Friday, Feb. 23, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Rebekah Dunn has always scored at the top of her class, even as an 11-year-old attending college math classes.
Now 12, she's claiming age discrimination because of a Board of Regents policy prohibiting students younger than 15 from attending college classes without an exemption.
It doesn't matter that Rebekah has already taken two math classes at the Community College of Southern Nevada -- pre-algebra and elementary algebra -- and is now taking intermediate algebra.
"Math is math. You crunch numbers and plug in formulas," said Arlie Stops, associate vice president for admissions and records at CCSN.
"But it was the opinion of (director of testing) Roy Burrows that English was not appropriate because of the content (perhaps not being suitable for a 12-year-old) and interaction of students in discussing literary topics."
Rebekah calls the decision discrimination.
"(Burrows) refused to enter my results because of my age," she wrote in a letter to the Henderson campus provost. "Apparently, I was only tested in order to keep me out of classes. When my placement was the highest possible, it was disregarded."
The student scored high enough on the test to gain admittance to English 101, but Burrows said she lacked the social and intellectual capability to fully benefit from the class. Rebekah wants to take the class to be eligible for the college's newly developed honors program. She received a letter detailing the program because of her grade point average at the college.
"They tested her to keep her out, but when she placed at the college level, they didn't expect it and fell back on this other rule to keep her out," said Rebekah's mother, Glenda.
Stops said it's nothing personal, but they have decided "no English at this time. I know she's calling it discrimination, but I don't know that our purpose here is for 12-year-olds, though we do grant exceptions."
He said if Rebekah had the recommendation of a teacher or official academic records that the college could review, the decision might be different. But Rebekah has always been home-schooled by her mother, except for two years she attended private school in fourth and fifth grades.
"We are not anti-12-year-old, but we have to go by the rule book," said William Kelley, vice president of student services at CCSN. "This is certainly a bright young girl, but she's not old enough. The rules are very clear."
He said Rebekah will be allowed to take one class a semester, until the college develops a more detailed policy. They are now talking with Clark County School District officials to formulate one.
In the interim, he says Rebekah can take English 101 next semester -- despite the opinions of Stops and Burrows -- if she chooses. "She could be 12 going on 25. I haven't talked with her so I don't know. But we won't bar her from the class if she's eligible."
By age, Rebekah would be classified as a seventh-grader, but her mom credits non-age-based studies on her high achievement.
"If she wasn't home-schooled, she wouldn't be at the point she is now," Glenda Dunn says. "We study Greek and Roman culture, Latin, creative writing."
Rebekah said she "just wants to learn. I really enjoy learning. It's fun learning (at the community college)."
"As far as I know, none of the other students (in college) have had a problem with it," said Rebekah, who will be 13 in May. "Occasionally, someone would stop to ask me how old I was and then they would be surprised."
archive
