighting a cigarette.

[Robert Nabors]

Heh...

So, according to your feelings - since the girl had opportunities not afforded to the other kids in class, she should get a special award just for her?

Well, the French don't have nearly as much ice as the Canadians, so let's give them a special gold, rather than the real thing.

-Robert

[Plutarck]

flammable and inflammable:

USAGE NOTES: Historically, flammable and inflammable mean the same thing. However, the presence of the prefix in- has misled many people into assuming that inflammable means "not flammable" or "noncombustible." In the circumstances, it is therefore advisable to use only flammable in contexts imparting warnings or on product labels, where a misinterpretation might have more serious consequences for the reader than an etymological mistake would deserve.

---------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted from American Heritage Talking Dictionary
Copyright ? 1997 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[cretin]

I graduated from Moorestown High in 2001. I can assure you that all the awful things that people are saying about Ms. Hornstine are TRUE. I wouldn't put anything past her and her family.

[Sandy]

Re-reading the original piece of Sara's that started this, I still come out against the Blair Witch.

She claims chronic fatigue yet manages to pad her resume nicely. Isn't chronic fatigue only an illness if it actually interferes in your life?

Gaming the system is something we ought to be stamping out, not rewarding for "giving the finger to the System." If the System is broke, would you just get off your ass and fix it? Subversive nyah-nyahs are all well and good until it's your turn to be out-done by the little creep who 'gamed the system' to steal the promotion away from you. Then I imagine your wry approval will be as dust.

Achieving ludicrous goals by convincing a judge to send a man with a gun to force somebody to conform to your whims is something libertarians should be against.

The fact that all this applies to someone who obviously worked hard enough to get through the system (though her post-1994 SAT is no better than mine, adjusted for inflation, and I ain't Harvard material) should not cause approbation any more than if a welfare cheat were doing it. We complain mightily when the low use the system to get by without doing work, why give a pass when the high do it?

[Robert Nabors]

Hey Sandy, I think you need to re-read that piece.

Everyone is bitching because not only did she "do the work" as you say, but in additition, she was afforded the opportunity to take classes that count higher on her GPA than her fellow classmates, like taking say... an advanced mathamatics rather than a P.E.

Basically it's like this.

Doctor diagnoses her with this disorder. So, because of it, after half a day at school, doing what every other student there does - she went home to recooperate and later in the day took classes to make up for the time she missed.

So, her GPA is the highest in the school. Why is this?

She could be damn smart.
Being able to take classes that count for more on your GPA, as opposed to being forced to fail course that her disablility prevented her from taking (P.E. for example) could have played a roll.
The other people could just be damn stupid.
All or None of the above.

No matter which way you look at it, the result show, she has the highest GPA. Bitch moan and groan about how unfair her advantage was, she got the highest GPA. Therefore, under the current rules, she is THE valadictorian. If they want to change it where having a disablility automatically disqualifies you from the award or gives another award to a normal student, that's fine and dandy - but to change the rules after the deed is done? That's just crap.

-Robert

[Anonymous]

Robert,

Apparently, she was selectively pulled from her classes as she was pulling in early C grades. Then the issue of the chronic fatigue syndrome came up, courtesy of her parents which turned things around. No longer would she be subject to timed tests or pop quizzes, but rather she got to study at home with a tutor. The tutor's grade was based not on actual testing conditions, but rather 'assessment', while her classmates had to be subject to pop quizzes, hard grading curves and so forth. It seems to me that if she got the rumored low scores on the AP tests, perhaps her 'A+' in these courses was unwarranted.

Also, how did a girl with 'chronic fatigue syndrome' who can't manage to stay more than 2 class periods during the school day go through 5 days of Disney World on the recent senior class trip? The students were not allowed back to their hotel rooms for 12 hours during the day. Is this a real illness Ms. Hornstine is suffering from or was it concocted to serve as an 'alternative track' for a student to follow her brother into Harvard?

And she's a social phobe apparently. But how did she manage to handle leading all of her social charity work on top of her school work with the phobia and of course her 'condition'. That's the condition which makes her unable to spend more than 2 hours a day in the classroom.

