Gothamist Hates Blair Hornstine

Blair Hornstine, the N.J. senior who successfully sued her school to be the lone valedictorian on a discrimination complaint (she's been exempt from various required courses, like physical education, due to an immune deficiency), has reportedly had her acceptance to Harvard rescinded. According the Harvard Crimson, the decision was prompted by Hornstine's admission that she had plagiarized material for articles she contributed to her local paper, the Courier-Post, as well as the growing public sentiment that Hornstine did not deserve to go to Harvard, especially with a petition of over 2700 signatures calling for Harvard to drop her from the Class of 2007. And if the news is true, Gothamist says, thank God. Special needs aside, what any school is doing accepting a high profile plagiarist is beyond us. And if you're going to try to game the system, Hornstine, then everything is up for grabs.

Hornstine, who is now in the middle of a $2.7 million suit against her town for punitive and compensatory damages, apologized for the plagiarism, saying, "I am not a professional journalist. I was a 17-year-old with no experience in writing newspaper articles." Gothamist says bullshit. Gothamist went to high school over a decade ago, and even back then, teachers were extremely emphatic about the dangers of plagiarism. We find it extremely hard to believe that a young woman who was the valedictorian of her high school did not realize what plagiarism was. In fact, according to her high school's handbook (scroll to "Academic Dishonesty / Cheating"), Plagiarism, the failure to acknowledge the ideas of someone else, and submitting work that is not your own is considered cheating. It will not be tolerated in any school work. In a course requirement (i.e., junior English research paper), cheating will result in a failure for that course and may forfeit your right to enroll in the same course in summer school. Hornstine's school work is also being reviewed again, and her journalistic plagiarism will probably be used in the school's defense. Gothamist can understand why Hornstine has raised a lot of ill will from members of her community and others, as her position of privilege (educated, wealthy family) has afforded her the opportunity to challenge the school district.

Another beef we have, and it's not just about Hornstine, is the idea of beefing up the GPA with AP classes. While conceptually, yes, AP classes are more rigorous and demanding, but what if there's the bad AP teacher who doesn't push students while students taking the non-AP classes have the more challenging teacher (a scenario Gothamist is very familiar with from both sides)? Wouldn't that beg the question of weighting classes with the tough teachers more? And what about the students who don't have a classified disability that find it hard to do the work but still muster through it somehow? Perhaps it's about time colleges try to explain that while AP classes are fine and dandy, it's about the well-rounded application, versus the taking all hard classes. The cachet/perceived value of AP classes has diminished in our opinon as well - students can still take AP exams even if they aren't enrolled in AP classes.

New Jersey has always had some crazy physical education requirements, like gym everyday. At the district level, it could even mean letter grades. When Gothamist ended up cutting too much gym (a combination of not having a lunch period and fighting with upperclassmen), we'd have to write reports about sports activities.

Hornstine's father, a state superior court judge, Hornstine, and brother attended Harvard. Her spokesperson, Steven K. Kudatzky, is a Harvard graduate as well.

Examples of Hornstine's plagiarized work and the reactions of the authors of the work she borrowed from. One article Hornstine submitted as her own won an award, which surprised Steve LaMontagne, analyst at Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

The Metafilter thread on Blair Hornstine.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in Miscellaneous, News on July 14, 2003 11:00 AM

Comments [rss]

Anonymous

Yep, Blair is a loser and is pretty darn ugly to boot. Have a great life honey now that no one likes you.

Anonymous

Blair is a loser and the champion of all fake-disabled, giant-mouthed, rich, spoiled daddy's girls everywhere. You are an idiot- I don't care if you are the president of the debate team- no way you can argue me into admitting she's good looking.

THE WINNA

Blair is the winner and champion of all disabled, intelligent and pretty girls.

Most of you are a bunch of jealous twits that don't have anything better to do than criticize someone who is better looking, smarter and an all around great girl.

Hope she wins lots of money and they make a movie about her. You will all be played by Paul Rubens.

Get a life, all you losers.

Anonymous

can we please move her off the featured bloc? so very tired of looking at her smirky little face.

lukas

i am shocked that nobody noticed this little gem in the studentrewards profile:

-- Founder of the Tri-County Prom Dress Drive, which collects more than 200 dresses a year for girls from low-income families.

