Normally, your intrepid scribe attempts to take a lighter view of events, and I do try to see the humor in just about everything.
Not today.
If what I have read in numerous online news sites today is true, then I have just reached a whole new level of appalled.
To summarize it, 18 year-old Kymberly Wimberly (not making that up), of McGehee, Arkansas, filed a complaint in Federal court on July 21, 2011, alleging that her rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution have been violated by the school district in McGehee.
Miss Wimberly, according to the complaint, compiled the highest GPA in her graduating class at McGehee Secondary School, posting a single "B" against straight "A"s over her four years there, all while loading up on every honors and advanced placement course she could find.
By any account I have been able to find over the past two hours, an exceedingly bright young lady. So, why the complaint?
Again, according to the court document, Miss Wimberly has been denied the sole valedictory status she worked so hard to achieve, and was, instead, named CO-valedictorian with another student, whose GPA was not as high of Miss Wimberly's.
Miss Wimberly is an African-American, and her co-valedictorian is white.
The complaint document, which is readily available online, alleges that the McGehee School District, after originally informing Miss Wimberly's mother (a school employee) that she had indeed won top honors, then proceeded to name the white student as co-valedictorian, to prevent "a big mess" in the town of roughly 4500.
Admittedly, I have only heard one side of this story so far, and the school district has as of yet not commented on the matter. Further, untrue allegations filed in court are not exactly unheard-of, and I readily accept that.
That said, if the allegations are indeed true, than your intrepid scribe is appalled beyond my ability to express it.
I have personally spent very little time in the deep South, and as a white Irish guy from upstate New York, I clearly have no means of understanding what it is to be Black in America.
I can only hope that this is all some kind of horrible screw-up.
Sadly, I'm not betting on that. If Miss Wimberly's allegations are indeed proven correct, I hope that bright young lady absolutely takes that school district to the cleaners.
This one, I'm gonna keep an eye on. More as I get it.
Until next time,
Excelsior!