Everyone is complaining because Hornstine, by virtue of not having to take the unweighted gym class, is being given a head start on maxing out the GPA ahead of her classmates, who are playing by the regular rules.

She looks like a ball buster type. Daddy's little princess.

[Anonymous]

"Irregardless?"

[Anonymous]

It's too bad, really, that she's late to the new economy party. She has the ethics and legal system mojo to shock and awe 'em over at Arthur Andersen.

[Chris]

I hear she was earlier debating between harvard, duke, cornell, stanford, and princeton. i hope she goes to harvard.

duke 2004

[Bailiff]

"A girl with 'chronic fatigue syndrome' who can't manage to stay more than 2 class periods during the school day go through 5 days of Disney World on the recent senior class trip? The students were not allowed back to their hotel rooms for 12 hours during the day."

SSSHHHhhhhh! (Her father's a very important judge, don't you know?)

[urgh]

lets just say she conned the system. that in the jist of things she would have been like 12th if anything in class rank if she had bothered to come to class. if anyone wants to kno why there are so many nasty remarks running about - it is because it's becoming more and more obvious that she doesn't deserve the title and that she manipulated the system.... apparently tutors never used by the system before were appointed by daddy and the list goes on.... and not too mention her wide awake eyes at Disney World.......

[Anonymous]

"Joanne Jacobs particularly made me want to stand up for Blair. Why? She links to a page (and another) with some catty anonymous comments made by Blair's fellow students, who call her a spoiled brat and a cry baby and say she didn't deserve the grades she got from her home tutor, despite getting a 1570 on the SAT."

she had unlimited time on the SATs. You can easily get an 800 on math with unlimited time, and if you memorize enough vocab, verbal isn't too hard (especially if you have unlimited time for the reading passages). Plus, SATs are becoming less and less important anyway, as they are not the most accurate indicators of how students will do in college.

"They may be right-especially if it's true she got the highest grade in Latin but the lowest score on the standardized exam."
may be right? huh? the purpose of standardized tests is to compare kids--i think this is pretty good proof that she didn't really deserve the highest grade in the class when she did the worst on the standardized exam, where she can't get some piteous tutor to fudge her grades.

"But I'm certainly not going to count on Hornstine's fellow students to give me an accurate judge of her character or academic performance."

so it would make more sense to base your judgements on links you get from random people on the internet?

"Of COURSE they hate her."
yeah, i would too. She totally takes advantage of the school system, after they go so far out of their way to provide for her--imagine how the administration must feel--they have to go to special measures to help this girl, and she stabs them in the back with a multi-million dollar lawsuit b/c she doesn't want to SHARE the #1 spot in HIGH school... seriously, this girl needs a reality check... why WOULD anyone condone what she'd doing?

"She's some kind of a social freak, staying home half day, and she's singlemindedly devoted to academic success. Of COURSE they're going to say her grades were unnaturally inflated-especially the other grade-grubbers who weren't clever or dastardly enough to work the system, but are equally competitive and sycophantic."

you have a distorted view of high school, no doubt shaped by movies from the 80s and early 90s. Believe it or not, kids are NOT as cruel as you may believe--so i think you're exaggerating about her being treated as a "social freak". And you speak about people not being "clever or dastardly enough to work the system". In comparison to whom? not as clever or dastardly to take advantage of the system as blair horstein?

"Kids talk, they presume, they pass rumors, they assasinate character between third and fourth period. Ganging up on an easy target like Hornstine is a lot more fun than merely sticking to the books." i agree with you on this point to some extent--but when this girl puts herself out for the public to judge with such a RIDICULOUS lawsuit, she should expect such a reaction.

