By, Heather Warner
High School graduations are upon us, and in one Illinois town there’s outrage, after a high school senior doesn’t become valedictorian.
He had the highest G.P.A in his senior class, but, because of a school policy, he didn’t get top honors.
Students, teachers, and parents in Maywood lined the sidewalk outside Proviso East High School, protesting a policy that will keep 18*year old Ladarius Sapho from being the valedictorian. Even though Sapho has a 4.135 G.P.A, he hasn’t gone to the school long enough to be considered for the honor.
School administrators recently told him he had to be at the school at least seven semesters to even be considered for valedictorian. Ladarius says he would have been satisfied with that policy, if the school could have at least mentioned his ranking at graduation. But, he was told that wouldn’t happen.
There are plenty of people in Ladarius’s corner, many of whom turned out for a recent school board meeting to talk about the policy. After a media firestorm, school administrators have decided to allow Ladarius to speak, but he will still not garner the title of valedictorian of his class.