On the one hand, it sounds like the parents felt entitled to admission to a highly selective college. On the other hand, the issues with the grades and the potential retaliations well pre-date the college application process. If the math teachers were intentionally sabotaging her grades as retaliation for the parents complaints, then I would be pretty miffed as well. And the fact that one of the teachers apparently destroyed material that was known to be in contention doesn’t speak well of the situation. Whether it had to do with race or not is another matter.
That student reapplied to two schools from the first list and got rejected a second time by both. He did not have any obvious safeties in the second list, but fortunately did get admitted to several of them.
Shutout: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/47867-were-picking-up-the-pieces-but-what-went-wrong-p1.html
A year later: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/192395-no-acceptances-one-kids-story-a-year-later-p1.html
There is a 0% chance that the Supreme Court will take this case. It involves no principle of national importance, and at best implicates an aspect of District of Columbia local law on contract remedies which is no different from the law in many states (and different from the law in some states). And even if the petitioners won on that issue, there is little chance that the outcome would change. The trial court, by awarding costs to Sidwell, and the appellate court, by confirming that award, flagged the case as frivolous and abusive.
Note – The child in question was not rejected by Spelman. She withdrew her application to Spelman. She was accepted by both Penn and Williams the following year.
One of the things the plaintiff’'s parents seem not to have considered: I would imagine that many of the colleges to which she applied would have considered it a negative fact that she, her sister, and her parents had sued Sidwell over a variety of slights, including her math grades. That easily could explain the sudden cold feet of schools that were recruiting her for track.
SAT/ACT/Subject Test scores are to be sent from the testing agency, same as what she presumably did for the other 12 schools she applied to.
And the school is correct. Sending scores is the responsibility of the student.
@Data10 You are probably right , but I am not seeing anything about a C in Math in the complaint – I see this in the file
"plaintiffs
contend that Sidwell administrator Justin Heiges
admitted that Mr. Markey should have changed Dayo’s
spring 2013 Calculus grade from a “B+” to an “A-”;
and that Dayo’s Math II teacher, Maria Koziebrodzka,
did not properly recalculate her 2011-2012 Math II
grades to reflect grade increases. See Pl. Statement
of Disputed Facts ¶ 7. Plaintiffs apparently believe
that Dayo should have received grades of “A” in all of
her math classes. See, e.g., Def. Statement of Undisputed Facts ¶ 43 (“Plaintiffs do not believe Dayo’s
Math II and Calculus grades were recalculated in
‘good faith’ because she should have received an ‘A’
for all semesters.”); "
I’m sure Sidwell staff know how to right a “nice” recommendation letter that isn’t glowing or up to their usual standard. Recommendations are subjective by nature.
I also noticed the mother has a history of lawsuits. Not sure what they are about but if I was a college that got a whiff of the previous complaints by the family against Sidwell or a litigious nature, I’d be taking a hard pass.
ETA: cross posted with @JHS.
She withdrew her application to Spelman? Why?
@ucbalumnus Andison did a well thought out gap year…and it is likely that some of what he did improved his application chances (as can be evidenced by his acceptances round two).
It’s very possible that this student was accepted to Penn and Williams because something done in her gap year stood out. That’s very possible,
And the answer is: vexatious litigant.
Your quote was about Calculus. Mine was about Math II, in which she appeared to receive a lower grade than Calculus. Specific Math II comments are below:
No reason given.
McGill does not want official transcripts unless the student is accepted and will be attending. The student must upload unofficial transcripts to Minerva;
Not sure if it was that way in 2014.
I’m no lawyer, but I used to watch Matlock. My prediction - this isn’t going to the Supreme Court.
Definition of entitled: I deserve to go to an ivy because I attended Sidwell Friends or Sidwell Friends owes me an ivy acceptance because I attended. This is the perfect example for the Sidwell wild parents thread- parents expect schools to produce an ivy acceptance…and these parents are now suing about it. Thank goodness the courts nipped the whole frivolous lawsuit in the bud AND made them pay Sidwell’s legal fees.
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@vpa2019 "I deserve to go to an ivy because I attended Sidwell Friends or Sidwell Friends owes me an ivy acceptance because I attended. " I disagree.
Apparently, without any help from Sidwell, and perhaps even once they were unable to thwart her application, she did indeed deserve to go an ivy and indeed got into an ivy all on her own merit! She graduated from Penn Engineering and participated in an honors Engineering group while she was there so kudos to her!
@runswimyoga her parents SUED the school because she didn’t get into an ivy during her senior year. I didn’t say she wasn’t qualified I said their attitude is the definition of entitled. Also she still needed Sidwell’s help during her second round of applications. She applied to all reach schools and EXPECTED acceptance to at least one…that’s entitled. No one deserves to go to an ivy.
It is sad. I guess schools are going to want to get our of the letter of recommendation business. Why would they want to be sued? Just like employers who won’t talk to anyone about a past employee with fear of a lawsuit.
Sidwell certainly has more than its fair share of self-entitled kids and parents.
While I think it’s clear the parents were a PITA, the school is not blameless here. They entered into a settlement agreement which they breached. The school doesn’t even dispute that. And it looks like there is further evidence of bad acts, particularly related to one math teacher who was told to preserve this student’s records and she destroyed some of them instead. And I think they likely treated her unfairly because, well, her parents were a PITA.
Why did she do during her gap year? It’s very possible the gap year activities increased her chances of getting accepted to the colleges. Did I miss what she did during that year?