[Anonymous]

The highest gpa in the school, the highest gpa at Moorestown High School, she acheived the highest gpa at that school. Will people please quit saying that? Blair did not attend Moorestown High School; to say that her gpa is higher than a competitor is like comparing the valedictorian of MHS to another regional high school, only far worse. I have every sympathy for Blair, even though to the best of my knowledge her illness is convenient and sketchy at best. I have pity for her, for what her parents are doing to her, and for what she's done to herself.
However, I cannot crucify the student body for the public opinion generated by her lawsuit. Suddenly, after working for twelve years in a highly competitive school, their graduation is no longer about the honors and acheivements of their accomplished and brighter than average class, but about a figure who no one has seen for over two years, whom many did not even remember or recognize. Not only did she demand to be the sole person to occupy this honor, but is asking for millions of dollars to compensate for the embarassment that she generated. Instead of spending the last few weeks bonding as a class and bidding a fond farewell, the senior class must now put up with defending themselves against those who read about a school hundreds of miles away and writes it off as a place where all the healthy kids steal a poor girl's crutches and begin to beat her about the head.
Are they bitter?
Of course.
Do they have more right to voice an opinion than a nameless individual reading an AP story?
uh huh.
What would you do, if she was taking your money, your graduation, and in return, handing you the dishonor of having to tell people you're from MHS?

it's a good question. and perhaps Robert, never tasteless to at least examine information presented from a more proximate observer than yourself.

[P Citizen]

Hornstines - burn in hell, hitler will take care of that when you make it down there.
Faggots who side with Hornstines-burn in hell, I hope you catch Gay Cancer.

[Anonymous]

Let's get this story straight and go on with our lives: Miss H's course of study and teachers were chosen by the administration, tests were administered by these selected individuals during the entire four years and a TWELVE page essay was required by this student in lieu of PE each year. EVERY student in MHS must follow the MHS Handbook which spells out very clearly all the rules of the school including which student is picked to be valedictorian. Now the school administration with its new Superintendent, under pressure from a meddling Mother (sorry Kenny, but you, too, must take responsibility)attempted to change the rules.

Miss H EARNED the right to be valedictorian under MHS adminstration rules. They have no right to change it prior to graduation.

I am tired of hearing of Miss H's family income. Moorestown is a town with many financially successful families. Isn't Kenny's Mom a doctor and Dad a lawyer? His family had money to start it's own lawsuit. Their lawyer wasn't cheap.

The citizens of Moorestown who are allowing this smear campaign to continue against Blair and her family are nothing but a bunch of old, jealous gossips.I am tired of Moorestown being on the map because of a jealous witch (and the witch is not Blair). I am tired of the TV cameras and reporters taking up room in our beautiful town.

Let's call a spade a spade and put the blame where it belongs -- with Kenny's Mother, credit the lady who won #1 and get on with our lives. My family and I were looking forward to graduation. My child is in the top few, worked hard and is getting into a top university. I am proud. I also look forward to hearing Blair, our valedictorian speak.

P.S. I know for a fact that Kenny had MORE AP courses than Blair and did not do as well in them as Blair did in the ones that were matched.

[Anonymous]

Let's get this story straight and go on with our lives: Miss H's course of study and teachers were chosen by the administration, tests were administered by these selected individuals during the entire four years and a TWELVE page essay was required by this student in lieu of PE each year. EVERY student in MHS must follow the MHS Handbook which spells out very clearly all the rules of the school including which student is picked to be valedictorian. Now the school administration with its new Superintendent, under pressure from a meddling Mother (sorry Kenny, but you, too, must take responsibility)attempted to change the rules.

Miss H EARNED the right to be valedictorian under MHS adminstration rules. They have no right to change it prior to graduation.

I am tired of hearing of Miss H's family income. Moorestown is a town with many financially successful families. Isn't Kenny's Mom a doctor and Dad a lawyer? His family had money to start it's own lawsuit. Their lawyer wasn't cheap.

The citizens of Moorestown who are allowing this smear campaign to continue against Blair and her family are nothing but a bunch of old, jealous gossips.I am tired of Moorestown being on the map because of a jealous witch (and the witch is not Blair). I am tired of the TV cameras and reporters taking up room in our beautiful town.

