Two Black Students Won School Honors. Then Came the Calls for a Recount.

After two white families claimed a grade calculation error, a Mississippi school added their children as co-valedictorian and co-salutatorian, reviving questions about race and equity.

It appeared to be a happy occasion at first. When it was announced that Ikeria Washington and Layla Temple had been named valedictorian and salutatorian at West Point High School in 2021, there was an audible gasp in the crowd, followed by raucous cheering and applauding.

The president of the local N.A.A.C.P. in West Point, Miss., Anner Cunningham, smiled as the two young women, both standout students, were photographed. “It was a beautiful and proud moment to witness two young, Black ladies standing side by side given such honors,” Ms. Cunningham said.

Anner Cunningham, head of the local NAACP chapter in West Point, Miss., smiled as the two young women, both outstanding students, were photographed. Ms. Cunningham remarked, "It was a lovely and proud moment to witness two young, Black ladies standing side by side awarded such awards."

And in the nearly three weeks since that senior awards night, West Point, a predominantly Black community in the state's northeastern corner, has been torn apart mostly along racial lines, roiled by threats, a potential lawsuit, and claims of bigotry posted on Facebook.

Officials claim that race had nothing to do with the events in West Point, instead blaming a school counselor's error, which sprang from a misunderstanding about which of two procedures for computing final grades should have been employed.

West Point is far from the first high school to see senior class honors devolve into acrimony and legal concerns in a world where students and their ambitious parents compete for the smallest advantage over their classmates. A lawsuit was recently filed in Alpine, Texas, over a disagreement about the valedictorian designation.

Who is recognized and how can bring up unpleasant questions that are tough to divorce from the state's racial history in Mississippi, where some public schools formerly disobeyed federal orders to admit Black pupils and issues of educational justice are still sensitive. Black women in Cleveland, Miss., about 150 miles away, have filed federal cases twice in the last five years, alleging they were harassed by bees.

Questions regarding the selection process, and whether it is fair, are not uncommon, according to Lisa M. Ross, a lawyer in Jackson, Mississippi, who has handled similar cases.

“Every year around graduation, I get calls from parents worried that their children are being cheated out of valedictorian and salutatorian,” she stated, adding later, “Race is still a significant battle in Mississippi.”

Angela Washington, Ikeria's mother, was unaware to any alleged error in West Point as she exited the theater after senior honors. However, she said she overheard Emma promising to contest the decision to present the medals to Ikeria and Layla while taking accolades and basically wallowing in her daughter's fame.

“She was irritated. She'd been sobbing. In an interview, Ms. Washington remarked, "She felt it was going to be her night."

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