I’m not so sure.
Karmic smugness aside, let’s be realistic.
This is a child of priviledge, her Dad’s a judge. Sure, she’s not going to Harvard.
Boo Hoo.
But don’t be so sure she’s had her come uppance, I’d wager some strings will get pulled and she will be quietly admitted to Stanford or Duke or Yale in September.
Yeah, but she’ll always have this hanging over her head.
She’ll never get away from it.
It’s a big world; she’s had her fifteen minutes. Who will remember, let alone care?
Brown, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, Blair will end up at another prestigious school and, likely, a prestigious law school and sometime before law school graduation she’ll be sure to marry and legally change her name so that the mistakes and failures of her childhood don’t destroy her entire life.
The way people have dogpiled on this girl is insane. She’s not the first person to file what seemed like a petty lawsuit. And on the suit’s merits, I agree with Blair. If PhysEd grades are going to be factored into GPA – and I’ve never believed that they should be on the high school or collegiate levels – then those who are disabled must have a way to have parity. And I truly believe that there was an element of prejudice involved because of misconceptions about the disease she has – if she were a paraplegic or had cancer would she have had to fight for an academic honor because she didn’t play volleyball and basketball 80 minutes a week? Somehow I don’t think we would’ve heard of Blair Hornstine if she’d had something other than Epstein-Barr.
The plagiarism sucks, no doubt. I can think of ten reasons why it was done that don’t involve any malicious intent, though. There are still worse crimes. But honestly, you’d think that Blair Hornstine had hurt someone other than herself, with all the schaudenfreude being bandied about.
I’m thinking the Blair clock should be at 0:14:59.9 right about now.
For anyone else, being accepted at Brown would be an honor. But this is a young woman who considered being named co-valedictorian a travesty of justice. Does anyone believe she’ll be able to shrug off being “dis-invited” from Harvard?
And everyone that files a petty lawsuit should be dogpiled on.
The contention is, I believe, that she was given grades that others weren’t able or allowed to get. That isn’t parity.
If she were parapalegic or had cancer, I would feel sorry for her, but I if she were still doing what she is doing, I would still think she’s a pig.
???
My personal feeling is that suing the school for over 2 million dollars is hurting someone other than herself. Does that really need explanation?
Jay
She hurt her would-be covaledictorians by taking that honor away from them. I see no reason why co-valedictorian is such an odious title. I could see maybe if she’d been passed over for the honor, but she wasn’t, she was only asked to share it with others.
While there are many openings for CNA positions, in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, I don’t see this girl as a good fit for the position. She could learn from the experience of caretaking, and maybe become a better person, stranger things HAVE happened.
My credentials? Employed at an Indiana nursing home for two years and two months. Currently employed at an assisted living facility for just under two months.
Actually, she did take PhysEd… and she got an A+.
However, an A+ in PhysEd would have brought down her GPA, so she got the grade erased by getting excused from the class.
She used this same strategy a number of other times - take a class, then if the grade is not good enough, get the grade erased based on the disability. She also took classes that nobody else at the school could take, and if a teacher did not give A+'s, she would get the grade erased or the class dropped, and take a class from a private tutor who was willing to give an A+.
However, if what I have read it true, it is very likely that her father is behind the whole thing. He was apparently obsessed with her being valedictorian, and used any means necessary to make it come true.
I don’t feel too sorry for her though, because she will be just fine. She is still very intelligent, very rich, very connected, and very unscrupulous. She will live in luxury all her life.
Also, the thing that really got a lot of people angry at her, and rightfully so, is that she sued the school for millions. Abusing the system is one thing, but when you sue a school for millions to allow your abuse, which threatens to decrease the quality of education for everyone in the area, you will almost certainly get everyone in the area extremely mad at you.
How would an A+ lower her GPA? Unless she was assigned her own personal grading scale, I don’t think you can do any better.
Many schools give bonuses for AP or honors classes. Thus a A+ in honors math is 4.4 or 4.5 or something like that. An A+ in plain old gym is a 4.0. Thus if she can get out of the class and have it not factor in her GPA , she has an advantage.
So Epstein-Barr is still around, huh? The last time I heard about it was at least ten years ago, when a character in a Tracey Ullman sketch said, “I have Epstein-Barr, and nobody can prove I don’t.”
I don’t find this funny in the slightest. Yeah, she’s got her comeuppance. How old is she? A little young to be so publically humiliated, with parents who sound like they won’t give her a chance to back down and stop having to try so hard to be something she isn’t. I never understood why people get so mad over plagiarisers, she’s only faking herself and it was only a matter of time before she got found out or couldn’t sustain the effort against such pressure any longer. I’m hoping this will be a relief to her, that her parents can’t force her to go any futher after this. She sounds fucked up and scared to death, and I think it’s mean as shit for a bunch of adults to find it so terribly amusing that someone so obviously terrified or damaged has screwed things up so magnificently with the help of those who should’ve been supporting her, not trying to force her into something she sounds ill-equipped and not ready for.
Good post, Potter. You show a remarkable degree of compassion and humanity, and I completely agree with what you said. Even though I can understand a certain amount of glee about the turn of events, it is very sad to think a young girl’s life would be completely ruined, especially given the probable background of it all. Let’s hope things will die down, as they often do.
Thanks, Tuscalan. Sorry 'bout my language everyone, just touched a nerve is all. Parents who put pressure on their kids to succeed no matter what, possibly against their merits, are one hell of a tough time. No matter how rich or priviledged you may be.
Actually, she WAS essentially given her own grading scale. The reason the school wanted to assign co-valedictory honors was that she and the other student had each received the highest grades possible. He had to take gym and other courses that were not “weighted” in calculating GPA. She was excused from those classes and therefore her GPA was not brought down by unweighted courses. The tutor thing is really irrelevent when you consider that both students had the maximum GPA on their own scales. She sued and won because her GPA was higher, despite the fact both had achieved the maximum.
I still expect her to write a book and do the talk show circuit. Someday she’ll be on Larry King, or Jay Leno, or Saturday Night Live. She’ll be fine once she grows up and frees herself from her parents.
Mean as shit? Maybe. But I have to admit I find it refreshing that somebody so callously adept at manipulating the system to her benefit has the whole of her works ruined because she couldn’t deign to be co-valedictorian with somebody – somebody who played by the rules.
Quite frankly, even if her father was the driving force behind the lawsuits, she’s eighteen, undeniably intelligent and should have had the grace to say “no dad”.
Yep, she should have, especially as she must’ve known she’d been plagiarising and that she’d probably get caught out one day, sooner with all the publicity involved. Saying ‘no’ should’ve been the easier option, which would suggest to me that there’s a reason why she did not.