When Jasmine Shepard graduated from high school in 2016, she and another student were named co-valedictorians.

Shepard is black. The other student is white and — a federal lawsuit filed against the school district alleges — had a lower GPA.

Shepard sued the Cleveland school district in 2017, alleging officials discriminated against her by forcing her to share the honor of valedictorian with the other student.

Now about two years later, the case is scheduled to go to trial in June.

On April 26, Olecia James — another former Cleveland student who graduated two years after Shepard — sued the school district, alleging she was deprived of the honor of salutatorian because officials feared white flight.

These two lawsuits are aimed at a Mississippi Delta school district of about 3,400 students which, three years ago, was required by a federal judge to consolidate its historically white and historically black schools in a desegregation order.

With the most recent lawsuit making national news, here’s a recap of why the first Cleveland graduate sued the her school district and an update on the case that’s headed toward trial.

What you need to know about Shepard’s allegations

Shepard’s suit claims she was the first black student to be selected as valedictorian of Cleveland’s historically white Cleveland High School in 2016.

Prior to 2017, there were two high schools in Cleveland. Nearly 100% of students at the historically black East Side High were black. In comparison, the racial makeup at Cleveland High’s was nearly evenly split between white and black, with a slightly higher percentage of white students.

The lawsuit also alleges prior to 2016, Cleveland High had never chosen two students to serve as co-valedictorians.

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Shepard alleges the school district and officials discriminated by forcing her to share the honor of valedictorian with another student named Heather Bouse. She also alleges that Bouse was given educational opportunities that were not offered to her.

The school district denies Shepard’s allegations and says the two co-valedictorians’ grades were the same. The district and officials did nothing wrong, says a response filed by the district’s attorneys.

Superintendent Jacquelyn Thigpen, who is black, said in a deposition that she was presented a class rank report and saw that the two students’ GPAs and quality point averages (another metric of students’ grades) were the same.

“I said, ‘It looks like we’ve got two valedictorians,’” Thigpen said during her deposition, according to court documents. “I didn’t know — I don’t know Heather Bouse, didn’t know then whether Heather Bouse was black, white or what. We had two names at the top. That’s what I looked at and said, ‘Looks like we’ve got two valedictorians.’”

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Court documents indicate Shepard believes Bouse’s grade score was higher than it should have been.

Only regular classes are graded on a 4.0 scale, according to Cleveland school district’s student handbook. If students take certain accelerated or advances courses, earning an A grade can count for five or six points.

The lawsuit alleges Bouse incorrectly received more than four points for classes that did not qualify as accelerated or advanced courses.

The suit also claims Bouse was given the opportunity to take physics online while Shepard was never informed of that possibility. Shepard’s GPA was lowered because she ended up taking less rigorous classes instead of the more challenging online courses, the suit says.

During a deposition, Shepard says she believes the federal judge’s order to desegregate the Cleveland school district influenced the district’s choice of valedictorians.

“…They were mostly concerned with white flight and not that of the black students or black community. So, I believe that that influenced his decision to name Heather Bouse co-valedictorian with me to insure that there was less white flight,” Shepard said.

During Thigpen’s deposition, Shepard’s attorney asks: “Ma’am, was it a pretty face for the media and the community to have a black and white valedictorian when the judge had just ruled that the District had failed to desegregate 50 years after Brown?”

Thigpen responded: “Some might have felt that way.”

Now East Side High and Cleveland High have consolidated into one school — Cleveland Central High School. The new school held its first classes in August 2017.

Where is Jasmine Shepard now?

Shepard said she’s a student at Ole Miss, according to deposition notes taken last year.

She told the interviewer that she received threats on her life after the lawsuit became public and her mother purchased a security system for their home.

The suit asks for the court to award Shepard monetary damages and reimbursement for litigation expenses, order for the district to follow its policies for selecting valedictorian and name Shepard as the sole valedictorian for Cleveland High’s 2016 graduating class.

More: Black student robbed of salutatorian because district feared white flight, lawsuit alleges

More: Segregated classrooms in Mississippi aren’t a thing of the past. And parents play a role.

Contact Alissa Zhu at [email protected]. Follow @AlissaZhu on Twitter.

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