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Valedictorian Who Ripped School Denied Diploma

Tiffany Schley, valedictorian at graduation ceremonies at High School for Legal Studies, was denied her degree over speech.

The valedictorian of a Brooklyn high school was escorted out of the building and denied her diploma yesterday because she trashed the school in a scorching graduation speech.
The school says it won't give Tiffany Schley her sheepskin until she says she's sorry - but the 17-year-old is unrepentant.

"I was speaking for my peers," Tiffany told the Daily News. "We've been living with this for four years."

A top student who's going to Smith College on a full scholarship this fall, Schley was brutally honest about the High School of Legal Studies during Thursday's graduation ceremonies in Bushwick.

Among her gripes: The school has had four principals in four years, overcrowded classes, a shortage of textbooks and other basic materials, unqualified teachers, unstable staffing and uncaring administrators who refused to meet with students to discuss the school's problems.

"They always want to keep the problems hush-hush, but what goes on in this school is real," said Tiffany, who was also the editor of the school newspaper, yearbook chairwoman and a member of the student council.

One teacher who attended the graduation said the audience was shocked by the speech.

"The administration was very nervous, but the students were definitely in support of her," the teacher said.

When Schley came to school yesterday to pick up her diploma with the rest of her classmates, she and her mother were told they had been disrespectful and were escorted out of the building.

Her mom, Felicia Schley, was furious at the way she and her daughter were treated and remains proud of Tiffany.

"She busted her behind to get there, she kept it clean and she was honest," her mother said. "Sometimes the truth hurts."

Principal Albert Vazquez could not be reached for comment.

"We feel that her schoolmates are deserving of an apology," said Education Department spokesman Stephen Morello. "It was a celebratory day for all of them."

Felicia Schley said she will meet with school officials next week but said students were applauding her daughter's words.

Legal Studies is one of three small schools that in 1996 was carved out of Eastern District High School in an attempt to fix that school's struggles with violence and academic failure.

Some teachers at the school supported the administration's decision, but others felt the punishment went a bit too far.

"We live through this struggle day in and day out, and she was just using her voice to talk about it on her end," one teacher said.



— Joe Williams
New York Daily News
2004-06-26
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/206403p-178119c.html

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