Last month we learned that one of the top high schools in the country, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia, had failed to notify students who received a National Merit Award based on their PSAT scores. The National Merit Awards are given out to the top 3 percent of the students who take the PSAT nationwide. Those awards can be listed on college applications and give the students who receive them an academic edge.

But at Thomas Jefferson High a decision was made not to inform students of their awards by the school’s principal Ann Bonitatibus and the director of student services Brandon Kosatka. The decision was discovered by the parent of a student at the school who earned an award but was never notified. Kosatka, the student services administrator, admitted that a decision had been made to downplay the awards to avoid hurting the feelings of other students.

Kosatka admitted that the decision to withhold the information from parents and inform the students in a low-key way was intentional. “We want to recognize students for who they are as individuals, not focus on their achievements,” he told her, claiming that he and the principal didn’t want to “hurt” the feelings of students who didn’t get the award. A National Merit spokeswoman said that the organization’s officials “leave this honor exclusively to the high school officials” to announce. Kosatka and Bonitatibus didn’t respond to requests for comment. In a rare admission, Fabio Zuluaga, an assistant superintendent at Fairfax County Public Schools, told me that the school system has erred not telling students, the public, and families about awards: “It was a mistake to be honest.” Zuluaga said it also isn’t enough just to hand over a certificate. “We have to do something special,” he said. “A commendation sends a very strong message to the kid, right? Your work is meaningful. If you work hard in life, there are good benefits from that.”

All of this is in keeping with the general push toward equity over excellence in schools. The goal is no longer to push students to excel it’s to make sure that everyone feels good. So it’s probably no surprise then that the failure to notify students of their National Merit Awards didn’t just happen at this one Fairfax County school. Last week, two more high schools sent out emails admitting they had also failed to inform students of the awards.

While Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid claims the principal at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology withheld National Merit awards from students in a “one-time human error,” parents at two local high schools got a Friday and Saturday night surprise…

In an email, obtained by the Fairfax County Times, Langley High School Principal Kim Greer pressed send on a mea culpa at 9:29:30 p.m. on Friday night, confusing, agitating and angering parents and students already on edge during the tumultuous college admissions season.

Here’s the opening of the email from Principal Greer:

Dear Langley High School Families,

As a follow up to our conversation, I am delighted to let you know that your student was designated a Commended Student by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. I must apologize that certificates were not distributed to these Langley High School students in the usual way this past fall. I am deeply sorry for the mistake.

That was sent out last Friday night. Saturday night parents with students at Westfield High School in Chantilly got a similar email from their school’s principal.

Dear Westfield High School Staff, Students and Families,

Last month, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) was made aware that there had been a delay in sharing National Merit Scholarship Corporation recognition with students from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) designated as Commended Students by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

FCPS and TJHSST are now the subject of a Commonwealth of Virginia Attorney General investigation into this delay. As part of our own internal investigation and review of our own practices, it has come to light that Westfield High School students designated as Commended Students this past fall were also not notified by the school.

Both schools said staff would be reaching out to colleges the students had applied for in order to correct the record for award winning students, but that may come too late for students applied for early admission. Indeed that’s the case for at least one student whose award wasn’t mentioned in his early decision application to Virginia Tech.

A Langley father, who spoke on condition of anonymity in fear of retaliation from the school district, said Virginia Tech recently rejected his son’s application for early admission and the family was shocked to open the principal’s email – in the middle of the night – with the news that their son was a Commended Student.

“School district officials are deliberately sabotaging our kids’ lives in the name of ‘equity,’” the father said. “It’s cruel, if not evil. Think about the despondency that they are creating.”…

“The apology is empty,” he said. “We are feeling a cascade of emotions. We trusted the school system with our son’s life, and they betrayed our trust.”

What happened at TJ high school was not an isolated case. At least two other schools in the same district did the same thing this year. Neither of the emails sent to parents offers any explanation as to why this happened which seems odd. No one is claiming it was an accident or an oversight, they’re just apologizing that it happened. Now that there is a formal investigation underway, hopefully we’ll get to the truth about why it happened. At least for now it certainly looks like the equity efforts that were already underway at TJ High were spreading to other schools in the district.

In short, mostly Asian kids who excelled and won an academic award were not told about it in order to keep the kids who didn’t win from feeling bad about it. That’s equity/anti-racism in a nutshell. I hope some parents sue the bejeezus out of Fairfax County Public Schools over this. It’s the only way they’ll learn not to do it again.