Suit
On May 1, Hornstine filed a complaint in Federal District Court seeking an injunction to prevent the school board from changing its policy retroactively, as well as $2.7 million in damages. Kadri sent a letter to the runner-up advising him he was under consideration for valedictorian honors. Kadri sent no similar letter to Hornstine.
Blair Hornstine was classified with a disability, reportedly a type of chronic fatigue syndrome or immune deficiency, but its exact nature was never disclosed publicly. She received an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) approved by the school board. Kadri contended that because of the “availability of many AP courses in her home instruction program" Hornstine "was able to earn more 'weighted' grades” than other students. Moorestown High School assigned a higher weight to advanced placement (AP) courses and honors courses in calculating a student's GPA. An A+ grade, worth 4 point towards the GPA in a regular course, counted as 5 points in an AP course and 4.5 points in an honors course. Kadri further claimed "she was also able to secure higher grades in her home instruction classes than students enrolled in the same courses at Moorestown High School.”
The court rejected those claims pointing out that the runner up had taken two more AP courses than Hornstine, and while she had taken three more honors courses than the runner up, the net result was a statistical advantage for the runner up. The Court also examined and rejected claims that she was graded less stringently.
Superintendent Kadri claimed that Hornstine's father, a New Jersey Superior Court judge in Camden County, had told him in September that "he was going to manipulate rules designed to protect disabled students for the purpose of allowing to win the valedictorian award". Judge Hornstine denied making those statements and the assistant superintendent of schools, Judithann Keefe, who was present at the September meeting, filed an affidavit contradicting her boss and supporting Judge Hornstine's account of what was said there.
Local and later national media focused intense attention on the case, leading to talk-radio scorn and an online petition calling for Harvard to revoke her admission. Her admission was revoked in July 2003 after it was revealed that Hornstine had committed multiple acts of plagiarism in articles she wrote for a local newspaper. The admissions office stated that an offer of admission may be revoked if a candidate "engage in behavior that brings into question honesty, maturity, or moral character."
Read more about this topic: Hornstine V. Moorestown
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