TJ Commended Student Emails Released - Who is really responsible?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]No Commended student I know put it on their college application (whether they be at TJ or elsewhere). It is an also ran second place sort of thing.

[/b]


This is completely false. All colleges and universities, including my SLAC and even my law school, always brag on the number of National Merit Scholars they have in each class. And, yes, scholarships are awarded to National Merit Scholars as a way to entice them to enroll at said colleges. It IS a very big deal, and what the school did, was wrong.

We’re not talking about NM Scholars. We are talking about Commended Students.

Kids who were in the running for NM Scholarships were notified on time. This is well established.

+1

This isn’t about the Finalists. Or even Semifinalists.

This is third tier. And they are no more eligible for the “special corporate scholarships” than non-commended kids.

No, you are wrong. It's about property rights (ownership in a valuable asset) and the school's manipulation to effect a stated desire - that the students who did not receive the award (non-Asian) be not overly taxed about it. Go back and read the emails. That is clear. It is correct that both the FCPS Civil rights counsel and the AG's office be involved. The admins. at TJ have taken this too far.

He was referring to stopping the ceremonies that had poor attendance. Not distributing a piece of paper. They still distributed, just late.

Zero scholarships were lost because of the delay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, he screwed up, finally admitted it and seemingly is working to fix things.

+1
This. It's unfortunate but for sure I've dropped the ball occasionally in my own job and I imagine everyone has at some point as well. Sounds like he forgot about the packet for a few weeks. Also perhaps notable re: timing - TJ only has advisory on Mondays I believe. No school 10/24 or 10/31 so prior to 11/14 there was just one other Monday: 11/7 and it too was after the 11/1 cut-off. Naturally they could have figured out some other way to hand them out but really it seems like just an error. One that's been apologized for, that TJ's working to help clean up with outreach to colleges, and that he already said they would handle it differently moving forward.

Agreed. He indeed messed up and made it worse by trying to cover it up. When certain parents' names pop up in the email, he should be more prepared when crafting the answers. Anyway, the remediation methods have been taken, and most importantly, there is no real impact on the kids, the kids probably won't even care.

Is it warrant an apology from the school? Yes, an Attorney General's investigation? No.

BTW, I am just one of the NORMAL Asian parents in TJ, who don't think this is a big deal, and it is definitely not an act of racism.

But the Attorney General's office didn't know about these emails prior to the release yesterday, did they?

And the AG's involvement, and the national attention, forced FCPS (Miyares) to announce that their office of civil rights was doing an investigation and appointing an outside investigator. Actions have consequences.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a big deal or not.

Youngkin and the other RWNJs want press to build faux outrage.

[Anonymous]

The 800 scholarships are the corporate special scholarships. Those are open to any non-finalist, including semifinalists, commended, and non-commended. Applicants have to meet the specific criteria (children of employee, etc) to be considered. Students already had info on how to apply and knew their status. Deadline for scholarship applications was 12/15/22. More than a month after the certificates were handed out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, he screwed up, finally admitted it and seemingly is working to fix things.

+1
This. It's unfortunate but for sure I've dropped the ball occasionally in my own job and I imagine everyone has at some point as well. Sounds like he forgot about the packet for a few weeks. Also perhaps notable re: timing - TJ only has advisory on Mondays I believe. No school 10/24 or 10/31 so prior to 11/14 there was just one other Monday: 11/7 and it too was after the 11/1 cut-off. Naturally they could have figured out some other way to hand them out but really it seems like just an error. One that's been apologized for, that TJ's working to help clean up with outreach to colleges, and that he already said they would handle it differently moving forward.

Agreed. He indeed messed up and made it worse by trying to cover it up. When certain parents' names pop up in the email, he should be more prepared when crafting the answers. Anyway, the remediation methods have been taken, and most importantly, there is no real impact on the kids, the kids probably won't even care.

Is it warrant an apology from the school? Yes, an Attorney General's investigation? No.

