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Brickbat: APS

Albuquerque Public Schools made a Himalayan mountain out of what should have been a molehill, when administrators changed a student's failing grade so he could graduate with his class.

A district director of instruction ordered Rio Grande High School Principal Al Sanchez to overrule one of his teachers and pass a student who had flunked English. Though APS has a process for appealing grades, teachers' judgments in such matters normally - and rightly - are respected. Teachers know their students best.

Several factors complicate the situation. First, the student is the son of former Board of Education member Miguel Acosta and Bernalillo County Commissioner Teresa Cordova, raising the specter of political influence. Second, APS Superintendent Beth Everitt said the family wasn't properly notified that the student was flunking. Meanwhile, Everitt said, the student was told he could pass if he turned in his late assignments - but the family said the teacher then refused to accept the work. Sanchez, however, stands by the teacher.

Now, the teacher is filing a grievance against the move. The teachers' union is furious about the second-guessing. Other failing students are scrambling to get their grades reviewed in time to graduate. Morale-busting precedents might be set that could undermine teachers' authority or students' legitimate rights of appeal or that could legitimize a lackadaisical approach to completing assignments.

Lost amid all the uproar about APS is the fact that a student blew off an apparently significant amount of assigned work until the end of the semester; implied that he didn't realize he was failing as a result; and accepted as somehow reasonable that his teacher, at the busy end of the semester, should take extra time to grade his late work.

Yes, teachers and students will have conflicts that may need to be refereed. But there are some things the community should expect students to know, based on common sense - namely, that, like Mudville's infamous Casey, you risk losing the game if you refuse to swing till the last strike.

There would have been no dishonor in having the student make the grade during summer school and graduate a bit late. There is much dishonor in the contortions everybody is performing to make this grade change work.

Bouquet: tower

Albuquerque has an opportunity to build a 170-foot-tall water tower at Mesa del Sol that makes a statement about the city.

Such tall towers - designed to increase water pressure - are rare in these hilly parts. But Mesa del Sol is relatively flat and needs the height to get the water to flow properly.

Most water towers are ugly and boring. But some cities deck them out with humor and panache. Helsinki's, for example, looks like a martini glass; Disney World's has Mickey Mouse ears.

At the least, planners should design it to look like a sore thumb - because it will stick out like one, anyway. However, we hope they think of something a lot more creative.

Bouquet: Zembiec

Every military man and woman who dies for his or her country - their promise tragically cut short - deserves to be mourned. No one loss is any less grievous than another.

But some - such as Douglas Zembiec, at age 34 already a major in the Marines - illustrate the enormity of the sacrifice in particularly stark relief.

Zembiec, a 1991 La Cueva High School graduate, was killed by small arms fire in Iraq during combat on May 11 - the 30th New Mexico soldier to die in the current conflict.

He was a state-champion wrestler and a cross-country runner at La Cueva, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and a highly decorated officer whose presence acquaintances described as riveting. You sensed he would do something extraordinary with his life, those who knew him said.

He unquestionably was on the fast track in the military. He also was a husband and father. His sacrifice will be felt deeply by many in New Mexico - as will the sacrifices of all New Mexico's military men and women.