Jasmine Shepard was proud to be her high school's first ever African-American valedictorian. Image her surprise when school officials made her share the title with a white student with a lower GPA. This is also the first time that two valedictorians have been named.... something's not right.
Shepard's mother thought so as well and filed a lawsuit requesting monetary damage for her daughter to be "sole valedictorian".
According to The Shade Room:
While a lawyer for the high school says the students “had identical grade point averages,” Jasmine’s mother isn’t buying it. She says that it was easy to calculate the girls’ GPAs because they live in a small community and her daughter took more AP and honors classes. “These children have been attending school with each other since middle school,” she explained. “We know the schedule, we know what they take — and we have a good idea where the discrepancy lies.”
The suit comes just six months after a federal judge ruled that the Cleveland School District had failed to desegregate its schools. The district was ordered eliminate the segregation of historically black and white schools nearly 50 years ago.