BTW, I am just one of the NORMAL Asian parents in TJ, who don't think this is a big deal, and it is definitely not an act of racism.

But the Attorney General's office didn't know about these emails prior to the release yesterday, did they?

And the AG's involvement, and the national attention, forced FCPS (Miyares) to announce that their office of civil rights was doing an investigation and appointing an outside investigator. Actions have consequences.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a big deal or not.

Youngkin and the other RWNJs want press to build faux outrage.

It all feeds off each other.

When you have an all-Democrat School Board that give consultants $500K to advocate for “equal outcomes for all students, without exception,” don’t be surprised when the conservatives look for every opportunity to push back, especially if it involves TJ.

Common sense left the room a long time ago in FCPS. Everyone happily fights the culture wars while basic things like academics and facilities get overlooked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does everyone say the letters showed up a week late? Showed up where?

The letters were supposed to be delivered to students in Sept (that’s why they were dated Sept). TJ received the letters mid October. Bonitatibus signed letters within 48 hrs. That’s still roughly mid October. Students received letters on Nov 14. So almost 1 month after TJ received the letters. Also college applications were due Nov 1. Students received the letters almost two weeks after the Nov 1 deadline.

Also, if these letters were delivered to TJ around mid-October as claimed, how could the principal sign those letters in SEPTEMBER? I think it is possible those letters were actually delivered in September (as indicated by the signature date of September) and that the principal is lying to cover herself when in fact she received them in September. All these will come out in the AG's investigation.

Cover up is usually worse than the initial crime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, he screwed up, finally admitted it and seemingly is working to fix things.

+1
This. It's unfortunate but for sure I've dropped the ball occasionally in my own job and I imagine everyone has at some point as well. Sounds like he forgot about the packet for a few weeks. Also perhaps notable re: timing - TJ only has advisory on Mondays I believe. No school 10/24 or 10/31 so prior to 11/14 there was just one other Monday: 11/7 and it too was after the 11/1 cut-off. Naturally they could have figured out some other way to hand them out but really it seems like just an error. One that's been apologized for, that TJ's working to help clean up with outreach to colleges, and that he already said they would handle it differently moving forward.

Agreed. He indeed messed up and made it worse by trying to cover it up. When certain parents' names pop up in the email, he should be more prepared when crafting the answers. Anyway, the remediation methods have been taken, and most importantly, there is no real impact on the kids, the kids probably won't even care.

Is it warrant an apology from the school? Yes, an Attorney General's investigation? No.

BTW, I am just one of the NORMAL Asian parents in TJ, who don't think this is a big deal, and it is definitely not an act of racism.

But the Attorney General's office didn't know about these emails prior to the release yesterday, did they?

And the AG's involvement, and the national attention, forced FCPS (Miyares) to announce that their office of civil rights was doing an investigation and appointing an outside investigator. Actions have consequences.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a big deal or not.

Youngkin and the other RWNJs want press to build faux outrage.

It all feeds off each other.

When you have an all-Democrat School Board that give consultants $500K to advocate for “equal outcomes for all students, without exception,” don’t be surprised when the conservatives look for every opportunity to push back, especially if it involves TJ.

Common sense left the room a long time ago in FCPS. Everyone happily fights the culture wars while basic things like academics and facilities get overlooked.

So your plan is to implode TJ rather than let in a slightly more diverse group? Destroy FCPS because they want a more diverse group to succeed?

So vile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does everyone say the letters showed up a week late? Showed up where?

The letters were supposed to be delivered to students in Sept (that’s why they were dated Sept). TJ received the letters mid October. Bonitatibus signed letters within 48 hrs. That’s still roughly mid October. Students received letters on Nov 14. So almost 1 month after TJ received the letters. Also college applications were due Nov 1. Students received the letters almost two weeks after the Nov 1 deadline.

