Black Student Can't Be Valedictorian
By EMMALEE ABEL


PINE BLUFF, Ark. (AR) - A high school southeast of Little Rock
would not let a black student be valedictorian though she had the
highest grade-point average, and wouldn't let her mom speak to the
school board about it until graduation had passed, the graduate claims
in Federal Court.
Kymberly Wimberly, 18, got only a single B in her 4 years at
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.
Bratton says she tried to protest the decision to the school
board, but defendant Superintendent Thomas Gathen would not let her
speak, because she allegedly had "filled out the wrong form. Instead of
'public comments,' Gather [sic] said Bratton should have asked for
'public participation.'" The superintendent told her she could not
appeal his decision until the June 28 school board meeting; graduation
was May 13.
(The superintendent's name is spelled Gathen in the heading of the
complaint, but is spelled Gather throughout the body of it.)
The last African-American valedictorian in McGehee School District
was in 1989. Wimberly says the school discourages black students from
taking honors and advanced placement classes, "by telling them, among
other things, that the work was too hard."
"Because of defendants' continuous disparate treatment of
African-American students, defendants' actions toward the plaintiff can
properly be classed as intentional," the complaint states.
"Defendants did not support African-American students, and did not
want to see Wimberly, an African-American young mother as valedictorian.
"But for Wimberly's race, defendants would not have selected a
student with a lower G.P.A. than Wimberly to also be a valedictorian."
She seeks punitive damages for constitutional violations, and an
injunction declaring her sole valedictorian of the school's Class of
2011. She is represented by John Walker of Little Rock.