Del Norte Vista, CA (APUPI)
In a case reminiscent of the famous Bakke decision, a California high school senior is suing the University of California over their refusal to admit him to their prestigious Berkeley campus, despite his sterling biography and SAT score of over 1700, under the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Todd Hepplewitt, an honors student at Caca Fuego High, in Del Norte Vista, is claiming that, in today’s society, he’s handicapped by his lack of hardship in life. He contends that the difficulty of making it in a victimized society, and getting no government or institutional support, is underestimated and can’t be appreciated by those who have been burdened all their lives by life.
“I wrote an essay describing my difficulties to them, but they completely ignored it.”
“I’ve done everything I could to struggle through, and to make changes at home. I asked my parents to get a divorce, but they refused, no matter how much I pleaded. My father tried drinking, but he turned out to have an allergy to alcohol, and I couldn’t get him to beat me when he wasn’t drunk. I wanted him to quit his job so we could go on unemployment and put pressure on me to drop out of school and work full time, which I could then resist, but he wouldn’t do it.”
“They just kept on paying the bills, encouraging me to do well in school, providing a nurturing environment for success.” He went on, the faintest hint of tears gleaming in his eyes, “It’s as though they didn’t even care whether I got into college or not.”
Despite living daily with the unceasing ravages of normalcy, Todd managed to graduate valedictorian, earn three letters on the track team, and serve as president of the student council, all while starting and successfully growing a mail-order Mongolian ferret business on the internet into a multi-million-dollar powerhouse of rodentiary commerce.
He worked hard, and hoped that, despite his appalling paucity of sob stories, he could still somehow persevere and achieve his lifelong dream–to attend the jewel of the UC system.
But alas, it was not to be. He received his rejection letter last Tuesday, though he knew that several people with more chaotic home lives had been accepted with much lower scores.
Undaunted, he made a determined decision to use the tactics of the elitists, those who rose to the top solely through adversity, to press his case, using government pressure.
“Actually, I’m not sure I want to go now, after the way they’ve treated me, but there’s a principle involved. I’ll continue to fight until everyone realizes what a true challenge it is, in today’s America, to make it without challenges.”
UC Berkeley officials were unavailable for comment.
(Copyright 2002 by Rand Simberg)