Schools playing down valedictorian honors
By Marissa DeCuir, USA TODAY

Keely Breen aspired to be her high school valedictorian.

But Vermont's Burlington High School made the decision to no longer name valedictorians at the end of Breen's junior year, stripping the 18-year-old of the title she would have had on June 15. Breen instead shared the top honor, graduating summa cum laude with her good friend.

"At first, it did bug me. I wasn't really happy about it," Breen says. "To enter high school with that as a goal and have it taken away from you, that's hard."

Valedictorians have become less prominent at graduation ceremonies across the USA, as competition has sent high schools searching for alternate designations.

Nat Harrington, spokesman for the Palm Beach County (Fla.) School District, says that's a positive development, because the fight for the title has gotten out of hand. "The student's mom comes in the first day of school to find out what her daughter needs to do to become valedictorian," he says. the rest photo