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PSJA senior wins valedictorian suit

The Monitor

Sara Perkins
March 26, 2007 - 5:48PM

EDINBURG — She’s back at the top of her class.

Yanira Ramos, the PSJA senior who sued the district claiming guidance counselors’ miscommunication knocked her and other honors students from their rightful class ranks, won a temporary injunction Monday.

93rd state District Court Judge Fred Hinojosa ruled that the district’s policy, which according to top administrators allowed students in the Distinguished Achievement Program (DAP) to take college-level courses to help their grades through April, was not followed. Most students in the program had been led to believe that college courses would not count toward their grade point averages after a December deadline.

Class rank this year will be calculated using only those college courses taken before the end of the first semester.

Ramos, a migrant student, was surrounded by friends and classmates in the courtroom, since many DAP students appeared alongside her on the witness list. According to her lawyer Carlos García, 31 DAP students had filed grievances over the grading policy.

“It’s an honor to be named valedictorian and graduate at the top of your class,” Ramos said after the hearing. “I’m very happy.”

There was no indication the district would appeal the court’s decision, and a trial date in the case isn’t set until June.
The court’s decision, her lawyer pointed out, had a cash value for her and her family.
A state scholarship program pays for a valedictorian’s first year of college tuition at a state university. She is still deciding between Texas A&M University at College Station and the University of Texas-Pan American.

PSJA board attorney Gus Acevedo said that changing the board-approved policy on GPAs and class rank was unfair to students who had correctly understood the rules of the program.

Several weeks after Ramos’ lawsuit was filed, counselors received a memo informing them that district policy allowed them to accept grades for class rank through April, according to testimony. Before that, they had made announcements to the honors student group reminding them to turn in their outside course grades by December.

Ramos said she chose to pursue legal action after meeting with PSJA High School Principal Rene Ramirez about the problem.

“He was not very supportive,” she said. A family friend referred her to García, who took the case for free.

Ramos’ parents, who speak very little English, said they could follow the proceedings somewhat and were proud of their daughter.

Ramos rose to first in her class by the end of her junior year “in spite of every economic disadvantage you can imagine,” García said.

“She was told that the race ended in December … but some students were tipped off” that they could keep taking South Texas College “minimester” courses into the spring semester, he said.

Other college courses, including those at UTPA, stretch past the April grading deadline and cannot be considered for rank, but STC’s minimesters, which the district began accepting for credit last year, are shorter courses and fit within the time limit.

Acevedo argued that Ramos needed to go through the district’s administrative grievance system, acknowledging that process could have stretched into the summer.

The district followed its published policy, whether or not counselors misinterpreted it, he said.

“It may not have been fair, but it did not rise to a cause of action,” Acevedo said.

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Corrupt School Districts Bully Their Own Students and Faculty

The Paper of South Texas – Editorial

April 04, 2007

Yanira Ramos, a senior at PSJA High School, deserves praise for standing up to a bully and winning. Administrators at the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district were apparently manipulating grades to the point that Yanira had lost her status as valedictorian of her class. Without that top ranking, the bright but financially strapped migrant student was in danger of losing free college tuition for a year.  

When she went to her principal, Rene Ramirez, to complain, he didn’t seem to care, Yanira said. So after being let down by her highly paid counselors and principal, Yanira took on the entire school district, the so-called adults in charge of helping, not hurting the education of our children.

She sued and won a big victory last week by convincing a judge to reinstate her as valedictorian, a distinction Yanira had worked hard for. It’s almost unheard of for a student to sue her own school district, let alone win.

Her attorney, Carlos Garcia, is owed appreciation and recognition for taking up Yanira’s cause and challenging the PSJA school district. Because financial and political retaliation are real consequences, few attorneys have the guts to take on a school district in the throes of corruption, evidenced by school board members being dragged to jail and court for misuse of public funds.

But corruption does not involve only the pilfering of cash. In also includes the manipulation and bending of rules so that students like Yanira who deserve benefits are denied them, while those who don’t deserve benefits get them by the truckload.

Yanira’s case should show the community just how brutal their corrupt school district can be to those not in the inner circle, which constitutes the majority of the community. Yanira would not have suffered this injustice or been forced to sue had she been from a wealthy family or been a friend of a school official.

Like bullies, shameless and corrupt school districts don’t hesitate to harm those they consider weak and not likely to retaliate. Whether their victims are faculty or students, they usually know who to pick on.

But the bullies at PSJA didn’t count on somebody like Yanira who chose to fight and was able to find a compassionate attorney like Garcia, who took her case for free.

Bullies don’t like to lose, so expect the PSJA school district to take this fight to the very end, despite the fact that the rules are clearly in Yanira’s favor……

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-Man, 38, cleared of 14 burglary, attempted
sexual assault charges -

Edinburg:  (March 2006) - A man was cleared Monday of more than a dozen charges that he tried to break into a home and sexually assault a child. 

A jury found Rodolfo Ochoa, 38, not guilty of 14 felony counts tacked against him, including burglary of a habitation with the intent to commit
sexual assault of a child.

 His trial began March 21 in state District Judge Juan Partida's 275th court room.  His defense attorney, Carlos A. Garcia, said the allegations stemmed from a custody battle with Ochoa's ex-wife.

The judge declared a mistrial the first time Ochoa's case went before a jury in February because of juror misconduct.

The Monitor, Wednesday, March 29, 2006 (p.5B)

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