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Thursday, May. 28, 1998
Friends to share Calallen salutatorian title
`It was worth going through all this,' student says of ruling
By JIM DAY
Staff WriterA district court ruling Wednesday will allow two best friends at Calallen High School to be honored as co-salutatorians at graduation ceremonies this evening.
District Judge Mike Westergren ruled that John Galloway, a Calallen senior who has been ranked No. 2 in his class since his freshman year, deserved to be honored as salutatorian -- the title bestowed upon the student with the second-highest grade point average in academic subjects.
``It was worth going through all this,'' Galloway said after Westergren announced his ruling. ``It's very important to stand up for yourself.''
Galloway later agreed to share the title with his best friend, Jim Carothers, who had previously been named salutatorian at an awards ceremony.
Westergren said his ruling was based on school policy being unclear on how the grades should be calculated.
Last week, Galloway sued the Calallen Independent School District and its top officials, claiming they had not followed district policy in calculating Carothers' GPA. If they had followed the written policy, Galloway's GPA would have been higher than his friend's, making Galloway the salutatorian, the suit stated.
Galloway said battling with the school board, jeopardizing his friendship with Carothers and finally going to court has cast a shadow over his graduation. But fighting for what he feels he deserves was the right thing to do, he said.
``I was absolutely sure I was correct,'' Galloway said.
A woman who answered the phone at the Carothers' residence Wednesday said neither Jim Carothers nor the family would comment.
Calallen Superintendent Arturo Almendarez said the district would accept the option of having co-salutatorians. But he and other school officials were adamant that their calculations showing Carothers had a higher academic GPA were correct.
Westergren's ruling -- one day before graduation -- had school officials scrambling Wednesday to get graduation programs printed up with the proper information, Almendarez said.
Later, he will ask the school board to examine the policy for calculating GPA that Galloway brought into question, Almendarez said.
The case hinged upon a required health course that Galloway took but Carothers tested out of. According to district policy, the GPA used to determine the salutatorian is calculated by the sum of grades received in academic classes divided by the number of credits.
Because Carothers tested out of the health class, both the score he received on the test and the one credit he earned were dropped from the calculation, according to Calallen High School Principal Mike Sandroussi.
In testimony Tuesday, Galloway acknowledged that the district policy excludes the test grade from the calculation. But the policy does not say the credit should be dropped, he testified. When the district dropped the credit, it lowered the number used to divide Carothers' grades, thereby bumping his GPA up slightly.
Galloway said that was wrong and against district policy.
But Shirley Selz, the attorney representing the school district, said it was the correct way to calculate the score.
In her closing statements, she told Westergren that Galloway was trying to use a different, mathematically unsound way of calculating grades to push down Carothers' GPA. Using the calculations proposed by Galloway, it would be as if Carothers had failed a course he had actually tested out of, she said.
``It makes no sense in logic, makes no sense in policy, makes no sense in state law,'' she said, adding that the court's decision in the case would send a message to students. ``Children should not be encouraged to manipulate the rules.''
But rather than focusing on the different ways of calculating GPA, Westergren's ruling was based on questions about the wording of the school policy, the judge said.
Several high school students eating lunch at a McDonald's in Calallen Wednesday said they respected Galloway for fighting for what he thinks he deserves.
``Everybody has known John for a long time, and everybody likes him. People know he has a legitimate argument,'' said David Brown, a Calallen High School senior who said he knows and likes both Galloway and Carothers.
Brown said he thought good arguments could be made to give either boy the title of salutatorian, so he thinks making them co-salutatorians is a good solution.
Courtney Clark, a freshman who does not know either boy, said she liked the fact that Galloway did not simply accept school officials' decision to name someone else salutatorian.
``I think it's good he's standing up for what he wants, and that the school board didn't get their way like they always do,'' Clark said.
It is nice to see a student going to court against a school district over an issue such as academic honors rather than over a more typical dispute, such as getting dropped from the football team, said Jim Paulsen, a professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston.
He said it was not surprising to hear that a lawsuit had been filed over a school's policies in determining GPA.
``I'm not surprised to see a lawsuit being brought, especially when you look at the cost of education these days,'' he said, adding that the status of valedictorian or salutatorian can translate to scholarship dollars. It is always important for a school district to have clear policies over such subjects and to follow them exactly, he said.
When he addresses his classmates as salutatorian this evening, Galloway plans to talk about honor, he said, and that honor comes from confidence in knowing what you are doing is the right thing to do.
``Even if I hadn't won today, I would still feel I did the honorable thing,'' Galloway said.Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web