At this hour, Belmopan Comprehensive High School is holding its graduation ceremony. Salutatorian Keisha Peyrefitte is expected to have already given her opening address which she promised would be scathing. As we told you last night, Peyrefitte was dumped as the valedictorian on Tuesday, two days ago when it was discovered that there had been an error in computing the grade of the second place finisher Helen Lee. That error occurred in the first semester of Helen's first year in school where her cumulative average was miscalculated by 17 points. With that the school decided at the 11th hour to make her the valedictorian and make Keisha Peyrefitte the salutatorian. That has sparked claims of discrimination from Keisha and her family who are from Camalote Village where the young lady is fiercely claimed as their first valedictorian. Today the principal of the school defended his decision.
Alejandro Salazar, Principal
"A third student, or graduate, she requested that her grades be looked into. The homeroom teacher in the process of her researching her grades observed an anomaly in Helen Lee's, whose the valedictorian, grades in the first form. It is obvious that the child was being cheated of about 17 marks on her cumulative average for the first form. This came out not from purposely going to look for Helen Lee's records. It was an accident. In the process of checking another person's grades that's when this anomaly was discovered so there was nothing purposeful about this at all."
Jules Vasquez,
But its like stumbling upon gold.
Alejandro Salazar,
"Not for me."
Jules Vasquez,
But it's a huge thing two days before graduation.
Alejandro Salazar,
"We realize that."
Jules Vasquez,
It seems like a coincidence with a slim chance of occurring.
Alejandro Salazar,
"I wouldn't even say its coincidence because we didn't set up to do anything like that. The error was just discovered in the process of doing something else."
Jules Vasquez,
You're telling us the teacher stumbled upon it because she wasn't reviewing Helen Lee's records?
Alejandro Salazar,
"They were looking at the records."
Jules Vasquez,
But she was looking at someone else's records and stumbled upon this egregious computational error in Helen Lee's records?
Alejandro Salazar,
"Yes because Keisha has no errors."
Jules Vasquez,
But you can understand how that would seem implausible for the family of Keisha that you are checking someone else's records and you stumble upon an egregious computational error in a record that is germane in the most important...
Alejandro Salazar,
"I am giving the way it did occur right. It did not occur the way they are saying and Comprehensive has never operated with those things in mind, never."
Jules Vasquez,
There are some errors that are uncorrectable in sports, though acknowledged as an error it is irreversible in some cases. Might it not be that though clearly this is a computational error, clearly human error, might it not be that some errors because we are humans have to stand? Do you think you made the right decision in saying this first semester, first form error, has to be fixed and we have to swap the valedictorian to the salutatorian?
Alejandro Salazar,
"Yes we stand by that because that system will not end today, that is the system that is part of our Belmopan Comprehensive School ever since the beginning and I am not prepared to change what is Belmopan Comprehensive School tradition."
Jules Vasquez,
But how far do we legitimately go because Keisha can pull out an old test and found a mistake a teacher did in grading one of her papers?
Alejandro Salazar,
"We tally all the grades from first to fourth form, we look at the averages and the highest averages are the people who are awarded."
Salazar has been principal for the past two years after he was brought in from retirement as a stabilizing presence when the school was in the throes of upheaval two years ago. He has been a teacher since 1967 and retires next week.
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