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- <text id=91TT1317>
- <title>
- June 17, 1991: American Notes:Education
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- June 17, 1991 The Gift Of Life
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 32
- American Notes
- EDUCATION
- Grade-Point Showdown
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Choosing a valedictorian is usually a simple matter: the pupil
- with the top grades gets the honor. But for two rival students
- at Newton County High School in Covington, Ga., even a federal
- judge couldn't settle a dispute that has roiled the racially
- volatile school.
- </p>
- <p> Originally the school board had selected Johnathan Henderson
- for the honor. Henderson, who is black, had a grade-point average
- of 96.96, winning awards in trigonometry, physics and Latin, plus
- scholarships totaling $42,500. But C. Thomas Allgood III sued.
- Allgood, who is white, claimed he should be the top graduate
- because his grade-point average was 97.7. Problem: his scores
- included two years of grades from the virtually all-white private
- school from which he had transferred, an institution whose
- accreditation was in dispute.
- </p>
- <p> Last week, after the school board deadlocked on the issue,
- U.S. District Judge Marvin Shoob issued a Solomonic decree: the
- two students would share the honor. But Henderson declined: "I
- refuse to share in what I feel is an injustice."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-