This Instance Will Make You Question the School's Decisions: Is Race Overvalued Than Academic Excellence?

Ever had a nightmare that the exam you have aced is called for a recount? 

After Ikeria Washington and Layla Temple had been named 2021 valedictorian and salutatorian for West Point High School, parents of other students who had their ranks around the same margin questioned the school's decisions and placed their own opinions about who should have been honored.

It was a splendid occasion when two confident black ladies stood side by side and were given such honors. 

But, after such questions were raised, West Point High School went against the tradition and decided to revise their decisions of honoring Ikeria Washington and Layla Temple alone. Within days, West Point decided to name two valedictorians and two salutatorians.

 
Emma Berry and Dominic Borgioli-two white students were selected for the positions to stand together with Ikeria and Layla. 

In the northeastern part of the state, West Point High School is in a mostly black town. Three weeks since the senior award night, the West Point populace has been split across racial lines. Life there since the past three weeks has been a blend of lawsuits, threats, and racism allegations posted on Facebook.

 
As Said by the Officials 

Officials are claiming that Race and color had no place in the events in West Point High. They say that a mistake was made by a school counselor that resulted in some confusion and lead to all this chaos. 

As said, there were two methods for calculating the final grades of the students and confusion over which method was to be used for evaluating the final results.

West Point High is sadly not the world school in this era of competition over collaboration where senior class honors veered into legal and racial issues. The valedictorian designation dispute has even prompted a lawsuit in Alpine, Texas, which has a population of around 6,000.

The Other Side of the Story 

Lisa M. Ross, a lawyer situated in Jackson which is the State Capital has talked about the selection process and how fair it is. She highlighted that race remains a big struggle in Mississippi. 

Also, she added that she gets calls from parents around the time of graduation. Many parents doubt that their child is being cheated out of the honors of valedictorian and salutatorian.

Angela Washington, Ikeria's mother, was unaware of any such miscalculation in West Point High as the senior awards were over and she was leaving the auditorium. 

Angela said that she had overheard Emma Berry pledging to challenge the decision that made Ikeria and Layla get the honor of valedictorian and salutatorian.

Ms. Washington said in an interview that Ikeria was very upset and crying. She added that Ikeria thought that it was going to be her night. Shawn Berry, Emma's father, was also upset. He said that the family knew Emma's averages and that she was the one supposed to be at the very top. 

Shawn Berry added that the family had been tracking this since Emma was in the seventh grade and that over the years his daughter has received awards for the highest class rank. 

Emma's whole family was very shocked and in denial when the results were declared and Emma's name was missing for the honor of Valedictorian and salutatorian.

 
Melissa Borgioli, the mother of Dominic Borgioli,  was also very upset and confused. She said that her son had secured the third rank at the end of his junior year and had worked hard enough this year to not be included in the designations. 

Grade Calculations

The parents of Ikeria and Layla, the just name valedictorian and salutatorian had left the award ceremony as they realized how upset Emma and her father were. Mr. Berry had found the 2020-2021 handbook. The process of calculating who the top two students were was at issue. 

He found out that Ikeria Washington and  Layla Temple had won based on the calculation of point quality average or Q.P.A.

 
Quality Point Average, or Q.P.A, is a system of calculation of grades wherein extra weight to advanced placement and credit courses that are dual n nature is given. It turned out that Dominic Borgioli and Emma Berry were the top finishers based on an unweighted grade point average.

 
The parents of Emma Berry and Dominic Borgioli discussed this with the superintendent of West Side High, Burnell McDonald. McDonald said that as per the West Side High School handbook, the school had not followed its own rules while performing the calculations for getting the class ranks. 

Mr. McDonald had informed the parents of Emma Berry and Dominic Borgioli on the evening before graduation that he was adding them as co-honorees. Now, Dominic Borgioli was given the honor of co-valedictorian while on the other hand, Emma Berry was given the honor of co-salutatorian. 

He also permitted adding two missing grades to the final grade for Emma and said that the addition won't affect the outcome.

Written by - Devyani Roy

Edited by - Akanksha Sharma