Let's call a spade a spade and put the blame where it belongs -- with Kenny's Mother, credit the lady who won #1 and get on with our lives. My family and I were looking forward to graduation. My child is in the top few, worked hard and is getting into a top university. I am proud. I also look forward to hearing Blair, our valedictorian speak.

P.S. I know for a fact that Kenny had MORE AP courses than Blair and did not do as well in them as Blair did in the ones that were matched.

[Ken K]

BLAIR WINS THE GAME. Flaunting a 1570 in SAT scores is a joke. And I think her grade average is tainted, too. I know first hand how our well-meaning public systems work. I suspect she was given the usual 50% more time to take this test and complete other work, than the "regular" students. Her "illness" is not a factor here, but the results from the "accommodation" as it is referred to in the system.

My son has a "disabilty", too. He was given 50% more time to complete the test a second time, and with the this time was able to score substatially higher when he could slow down, take his time, recheck work. He was given an unfair advantage, since his disability did not relate to "test taking" but fell under the all incompassing disibilities umbrella. And he will reap the rewards of working the system.

She is working the system and reaping the benefits. Working the angles and advantages. I am smiling while reading all the news. And I truly understand any bitterness the other students feel. However, they, their parents, classmates, teachers and administrators all bought into this system with unforseen circumstances. She did follow the rules of the game and she outsmarted you all.

And that's good for Blair. But now, let's see how well she does in the REAL world. How many Law offices will give her 50% more time to complete here research/case work. Allow her advantagous accommodations in the courtroom or board room. How much tolerance or favoritism-as it will be labeled-will she be permitted in the future. Allow her special tutors and consultants to do her real world job out amongst the masses.

My son knows he has received unfair advantage in the educational arena. And I know he has. I recognized it early on. But the world is not always fair. (I know from my experience. I have been caught in these inequitites as I grew up. I still feel a bitter twinge when thinking about them.) But he also recognizes these largely unsolicited gifts of accommodation from the administrators and well intentioned activists and put them to good use. It has made it easier for him to reach a higher measure of acheivement in the educational rating systems. And he will put it to good use. It isn't lost on him. And as a parent, I want only the best for him, as does every parent for their child. I will take any advantage the system offers, if it will help him in the future.

I liken this situation to a High School Championship Football Game. The team that works the hardest, is the most devoted to the sport, has the biggest and fastest players doesn't always win. Upsets happen when opportunities present themselves during a game and they are recognized. Blair Hornstine played by the rules you established and abided by the referees calls. She has always had her eyes on the goal line and simply ran for it when she was handed the ball. Let's face it, Valedictorian winner may be a sham, but she outplayed us all, so who's to say.

Upsets happen occasionally. Accept it, learn from it and move on.

[teacher]

A note to Ken K who said his disabled son gets additional time for some testing. Blair did not get any extra time during any testing.She never had any unfair advantage in that arena. Her disability does not warrant such. Your right though, she did play by the rules and won the game. Hurray for her.

Now, good luck to your son.

[teacher]

A note to Ken K who said his disabled son gets additional time for some testing. Blair did not get any extra time during any testing.She never had any unfair advantage in that arena. Her disability does not warrant such. Your right though, she did play by the rules and won the game. Hurray for her.

Now, good luck to your son.

[teacher]

Always check your work ---- It should read "You're" right though.

[Dakota Loomis]

I know that the blogosphere can be anonymous and petty at times, but I've never seen a topic where so many people have posted anonymously. If you're gonna have the balls to say something, act pious and throw around wild accusations (and then have other anonymous posters say the exact opposite)have the balls to sign your posts. Anyone who fails to sign a post should immediately be discounted. That means the second half of this thread is flaming bullshit.

Dakota Loomis

[Bill]

Face it, the Moorestown School District screwed up. Had it listed humility as an objective of its curriculum rather than rewarding chutzpah and machismo, Miss Hornstine would never have been in the running in the first place.

Personally, I'd much rather listen to a valediction by someone with humility as a dominant personality trait than a poor kid goaded into demanding entitlements in the court room by unscrupulous parents.