"taffeta for the poor, miss?"

awkm

Even though we really shouldn't hate... This is an exception. That evil bitch. Hope she falls into a frozen river and is forgotten for all time.

It is understandable (to an extent) why she did all of this. But then again I don't agree on her excessive abuse of the system loopholes. Going to a boarding school I perfectly understand the traumas of a competitive high school life. This doesn't mean you need to plagarize and sue your school.

She's going to get knifed. I know it.

L. Teech

pathetic - Blair must now be experiencing a living hell which she, unfortunately deserves - along with her father. My daughter and her non-plagerizing friends at Harvard are ecstatic that she won't be joining them. But with her 'disability', how could she have handled the cold Boston winters and made it back and forth to class everyday anyway?

wbb

If the school thought she was gaming the system, the board shouldn't have approved her courses. And there are some schools that always have co-valedictorians, but in this case the change obviously was made to target her -- because it was decided that what the school approved earlier suddenly wasn't fair. That doesn't make her actions any prettier, but frankly the school and school board don't have anything to be proud about either.

Cynical

Blair Hornstine's behavior has become completely typical of college students. She just happened to get caught because she was in the public eye. Make a quick comparison of these two sites:

http://sanjoaquingreens.org/Young%20Environmentalist.htm

http://www.slothclub.org/pages/activity/japan/sevtour/sevbiography.htm

The supposed author of the first site, which is openly plagiarized from the second one, earned a full International Baccalaureate in high school and is in her college's honors program. They think it's standard procedure to pad your resume with other people's work.

Allan

Huh. I never had fun in high school. Probably comes of having gone to an all-boys Catholic high school.

Miss the 80s

When I went to high school in the mid 80s, we didn't have AP classes, the best GPA possible was a 4.0, and you went out for extra curriculars because they were fun or because you had a crush on a cute girl in the drama club. How is it that in the past 20 years, we've managed to suck all the fun and joy out of high school and replace it with SAT cram courses, metal detectors, and lawsuits?

Allan

So...?

...if she floats...then...she must be...a...a...witch!

As to the gym thing and chronic fatigue, she took two years of gym, getting an A and an A+. The A+ (4.3) would have averaged down her AP classes (5.3). A doctor's note waived her at the last minute. (This is either from the Weekly Standard or the Newark Star Ledger, or both, as a repurposed article, don't have it before me, but I don't want to be accused of plagiarism.)

Who is this doctor? Isn't that grounds for malpractice?

Anagram Man

Peep this choice "Blair Hornstine" anagram: BORN LIAR 'N SHITE.

DodgeThis

She turned me into a newt, I got better though.

I am going to resort to a 3rd grade level and ask everyone to look at the size of this chick forehead!!!

callalillie

Howell, you make a wonderful point. Not much more needs to be said.

Howell unReigned

Plagirism, million $ lawsuits, Jersey highschools, Ivy League Universities, gym class, special needs, airs of self-entitlement... this story has all the makings of headline news.

If only there were biracial or homosexual angles that could be blown totally out of proportion.

Kristen

I realize I just completely digressed. I hate the Blair chick as well but my eyes exploded at the mention of gym class.

Kristen

okay... can we just pause for a moment on the New Jersey gym class situation. Can we remember back to the hell that was the "Presidential Fitness Awards" ... Why did we have to do the Standing Broad Jump? Why were we forced to hang from a bar and be timed in front of the whole class? By the time high school rolled around I couldln't take it anymore. Four years of first period gym nearly killed me. Hair issues aside, it wasn't like you could actually shower in the five minute time between class. Plus, how were you supposed to look good for your 4th period crush when your hair was completely frizzed by 9am. I eventually took to writing rather elaborate notes to my psychotic gym teacher that said things like 'please excuse Kristen from gym today, her bullet wound is acting up....' He began to enjoy my missives and combined with the fact that my brother (thank God) was a star wrestler on his varsity team ... enabled me to pass gym with A's... Was I cheating, yes. Did I sue my school, no.

Assigning Seth Mnookin

I hope some zealous reporter is tracking down Hornstine's former tutors and teachers. A pissed off public needs to know: Does our little "special needs" student swallow?

Jen

She sounds like such a fake in that Discover contest thing - "My parents always told my brother and I it's important to give back to the community, and help others who are less fortunate than we are."

It's totally Tracy Flick, like i's dotted with hearts.