 I think this is one of the most horrific stories you will read anyway, and unbelievably revealing of kind of the agenda of the new left, of the modern left, of the wacky left, but the wacky left as institutionalized all over this country. And that is the story of what is today still I think ranked as the number one high school in the United States. Number one high school in the United States is the Thomas Jefferson appropriately named I think high school for science and technology in Virginia. This is a high school that many, many parents move to Virginia in order for their kids to attend. It is a high school that places in the top universities in the United States, really in the world. It's a high school that is in the state of Virginia, as you might know, so it's in somewhere northern Virginia, not exactly where, but in northern Virginia. It also happens to be a public high school. So this is a high school run by the government. So it's a public high school run by the state of Virginia, and yet it is managed over many, many years to establish itself as one of the top high schools in the country if not the top high school in the country. I guess it's in Fairfax County. Okay, Fairfax County really is suburbs of DC, northern Virginia. The Virginia Attorney General has just launched an investigation into practices at the school, and let me just say right in advance, appropriately so, absolutely so, and here are two big issues that are going to be investigated. I think the one which says it all is the fact that the school has been withholding, not telling its students, when they have achieved awards. In particular, let's see what's the award called. This is the, God, where is it? Yes, the National Merit Scholarship, I guess, they give awards, they commend students. National Merit Honours, I think they call, these National Merit Honours are available to students to score very high in standardized tests. And they are important in some colleges and universities' decisions about accepting students, the top universities, top colleges use this in accepting. It's also crucial to receiving scholarships. So there are, let's see, something like 800 special scholarships from evil corporate sponsors, of course, from those businessmen, 800 special scholarships for extraordinary students, for students of ability, for students who score very high in these tests, the students who get the National Merit Honours. Well, it turns out that for years now, the administration at the Thomas Jefferson School has been withholding these awards the notice that students had received the awards from the students and their parents. They've often not let them know at all, they've let them know late, they've sat on these announcements so that the students could not use this information in their applications for early admittance into colleges, so a lot of these students have missed opportunity. Haven't heard about it until after they've already been turned down or accepted by certain universities, and only then do they know that they've got this award. This has been going on now for several years. Interestingly enough, this is, of course, a school dominated by Asian students, a significant number of its student body is Asian. I read the story of one kid who is an Arab American, Shawana Yasso, that's the name of the parent, not the student, but her son studied hard, took the most advanced classes, and actually won a National Merit Honours scholarship and didn't hear about it. Applied to the university, he's not knowing he had won and didn't get into his top choices partially because he hadn't, they didn't let him know. I mean, these are people who are running, not just some random high school, but they're running what everybody knows and they know is the top high school in the country, where a significant number of the students over the last five years, this sitting in this information has affected the lives of 1,200 students, 1,200 students. One former student said he learned he won the award through a random email from the school to a school district email account that students rarely check. The principal neither told his parents nor made any kind of public announcement. Now, just so you understand, the principal and the, this guy is what, this guy is a, ooh, I thought I, yeah, there he is, the Director of Student Services, Brandon Costaca. He's the, he's the Director of Student Services. The principal is, anyway, whatever the name of the principal is, they know exactly what they're doing. This is not accidental. This is not a consequence of, well, they just, they're just incompetent. The mail got lost. They have a bad address. It sat on a secretary's desk for a while. They were busy. Other things going on. No, this was a purposeful attempt not to recognize achievement, not to recognize students knowing that such an attempt jeopardizes the success of these students. Um, Costaca admitted that the decision to withhold the information from parents and inform the students in a low key way, low key way, like late and maybe never, was intentional. Quote, I mean, think about what this says. Um, think about what this says about the, what this man's view of the world is. Quote, we want to recognize students for what they are as individuals, not focus on their achievements. I didn't read that five times. We want to recognize students for what they are as individuals, not focus on their achievements. So what they are as individuals has nothing to do with their achievements. What they are as individuals is, no, this is not double talk. This is serious stuff. This is deep philosophy, right? Look, we're all determined by our genes and our environment. Our achievements are not our achievements. They are just the consequence of random occurrences in the universe. They are the consequence of being born