A straight-A student received a C in cooking class, prompting her father to file a federal lawsuit. He alleges that the white teacher discriminated against his black daughter. He seeks to have the grade changed to an A and requests financial damages.
Virginia Brown is a ninth-grader at Ashley High School with perfect attendance and a history of all A's. Her father said she was heartbroken by the C grade. "She cried the whole weekend," he said. "She wouldn't come out of her room. Her eyes were red and puffy. My little girl hasn't been this upset since her cat got run over by a car when she was 6."
Virginia is a model student: class president, member of the swim, volleyball, and track teams, the chess club, the Girl Scouts, and her church choir.
The home economics teacher, 28-year-old Jessica Smith, in her first year of teaching, denied any discrimination. "Some of my best friends are African-Americans," she said. "This isn't a black and white problem. Everybody in America wants to sue everybody else. I'm going to sue them for defamation of character."
The school principal, who grew up in India, fully supported Ms. Smith. He stated Virginia would have no trouble getting into top universities even with a C in cooking. "She won't have any difficulty finding a great university, but she might have problems finding a husband," he joked. "She'd better look for a man who likes to eat out a lot."