Great News! No serious crime in Virginia

 Great News! No serious crime in Virginia!

 

Surely there must be no serious crime of any sort in Virginia.  That is the only reason I can explain why Virginia’s Attorney General is opening a probe to explore why the highly ranked Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology was late in informing parents that their children received letters of commendation from the National Merit Scholarship Corp.  Now it seems the plot really thickens as  there now might be at least two other high schools that were also late in informing students.   The Attorney General wants to make sure that race or national origin wasn’t a motivating factor in the delay.  The Fairfax County superintendent also noted that staffers had personally notified EVERY school to which students had applied informing the school of the letters of commendation.  It should be noted that these are letters of commendation and do not include any scholarship money.

The Governor of Virginian, Glenn Youngkin who is noted for his resistance to teaching history that includes the good news and the bad news about how African Americans have been treated in the past was notably very upset that this delay in notification to students, some of whom are of a minority race was a violation of the State’s Human Rights Act.  He is quoted as saying, “So, I mean, this is a real issue.”  As opposed to teaching about slavery and advocating for a new social studies curriculum that advises the majority of Africans brought to this country to be enslaved came of their own free will.  That notion, of course, might not be a “real issue”.

Youngkin is also upset about the new admissions procedures for the elite high school which used to include an exam and a $100 application fee.   Both were eliminated in 2020 to allow for a more diverse socio-economic student body.   Prior to the admission change, the school’s student body was primarily White and 

Asian.  Youngkin and company are saying the new policy may discriminate against Asian Americans since the percentage of Asian American students has decreased by about 20%.  Given that this is a school for science and technology, should have been easy for someone to figure out that if the total number of the freshman class remains constant and more Hispanic and African American students are admitted, then the percentage of other groups would go down. 

Maybe that’s a violation of some mathematical espionage.   Since there seems to be so little for the Virginia’s Attorney General to investigate, perhaps he can delve into that next.  Unless, of course, there may be other law breakers in Virginia worthy of his attention. 

Sometimes a mistake is just- a mistake with no nefarious motive.