to the right parents at the right time, with the right genes in the right place and having loving family. And you get no credit for your achievements. And in the sense, you don't have any free will, you don't get any credit for it really, most things, but you know, your emotions, the kind of person you are, you know, you're nice and friendly and the, the, the, that that is what you are as an individual. Your achievements, that's your genes. This is a consequence of the God, of the determinism that dominates today's academia. This is a consequence of the, the Wallsian view that we are the Wallsian political scientists. The wall just determined political scientists and philosophy. The wall just determined mystic nothings. This is the consequence of the evolutionary psychological view that you don't determine your fate, therefore you are not responsible for your achievement. This is that, this is the same as I think the worst presidential speech in all human history, which was Obama's, you didn't build that speech. Well, you didn't achieve that. You don't deserve that. You don't get the award because you didn't do it. The focus is on purely what kind of individual are you and what kind of individual are you, has nothing to do with your achievements. It has everything to do with, I don't know, your emotions, because this is how Cospacca continues. He said that he and his principal, they just didn't want to hurt the feelings of the students who didn't get the award. Talk about altruism and egalitarianism and envy and hatred of the good and hatred of achievement and who, who, who is the bastard who put these people in charge of the school? I mean, these people shouldn't be in charge of anything, not even their own life, but who put them in charge of the number one school in America? How did they get that position? Yeah, I mean, this is what the superintendents, maybe this is these the people, the superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools, said, he said, you know, this was a mistake to be honest, right? We, you know, we have to do something special, commendations, sends a very strong message to kid, right? Your work is meaningful. If you work hard in life, there are good benefits from that. It's just so mild. This isn't a mistake. This is pure evil. And it was over and over and over again over time. So Kostaka sent an email after it was caught. This, this all came out in December. And December 12th after it was caught, Kostaka sent an email to parents of the commended students notifying them the important recognition and saying, we're deeply sorry for not sharing the news earlier. This is, this is part of the war on merit. This is part of the war on achievement. This is part of the war on free will. But it doesn't end there, folks. It doesn't end there. The principle of the school, the guy in charge of the school who was appointed in charge of the school, this is the top school in the United States, has been lobbying incessantly to make the school not the best school in the United States, to eliminate the merit-based acceptance standards to the school. The principle has been lobbying that basically there are too many Asians in the school and that they need to stop the merit-based admissions test to get into Thomas Jefferson. I mean, it's not an accident. The school is the best school in the country. It admits the best students and what they need to do is increase diversity. And indeed the process has become over the last couple of years of changing the admitting standards to the school, eliminating or reducing the emphasis put on merit-based and highlighting diversity. Now we'll see with the Supreme Court decision about Harvard whether this will stand that decision. It looks likely that the Supreme Court will decide that race-based admissions are against the law, against the Constitution, but we'll see. So good for the Virginia Attorney General, good for the Governor of Virginia. They are looking into this. They are unleashing the Office of Civil Rights on Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology for their failure to timely notify students of the commendation. By the way, this story was broken by the City Journal in New York City, so it's important to give credit that City Journal is a publication of the Manhattan Institute in Manhattan. But also they're going to look at the overall of the admissions policies. So, you know, there is a backlash. Yonkins was voted in, I think, to Governor of Virginia to a large extent over the horror of many, you know, relatively Democratic voters, people who typically vote Democratic, the horrors over the Democratic parties shift against merit and achievements and anti-Asian attitudes and anti-success attitudes. And I think a lot of people who typically vote Democratic voted for Yonkins because he was committed to schools being accountable to parents. What a crazy revolution that is. Whereas I think the Democratic Governor's attitude was parents shouldn't intervene in education, shouldn't butt in. It's none of their business. So maybe they'll fix this. Maybe they'll fix this. Yonkins has been mentioned as a potential candidate, a Republican candidate running in the primaries for, you know, for presidents. So, but this is a good cause. This is a great cause to champion. Champion merit, champion achievement, champion excellence, champion parent involvement in their kids' education. That's a great cause. Any one of those channels. Also, if you'd like to see the Yonbook show grow, please consider sharing our content and of course, subscribe. Press that little bell button right down there on YouTube so that you get an announcement when we go live. And for you, those of you who are already subscribers and those of you who are already supporters of the show, thank you. I very much appreciate it.