Kymberly Wimberly, a black former student at McGehee Secondary School in southeast Little Rock, Ark., was barred from being the sole valedictorian despite having the highest grade-point average. The principal chose a white student with a lower GPA to be the co-valedictorian. The school wouldn't let her mother speak with the school board about it until graduation had passed, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.
Kymberly Wimberly, 18, got only a single B in her 4 years at predominantly white McGehee Secondary School, and loaded up on Honors and Advanced Placement classes. She had the highest G.P.A. and says the school's refusal to let her be sole valedictorian was part of a pattern of discrimination against black students.
Wimberly says that despite earning the highest G.P.A. of the Class of 2011, and being informed of it by a school counselor, "school administrators and personnel treated two other white students as heir[s] apparent to the valedictorian and salutatorian spots."
Wimberly's mother is the school's "certified media specialist." She says in the federal discrimination complaint that after her daughter had been told she would be valedictorian, the mother heard "in the copy room that same day, other school personnel expressed concern that Wimberly's status as valedictorian might cause a 'big mess.'"
McGehee Secondary School is predominantly white, and 46 percent African-American, according to the complaint. Bratton says that the day after she heard the "big mess" comment, McGehee Principal Darrell Thompson, a defendant, told her "that he decided to name a white student as co-valedictorian," although the white student had a lower G.P.A. Source: Courthouse News
Wow, some parts of the South just can't shake the Jim Crow lifestyle, can they? This is a disgrace and I hope the court rules in favor of this young woman. The principal shouldn't be reassigned, he should be fired.
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