Valedictorian hopeful sues RGC High School in grade dispute

RIO GRANDE CITY – Jennifer Diaz has chased after the same goal since leaving elementary school: to graduate at the top of her class.

She threw herself into extracurricular activities as she grew older, attended every last day of class and won an election to become her senior class president. Throughout, she studied hard – never earning a grade lower than a 98 percent.

Yet the decision over whether she is named this year’s Rio Grande City High School valedictorian may now lie outside hard numbers and grades and in the hands of a federal judge.

The 18-year-old senior and her family took legal action last week against the school district, claiming that the standard method of calculating grade point averages would unfairly place her in the No. 2 spot. Until a court can settle the dispute, final grade computations and official class rankings for all the high school’s graduating seniors have been put on hold.

“I’ve committed myself and pushed myself for that honor,” Diaz said. “We’re not trying to make this some big lawsuit. We just want what’s fair.”

ANATOMY OF A GRADE DISPUTE

At issue is an anatomy and physiology elective the teen took early in her high school career. Even though she completed the course with a 98 percent, the grade dragged down her average because it was not – like most of the classes she had taken – an Advanced Placement course, which receive a heavier weight in GPA calculations.

Diaz maintains that high school Principal Jorge Recio promised her the class would not be included in the final tally because it falls under the school’s career and technology curriculum. GPAs are calculated only from an average of grades in core classes – such as science, math, English and history, according to the high school’s handbook.

The school district, on the other hand, argues it has always included anatomy, unlike other tech classes, as a science course.

“You can’t start something one way and then go back and take back what you’ve been doing for years,” said Starr County Attorney Victor Canales, who is representing the district as a side job.

But for Hilda Gonzalez Garza – who works in Canales’ county office but is also moonlighting as Diaz’s attorney – the argument has more to do with what the school’s written policy has always been than what the district has always done.

The high school’s curriculum lists the anatomy class among those tech classes not counted for GPAs. Had her client known that grade would be factored in, she would have taken another elective.

“The handbook says one thing, but what they are doing is a different thing,” she said. “If you honestly thought that our school board and our administrators were there for the interests of our children, you are sadly mistaken.”

With a standing court order barring the school from finalizing its class rankings – which were originally set to be released Monday – U.S. District Judge Ricardo Hinojosa is scheduled to determine today whether they can be released before the final decision on the anatomy class is made.

‘ME VS. THE SCHOOL’

The case isn’t without precedent.

In 2006, a Pharr-San Juan-Alamo High School senior sued her school district over the unclearly communicated rules it used to count dual enrollment college credits in final GPAs. By counting credits that came in after the school’s official deadline, Yanira Ramos was booted from her spot at the top of her graduating class.

A state district judge ruled in her favor and Ramos eventually graduated as co-valedictorian that year as part of a settlement agreement.

While the details of the two cases differ, Gonzalez Garza said Thursday that both are ultimately about the same issue.

“The district told them to follow these rules,” she said. “They did and now look what happened.”

In Ramos’ case, several of her classmates followed her to court, testifying on her behalf and also expressing concern over how the GPA policies would affect their rankings.

But seniors milling around the Rio Grande City High School campus parking lot Wednesday had little to say about Diaz’s situation one way or the other.

Most hadn’t noticed that their class rankings had been delayed. Some cheered their classmate on for taking on the district in court. And others just rolled their eyes at what they saw as a frivolous lawsuit.

But the delay could have a very real effect on some of their futures. The longer it goes on, the greater the impact on end-of-year school activities such as awards banquets, an annual breakfast to honor the Top 10 seniors and, potentially, even graduation. Other students who took the anatomy class could lose out or become eligible for valuable scholarships, depending on how the course is counted.

And somewhere there is a student currently in line to be valedictorian who may lose her spot if Diaz’s legal wrangling prevails. Because the class rankings had not yet been released, school administrators refused to identify the other person vying for the No. 1 spot.

“I cannot imagine that Ms. Diaz or her classmates will feel good about possibly denying someone else valedictorian through litigation as opposed to class work,” said Dennis Eichelbaum, another attorney representing the district, in a letter sent to Diaz’s family.

Diaz, who has a full-ride scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin already lined up, isn’t oblivious to those concerns. But after more than six years of pursuing the same goal, she now feels she’s being cheated out of success.

“It’s me versus the school,” she said. “I deserve to have my say.”

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 587-9377.