I was rejected to 16 schools this year and you don’t see me complaining. Live life and move one, they just don’t want you that’s all ??
ucbalumnus’s post #77 provides a logical explanation of the change in the math grades going from Math II to Calculus.
Re JHS’s #76: If the headmaster actually said that all of the teachers want the family “gone, gone, gone” from the school, and charged toward the father–as alleged in the court filing and as not disputed by the school–that also is rather inconsistent with Quaker principles.
I believe that Quakers stand for justice and non-discrimination, and I do not consider it inconsistent with Quaker values for someone to pursue a judicial remedy.
I think the girl was not helped at all by Sidwell. A school can prevent a student’s admission to top schools by weak positives, which is what happened here apparently.
Again, if you look at the court document linked by ucbalumnus in #1, I think you might agree with me that there is a bit more here than just the story of an unfair teacher and a student whose application list was not realistic.
Sidwell has one of the most progressive faculties on the east coast and extensive experience dealing with oversize egos. This family really must be something to push Sidwell this far-the school puts up with a lot from its families already.
Do people believe that what was said by the plaintiffs attorney in the court documents to be true? Or their interpretation of what they think is the truth? As far as I have seen, we haven’t heard Sidwell’s side of the story.
Or am I missing something?
No, of course I do not automatically believe the statements by plaintiff’s attorney. However, in the actions of the headmaster described on (I think it was) page 18 of the court filing, it is noted that the school did not dispute that statement. The apparent destruction of the student’s work product and original grade records by the Math II teacher is regrettable. I think it is probable that the teacher was unable to produce the student’s test that was scored as 79, despite instructions from the headmaster to retain all the records (apparently), ahead of the teacher’s shredding of the papers and records (apparently).
I understand why the school might not respond. On the other hand, I really think that there is enough in the court filing to say that this is not just a case where everyone runs into an unfair teacher–get over it–and students at Sidwell Friends are not entitled to admission to the college of their choice–stop acting entitled. This is something else.
Also, it appears that the complaint by the current girl’s older sister may have affected the way the school treated the younger one. I am sure that no teachers or administrators anywhere else have ever done anything like that 
It also appears she was a mediocre student expecting Ivy admissions as her entitlement. If her standardized test scores had been decent, you can bet they would be mentioned in the filing.
Mediocre at Sidwell Friends would not equate to mediocre at most schools. Sidwell Friends only accepts 7% of the applicants, according to Wikipedia. (This may not be relevant to complainant, who entered at age 4.)
The headmaster named in the suit left the position in 2014, the same year that the complainant graduated (according to Wikipedia).
The student’s standardized test scores were good enough for Penn, and she has graduated now. Penn is an Ivy League school, so her expectations were not utterly misplaced. True, she might have raised her scores during the gap year.
Also, it appears that there may have been a lot of troubling behavior going around at the school. Two counselors resigned this year. The complainant’s parents do not appear to be the only parents that the school wishes would dial it back:
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/06/sidwell-friends-college-admissions-varsity-blues/591124/
Pretty startling, if you read it.
Covered in another thread, so discussion of that topic can occur there:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/2146113-parents-gone-wild.html#latest
Let’s not conflate the issues.
The second time around. She was rejected the first time and accepted after a gap year.
She may have studied and retaken.
And there were no lawsuits filed against Penn in 4 years by this family? 
Test scores aren’t the be all, end all anyway. Colleges know that a student who can get through high school at a Sidwell Friends type school can get through most colleges just fine. Case in point, this young woman graduating from Penn with an engineering degree.
@roycroftmom said:
Yes, great point.
The only hint of test performance that I saw was mention of her National Merit Commended status.
^ Sounds high enough to me.
Perhaps test scores weren’t mentioned because they weren’t an issue in contention between the family and the high school, unlike grades.
Am I reading it correctly that they are trying to swindle Sidwell for $2 million? $1 million compensatory and $1 million punitive? ?
And, did Sidwell pay them $50k, and then let her come back to school the next year? Corporate America pays misfits like this all the time to hush and go away, but they never associate with the person again.
Also, the fact that she was ultimately admitted and graduated from Penn is completely immaterial to the case. No one ever said she couldn’t. However, that seems to be the catalyst for this shakedown.
They mention scores that are directly related to the lawsuit claims, such as the 720 SAT II Chemistry score and the scores from relevant tests in math classes. They do not mention scores from other tests.
Given that she was National Merit Scholarship commended and was later admitted to Penn Engineering and Williams, I doubt that the the primary reason for her rejections was abysmal test scores. However, there are some hints of other issues, such as an engineering major applying with a C/C+ in math and some B’s, possible issues with timely submitting scores and/or transcript, possible issues with GC LORs/checked boxes, and possible additional negative information from school or external sources.
Seems like in 2013, the National Merit Commended cutoff was 200 (equivalent to 207 for current versions of the PSAT), while the National Merit Semifinalist cutoff was 221 for DC (equivalent to 221 for current versions of the PSAT; DC was the jurisdiction with the highest cutoff). So presumably, the student in question scored at least 200 (207 equivalent) but less than 221 (221 equivalent) on the National Merit selection index calculated from PSAT scores.
The claim is just ridiculous. Firstly, she lacked political privilege, which is enjoyed by most of the other Sidwell students. She claims to have suffered from ‘anti-Nigerian’ discrimination. Last time I checked Nigerian was not an under represented minority. (They’d fall under the international category). Maybe those are reasons why she was rejected. Besides, how, exactly, is a high school responsible for a student being rejected to colleges with <10% admission rates? She was too confident/stupid to have a ‘safety’ school.
That’s not exactly the argument with regard to her Nigerian heritage. African-American students receive affirmative action consideration at many schools, explicitly or implicitly. Nigerian students do not qualify for affirmative action consideration in this regard, as TooOld4School has noted. The student’s parents immigrated from Nigeria, but as I understand it, they are now American citizens. The student herself and her sister are American citizens. Mentioning the Nigerian heritage is actually harmful to her chances of admission, in my view.
The lawsuit states, “Dayo is African-American, but her parents are Nigerian nationals.”
However, as far as hooks go, the far more influential one is whether she was a recruited athlete. Some of the Ivy coaches provided a “letter of support” or placement on athletic “preferred list.” There was clearly positive communication with coaches, but nothing as suggestive of admission as a likely letter. The Plantiff claims,
it sounds like Spelman was the safety. She chose to withdraw her Spelman application and instead apply/reapply to highly selective colleges after a gap year. If she was unwilling to attend, then it was not truly a safety,. However, it sounds like there were additional factors, such as believing she had a good chance of admission to other colleges after a gap year.
I suspect that a significant portion of students rejected from Ivies could have graduated if admitted, so I wouldn’t read much into her eventually getting through Penn.
Relating counselor behavior this year and this girl’s grades from 6+ years ago is a stretch.
In the end, a judge and an appeals court, who saw much more than anyone here, stated it pretty plainly that there was nothing meaningful to see here.