Poll: Would You Sue if You Didn't Like Your Kid's Report Card?

Laureen Bethards didn’t like the grade her son got in his chemistry class at Albany High School, so last month in federal court.

As our colleagues at Albany Patch reported this week, the complaint filed June 20 alleges a series of unfair and arbitrary actions on the part of science teacher Peggy Carlock, which took Bowen Betherd’s grade from an A+ to a C+ in the final weeks of the 2010-11 school year. It’s important to note that Carlock’s side of the story has yet to emerge and the school district’s attorney hasn't spoken publicly about the suit.

Daniel Horowitz, Betherds’s attorney, told Albany Patch reporter Steven Lau that Carlock effectively stole from Bowen Betherds: “When you earn something, and nobody disputes that you earned it, and somebody takes it away, that’s theft.”