KINGWOOD, Texas - Karen Scherr is the top academic student in her class at Kingwood High School in the Houston area, and she has been for the past four years.
But when the 18-year-old receives her diploma this month, she’ll do so without the title just about everyone expected her to have: valedictorian.
Kingwood High school has handed that honor to another student, saying Scherr doesn’t qualify for the award.
“I was disappointed,” said Scherr. “I’d hoped the rule would not have to be enforced.”
Scherr was referring to a requirement that the school’s valedictorian be enrolled in classes by the 20th day of their junior year.
It’s a rule aimed at keeping students from other schools from transferring into Kingwood late in their high school careers to claim one of the coveted top 10 academic spots.
Scherr’s been in the Kingwood school system since kindergarten. But she wasn’t enrolled in her high school on that 20th day of her junior year.
Instead, she was in a treatment facility seeking help for the eating disorder, anorexia nervosa.
quote: Originally posted by: kspeer "Wasn't she still "enrolled", just absent? Did the school still get their money for her being a student?"
The school is legally bound to educate students in hospitals, treatment facilities, jail or where ever they are placed. This student was still enrolled, just at a different location. It's called free and appropriate education. This is the law. This student should be claiming discrimination under the ADA.