Also, if these letters were delivered to TJ around mid-October as claimed, how could the principal sign those letters in SEPTEMBER? I think it is possible those letters were actually delivered in September (as indicated by the signature date of September) and that the principal is lying to cover herself when in fact she received them in September. All these will come out in the AG's investigation.

Cover up is usually worse than the initial crime.

They were signed in mid-October. The NMSC put a September date on the letters since they were supposed to arrive at schools then.

[Anonymous]

Gov. Younkin on Fox explaining the situation for TJHSST in FCPS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79msjGL5SjQ

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, he screwed up, finally admitted it and seemingly is working to fix things.

+1
This. It's unfortunate but for sure I've dropped the ball occasionally in my own job and I imagine everyone has at some point as well. Sounds like he forgot about the packet for a few weeks. Also perhaps notable re: timing - TJ only has advisory on Mondays I believe. No school 10/24 or 10/31 so prior to 11/14 there was just one other Monday: 11/7 and it too was after the 11/1 cut-off. Naturally they could have figured out some other way to hand them out but really it seems like just an error. One that's been apologized for, that TJ's working to help clean up with outreach to colleges, and that he already said they would handle it differently moving forward.

Agreed. He indeed messed up and made it worse by trying to cover it up. When certain parents' names pop up in the email, he should be more prepared when crafting the answers. Anyway, the remediation methods have been taken, and most importantly, there is no real impact on the kids, the kids probably won't even care.

Is it warrant an apology from the school? Yes, an Attorney General's investigation? No.

BTW, I am just one of the NORMAL Asian parents in TJ, who don't think this is a big deal, and it is definitely not an act of racism.

But the Attorney General's office didn't know about these emails prior to the release yesterday, did they?

And the AG's involvement, and the national attention, forced FCPS (Miyares) to announce that their office of civil rights was doing an investigation and appointing an outside investigator. Actions have consequences.

I’m the PP who posted the emails in the other thread. They were released a while ago. This is only new information to everyone in this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]No Commended student I know put it on their college application (whether they be at TJ or elsewhere). It is an also ran second place sort of thing.

[/b]


This is completely false. All colleges and universities, including my SLAC and even my law school, always brag on the number of National Merit Scholars they have in each class. And, yes, scholarships are awarded to National Merit Scholars as a way to entice them to enroll at said colleges. It IS a very big deal, and what the school did, was wrong.

We’re not talking about NM Scholars. We are talking about Commended Students.

Kids who were in the running for NM Scholarships were notified on time. This is well established.

+1

This isn’t about the Finalists. Or even Semifinalists.

This is third tier. And they are no more eligible for the “special corporate scholarships” than non-commended kids.

No, you are wrong. It's about property rights (ownership in a valuable asset) and the school's manipulation to effect a stated desire - that the students who did not receive the award (non-Asian) be not overly taxed about it. Go back and read the emails. That is clear. It is correct that both the FCPS Civil rights counsel and the AG's office be involved. The admins. at TJ have taken this too far.

You are conflating two issues here:

Issue 1: the late distribution of letters. This has nothing to do with “hurt feelings” and is mostly Kosatka screwing up at his job.

Issue 2: the desire to not make a spectacle out of letter distribution (e.g. by making a public announcement, holding a ceremony, etc.) This is the “hurt feelings” part.

Also, your assumption that most non-recipients of the award are non-Asian isn’t necessarily true. The emails don’t make any claims regarding the group of non-awarded students. We don’t have the list of people who won neither award, but it’s highly likely that group is also majority-Asian, since the senior class is 70% Asian. At that point, it’s not really racial discrimination, is it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]No Commended student I know put it on their college application (whether they be at TJ or elsewhere). It is an also ran second place sort of thing.

[/b]


This is completely false. All colleges and universities, including my SLAC and even my law school, always brag on the number of National Merit Scholars they have in each class. And, yes, scholarships are awarded to National Merit Scholars as a way to entice them to enroll at said colleges. It IS a very big deal, and what the school did, was wrong.

