Blair claimed she had a mysterious "immune disorder" - sometimes called "chronic fatigue" but sometimes not - and was given special in-home tutors who awarded A+ grades (something few of the teachers at her school did) and helped her study for standardized tests. Furthermore, Blair didn't have to take physical education classes, which were not "weighted grades", because of her illness.
Funny thing is, Blair did a lot for someone too tired to attend school. She logged 2000 hours of community service, she did all kinds of other extracurriculars, and when someone asked her how she could do all that, she answered with a curt "There's plenty of time in the day." Well, Blair won her lawsuit. She got sole valedictorian status.
Whether that's because a lot of judges are friendly with each other, and her father is an appellate court judge - well, I'll leave you to decide. Anyhow, the saga continued. Blair became a pariah in her town, and didn't even go to the graduation ceremony because she felt she'd have been mocked too much. Death threats came, and her house was vandalized.
And then, it happened. The first rule about filing a newsworthy lawsuit is to have a squeaky clean past. Journalists can dig up a lot of dirt in a hurry if they have to, and that's exactly what happened.
Turns out Ms. Hornstine of the Harvard admission and a 1570 SAT was a plagiarizer. In 5 columns she'd "written" for a local paper, she'd lifted whole paragraphs from various political figures. When confronted about this, she said she simply didn't know that you had to cite sources for quotes in a newspaper.
A 1570 SAT - but didn't know to cite direct quotes? I only had a 1550 (ok, ok, I was 14 at the time) but even so, I knew better than THAT when I wrote for local newspapers at age 17! It's got to be the lamest excuse I've ever heard of for blatant plagiarism.
Well, Harvard got wind of it. And they revoked her admission. How would you like to be Ms. Hornstine now? Who'd accept a litigious brat who plays the system to get ahead? I think she'd be lucky to go to community college, now. She has a rough life ahead of her - I wonder where she'll be 10 years from now.
