On 12 Jul 2003 05:35:17 -0700, darth_sidious70@no-spam (Senator
Palpatine) wrote:
>i guess all the bleeding hearts are crying. Maybe they will push for
>the million dollar lawsuit for her.
I'm probably considered a bleeding heart by you and the other conservatives
in this group, but I think she got what she deserved on most all counts. I
was initially supportive of her, but when I read a bit more and discovered
that her GPA was due in part to the fact that she was able to take more
heavily weighted classes than her counterparts on campus had available, and
that the difference in GPAs between her and the proposed co-valedictorian
was infinitesimal, it became clear that she was not acting in her own best
interests or the best interests of the school. If it had only been about
the time she was allowed to take tests, or that she studied at home, I
would have backed her strongly (while thinking that she had poor judgment
in battle-picking). I think it was foolish of the principal to even mention
those factors -- he should have relied on the empirical data.
Clearly, suing to be named sole valedictorian and then not filling the
basic duties of that office is a foolish, selfish act revealing a complete
and utter lack of foresight. If you're going to take a principled stand, do
it all the way; don't back down when you've been given a nominal victory.
The one thing I am curious about is the details of her use of outside
sources in her articles. What I have read has not made clear to me if she
was presenting words not her own as her own, or whether she made some
technical error in the attribution (up to and including the text inline
with her own words without attribution and assuming people would somehow
know that they weren't hers). I'd be interested to see the original pieces
that she wrote - does anybody know if they're on the Web somewhere?
I would hope that Harvard admissions read those articles themselves rather
than relying on news reports that she was a plagiarist, or rejecting her
because she behaved badly in a way that captured media attention. I am
quite sure that she would not be the only appallingly spoiled brat in her
class if she did go to Harvard.
--
Thomas Taylor ** Philadelphia, PA, USA
news@no-spam
(drop news, slide at over one word, 0 -> o to e-mail)
Put Greens In Philly's City Hall!
Tom Hutt in the 8th: http://www.tomhutt.org
John Hogan At-Large: http://www.hogan2003.org