Doc Roldan’s Blog: Writing on Writing

This article presented an example of a law suit involving a spelling bee among children. A young boy who won the spelling bee at his particular school had the chance to go to the nationals in Washington, D.C. if he won against another competitor from a different school. The declared winner of the other school spelled correctly the word ‘horsy’ after a previous bot mispelled it as ‘horsey’. The judges came to find out that there are actually two proper ways to spell that word and both were correct. Realizing their fault, they allowed both boys to go and compete.  The original young boy who truly won the spelling bee at his school ended up losing and was unable to go to the nationals, and he claims that he could have if the officials had not allowed the other student to participate. This is a complex situation, and the young boy’s lawyer is claiming that he has developed worry, emotional distress, anxiety, and loss of respect in the community. Nicole Guettler