UPDATE: Scripps National Spelling Bee officials have reversed their decision - Morgan Brown will now be allowed to compete at the finals in Washington, D.C. Read more…
Somebody screwed up big time at North Platte Junior High School in Dearborn, Missouri. Seems like no one could be bothered to pay the $99 registration fee for the Scripps National Spelling Bee - and now seventh-grader Morgan Brown, who won the regional spelling bee, may be not able to attend the national contest.
Officials with the Scripps Bee discovered the error last Monday and told the organizers of the regional spelling bee that it was their responsibility to ensure their winner was eligible for the national bee.
Morgan, who has overcome a vision disorder, was crushed when she learned that despite winning at regionals, she would be denied the opportunity to compete at the national level.
According to Scripps National Bee director Paige Kimble, this has happened to a couple of other schools this year.
Seems that the national bee folks could just agree to let the slacking schools pay their $99 fees late, and allow students like hard-working Morgan Brown to compete in the event they have been training so long for.
Let the Scripps National Spelling Bee organizers know that this administrative error shouldn’t punish a girl who had no control over what her school failed to do.
E-Mail the national Spelling Bee director: bee@scripps.com
Call North Platte Junior High: (816) 450-3350
Raise a stink and let’s get this girl into the competition.
11 comments ↓
Here is Paige Kimble’s direct e-mail address:
paige.kimble@scripps.com
Looks like Kimble was a Bee winner herself in 1981. She should lighten up.
Here’s an interview with her:
http://www.mawsa.org.nz/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=302&Itemid=2
This is an outrage, it’s not the poor girl’s fault! Rules aren’t always rules - there is room for amendments. Her district registered as an entity by itself - they didn’t register the Jr. High individually - a simple paperwork mistake.
“Spelling Bee flap: Operative word is ‘flexibility’”
http://voices.kansascity.com/node/776
This poor girl is a victim. She did NOTHING wrong, and EVERYTHING right!
As noted above, the general email address for the Scripps Spelling Bee is:
bee@scripps.com
Please write to these heartless, illogical idiots and let them know what you think!
Better yet, Paige Kimble’s direct email address is:
paige.kimble@scripps.com
Let’s treat her to a very full Inbox on Monday morning.
Her family had already purchased airline tickets for the trip to D.C. - will Paige Kimble or the school be reimbursing them for that not-so-trivial expense?
I hope Paige Kimble’s doctor misreads her next mammogram — due to an “error in paperwork.” I hope her veterinarian accidentally euthanizes her dog — due to an “error in paperwork.” I hope the IRS garnishes her wages — due to an “error in paperwork.”
Doesn’t she realize that her heartless, illogical actions are casting a horrible light on the Scripps National Spelling Bee?
Doesn’t she realize the wonderful, positive publicity she could instantly garner for her organization if the headline “Scripps has a heart; Students to compete in spelling bee” were to hit the AP wire in place of the press it’s currently getting?
If professional educators at “a couple of hundred” schools failed to understand the instructions on the spelling bee’s form, can’t she concede that MAYBE the form was ill-designed?
I hope that every single rotten thing that happens to her for the rest of her life causes her to think, “THIS is what Morgan Brown and the other children I victimized felt like. That’s why this is happening to me. This is what I deserve.”
Email Cruella Kimble and her colleagues at:
Paige.Kimble@scripps.com
bee@scripps.com
Carolyn.Andrews@scripps.com
Cybelle.Weeks@scripps.com
Corrie.Loeffler@scripps.com
Janice.Liebenberg@scripps.com
Tell them do what is RIGHT. NOW. Before it’s too late.
Can’t Paige Kimball see that if Morgan and the other affected children are not allowed to compete, the “winner” of this year’s spelling bee will forever have an “asterisk” beside their name in the record books? Winning such an event would be like taking the gold in an Olympics that was boycotted by some nations; the “winner” will not have won against a field of all worthy competitors.
If she doesn’t reverse her horrible decision, Kimball will be plowing through the playing field, not leveling it.
It’s not that the school didn’t pay the fee or file the paperwork - they did! The problem is with the change in the registration process. The district registered the entire district, not each individual school, and Bee organizers did not give them the opportunity to correct their error. Not sure why not, as other districts were allowed to fix their mistakes.
Here’s an AP article I found that updates this story a bit:
- - - - - - - -
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 12-year-old girl is being kept out of the Scripps National Spelling Bee because of one word — “district” — and not because she got it wrong.
Morgan Brown’s school district north of Kansas City incorrectly registered its students by district rather than by school, said Paige Kimble, the spelling bee’s director.
A “couple of hundred” schools made the same mistake, but the organization was able to give most of them to chance to correct the error by conducting a database search for the word “district” in the applications, Kimble said. The North Platte R-1 School District, however, listed itself only as North Platte R-1.
Kimble said two and possibly three other districts are facing the same situation.
“It’s not Scripps’ responsibility to ensure student eligibility,” Kimble said.
Morgan, who attends North Platte Junior High in Dearborn, was told last week that she may not be able to compete despite being the regional spelling bee champion from northwest Missouri.
North Platte Superintendent Francis Moran said he hopes to work something out with bee organizers.
“Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail,” he said. “Even if we didn’t do the paperwork correctly, you certainly don’t punish the girl.”
Morgan’s parents already have spent $1,000 on plane tickets to attend the the May competition in Washington, D.C., and she had been working with a coach twice a week to prepare.
“I was devastated for a moment,” she said. “Then I thought, ‘There’s always next year.’”
She said she is still holding out hope that she can compete.
[…] Morgan Brown, the 12-year-old Missouri girl who had been kicked out of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on a registration technicality has now been reinstated. Read our original story. […]
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