Help! Is my counselor being discriminatory?

Northstarmom
Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:04:21 +0000

Post on the Parents Forum. It is an excellent place to get wise advice including from people who work for school systems or who have had to handle similar situations for their kids.

You need to complain now to the superintendent and principal. Otherwise, the GC will write whatever she wants, and it’s like that letter will be damaging to you.

If you and your mom complain now, the GC will be writing the recc under strict supervision, and you’re likely to get a much better recommendation than if you don’t complain and none of her supervisors look the letter over. You also should not check the box on the form that indicates you’ll never look at the recommendation.

An alternative would be to have the principal write your letter after you and your mom express concerns to the principal. I believe that most colleges will accept a principal’s letter in place of the GC’s. You and your mother even could contact the colleges, explain the situation, and to ask them if they would take a principal’s recommendation instead of the GC’s.

One of my friends who has worked in admissions at a top 20 LAC said that when, for instance a URM has high test scores, but low grades or has outstanding stats and ECs yet has some mediocre reccs, the admissions officers wonder if the student is being victimized by racism. They particularly wonder about this if the URM is in the racial minority in their school.

Speaking as a black parent who successfully went to bat at her son’s school for kids – including her son – who were being discriminated against by a bigoted teacher who had given the students inappropriate grades.

There literally was no reason for the grades. The teacher didn’t even have a rubric for the grades. Most of the work they were graded on was for group projects that the students also had publicly presented.

I complained to the principal, bringing evidence, and also complained to the assistant school superintendent. The principal changed the students’ grades.

The kind of situation that you’re in is one in which there’s such blatant and destructive bigotry and incompetence that the worst thing that you could do in response is to ignore the problem. The teacher is stupid and bigoted enough to be saying such things to you and your mom. Imagine what she would say behind your back – to teachers and to college admissions officers.

BTW, when I applied to Harvard, I asked a teacher who had taught me social studies for 2 years to write a recommendation for me. I had gone above and beyond researching one of her assignments, even traveling out of town to do research. I also planned to major in that area, and I had excellent test scores in the subject.

She agreed to write my recommendation, and later, when I told her about my Harvard acceptance, the teacher replied that she had told Harvard to reject me because she didn’t think I could do the academic work Harvard would reply. I graduated on time from Harvard with honors in that academic area.

I was the only black student in my high school class of 500 students, who except for about 2 Asian students were all white.

Anyway, please take it from me: Do not be passive about your situation. You and your mother need to complain to the GC’s supervisors. If your mother won’t complain, you must do so yourself. It would help if you can get a trusted adult to go with you, too. And do get more advice from Parents Forum. Students are welcome to post there, and many do post to get parents’ advice.