National Merit Scholars yes, but not the ones that missed the mark. Commended students missed the mark. It is a consolation prize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, he screwed up, finally admitted it and seemingly is working to fix things.

+1
This. It's unfortunate but for sure I've dropped the ball occasionally in my own job and I imagine everyone has at some point as well. Sounds like he forgot about the packet for a few weeks. Also perhaps notable re: timing - TJ only has advisory on Mondays I believe. No school 10/24 or 10/31 so prior to 11/14 there was just one other Monday: 11/7 and it too was after the 11/1 cut-off. Naturally they could have figured out some other way to hand them out but really it seems like just an error. One that's been apologized for, that TJ's working to help clean up with outreach to colleges, and that he already said they would handle it differently moving forward.

Agreed. He indeed messed up and made it worse by trying to cover it up. When certain parents' names pop up in the email, he should be more prepared when crafting the answers. Anyway, the remediation methods have been taken, and most importantly, there is no real impact on the kids, the kids probably won't even care.

Is it warrant an apology from the school? Yes, an Attorney General's investigation? No.

BTW, I am just one of the NORMAL Asian parents in TJ, who don't think this is a big deal, and it is definitely not an act of racism.

But the Attorney General's office didn't know about these emails prior to the release yesterday, did they?

And the AG's involvement, and the national attention, forced FCPS (Miyares) to announce that their office of civil rights was doing an investigation and appointing an outside investigator. Actions have consequences.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a big deal or not.

Youngkin and the other RWNJs want press to build faux outrage.

Yes, for them grievance politics is their stock and trade. It doesn't matter that its just imagined nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, he screwed up, finally admitted it and seemingly is working to fix things.

+1
This. It's unfortunate but for sure I've dropped the ball occasionally in my own job and I imagine everyone has at some point as well. Sounds like he forgot about the packet for a few weeks. Also perhaps notable re: timing - TJ only has advisory on Mondays I believe. No school 10/24 or 10/31 so prior to 11/14 there was just one other Monday: 11/7 and it too was after the 11/1 cut-off. Naturally they could have figured out some other way to hand them out but really it seems like just an error. One that's been apologized for, that TJ's working to help clean up with outreach to colleges, and that he already said they would handle it differently moving forward.

Agreed. He indeed messed up and made it worse by trying to cover it up. When certain parents' names pop up in the email, he should be more prepared when crafting the answers. Anyway, the remediation methods have been taken, and most importantly, there is no real impact on the kids, the kids probably won't even care.

Is it warrant an apology from the school? Yes, an Attorney General's investigation? No.

BTW, I am just one of the NORMAL Asian parents in TJ, who don't think this is a big deal, and it is definitely not an act of racism.

But the Attorney General's office didn't know about these emails prior to the release yesterday, did they?

And the AG's involvement, and the national attention, forced FCPS (Miyares) to announce that their office of civil rights was doing an investigation and appointing an outside investigator. Actions have consequences.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a big deal or not.

Youngkin and the other RWNJs want press to build faux outrage.

It all feeds off each other.

When you have an all-Democrat School Board that give consultants $500K to advocate for “equal outcomes for all students, without exception,” don’t be surprised when the conservatives look for every opportunity to push back, especially if it involves TJ.

Common sense left the room a long time ago in FCPS. Everyone happily fights the culture wars while basic things like academics and facilities get overlooked.

I know! The GOP is such a wonderful party too. Just look at how well their leadership is doing and what do they stand for exactly these days other than sewing division?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, he screwed up, finally admitted it and seemingly is working to fix things.

