A leading Blue Mountain Union School senior scholar says school officials manipulated academic grades

A leading Blue Mountain Union School senior scholar says school officials manipulated academic grades to cheat her out of winning a prestigious, four-year scholarship at the University of Vermont, according to a new lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. Senior Abigail Emerson of Topsham said she alerted Blue Mountain officials about the miscalculation of her grade point average at the end of her junior year, and they reportedly made corrections on her official transcript to make her the top-ranked academic student in the class, the lawsuit maintains. Instead, a classmate, Karli Blood of East Topsham, the daughter of Blue Mountain co-principal Scott Blood – had her name submitted as BMU’s top student to UVM for the Green and Gold Scholarship just before the award deadline last June. The Green and Gold Scholarship is awarded to only the single top senior student at each Vermont public and private high school as calculated at the end of their junior year. The lawsuit said that no changes can be made once a school has sent in the name. The full four year tuition, is worth more than $260,000, according to UVM’s website. The scholarship also provides automatic admission to UVM’s highly competitive Honors College.