+1
This. It's unfortunate but for sure I've dropped the ball occasionally in my own job and I imagine everyone has at some point as well. Sounds like he forgot about the packet for a few weeks. Also perhaps notable re: timing - TJ only has advisory on Mondays I believe. No school 10/24 or 10/31 so prior to 11/14 there was just one other Monday: 11/7 and it too was after the 11/1 cut-off. Naturally they could have figured out some other way to hand them out but really it seems like just an error. One that's been apologized for, that TJ's working to help clean up with outreach to colleges, and that he already said they would handle it differently moving forward.

Agreed. He indeed messed up and made it worse by trying to cover it up. When certain parents' names pop up in the email, he should be more prepared when crafting the answers. Anyway, the remediation methods have been taken, and most importantly, there is no real impact on the kids, the kids probably won't even care.

Is it warrant an apology from the school? Yes, an Attorney General's investigation? No.

BTW, I am just one of the NORMAL Asian parents in TJ, who don't think this is a big deal, and it is definitely not an act of racism.

But the Attorney General's office didn't know about these emails prior to the release yesterday, did they?

And the AG's involvement, and the national attention, forced FCPS (Miyares) to announce that their office of civil rights was doing an investigation and appointing an outside investigator. Actions have consequences.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a big deal or not.

Youngkin and the other RWNJs want press to build faux outrage.

It all feeds off each other.

When you have an all-Democrat School Board that give consultants $500K to advocate for “equal outcomes for all students, without exception,” don’t be surprised when the conservatives look for every opportunity to push back, especially if it involves TJ.

Common sense left the room a long time ago in FCPS. Everyone happily fights the culture wars while basic things like academics and facilities get overlooked.

So your plan is to implode TJ rather than let in a slightly more diverse group? Destroy FCPS because they want a more diverse group to succeed?

So vile.

It's not clear that FCPS wants a more diverse group to succeed or anything really. It seems that they just wanted to help level the playing field after the widespread cheating through prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, he screwed up, finally admitted it and seemingly is working to fix things.

+1
This. It's unfortunate but for sure I've dropped the ball occasionally in my own job and I imagine everyone has at some point as well. Sounds like he forgot about the packet for a few weeks. Also perhaps notable re: timing - TJ only has advisory on Mondays I believe. No school 10/24 or 10/31 so prior to 11/14 there was just one other Monday: 11/7 and it too was after the 11/1 cut-off. Naturally they could have figured out some other way to hand them out but really it seems like just an error. One that's been apologized for, that TJ's working to help clean up with outreach to colleges, and that he already said they would handle it differently moving forward.

Agreed. He indeed messed up and made it worse by trying to cover it up. When certain parents' names pop up in the email, he should be more prepared when crafting the answers. Anyway, the remediation methods have been taken, and most importantly, there is no real impact on the kids, the kids probably won't even care.

Is it warrant an apology from the school? Yes, an Attorney General's investigation? No.

BTW, I am just one of the NORMAL Asian parents in TJ, who don't think this is a big deal, and it is definitely not an act of racism.

But the Attorney General's office didn't know about these emails prior to the release yesterday, did they?

And the AG's involvement, and the national attention, forced FCPS (Miyares) to announce that their office of civil rights was doing an investigation and appointing an outside investigator. Actions have consequences.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a big deal or not.

Youngkin and the other RWNJs want press to build faux outrage.

It all feeds off each other.

When you have an all-Democrat School Board that give consultants $500K to advocate for “equal outcomes for all students, without exception,” don’t be surprised when the conservatives look for every opportunity to push back, especially if it involves TJ.

Common sense left the room a long time ago in FCPS. Everyone happily fights the culture wars while basic things like academics and facilities get overlooked.

So your plan is to implode TJ rather than let in a slightly more diverse group? Destroy FCPS because they want a more diverse group to succeed?

So vile.

I have no plan when it comes to TJ. I am tired of the non-stop bickering and how it sucks all the oxygen out of the room, and wouldn’t be sad to see it go.

The flip side of the question you posed is “So your plan is to ignore all the other schools in FCPS until everyone with a stake in TJ is satisfied that TJ admissions are fair?”