Have you ever been humiliated? Disappointed? Felt inferior to your colleagues at work or school? If so, you probably have an excellent case to sue. Just ask Kristja Falvo.

Granted, she’s not a household name yet, but if she has things her way, she’s going to go down in history as a martyr for the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), because she has now launched a crusade against student grading of quizzes and papers. She considers it to be a disclosure of identifiable personal information and educational records to other students, which (as a violation of FERPA) could result in her child’s school having federal funding revoked.

The frightening thing is that she’s already won at the district court level, and all she needs now is five justices on the United States Supreme Court to side with her. With that, she’ll have dramatically changed the experience of schooling for both students and teachers.

It’s just plain silly. Falvo’s child was embarrassed because of a low grade, and the child suffers from a learning disability. While I can feel bad for the kid, I fail to see how he can actually benefit from judicial relief.

Kids are too astute to simply not notice who’s getting A’s and who’s getting F’s. There isn’t a good way to keep them from finding out, and simply eliminating student grading just means they have to wait until they get their papers back to spy on each other’s progress.

Furthermore, when the relevant amendment to FERPA was passed, the author made it clear that he had no interest in protecting school tests or papers, but instead, notes from parent-teacher conferences, IQ scores, medical records and the like.

There needs to be a strong justification for changing this practice, since the grades on the quizzes have to be proven to be an “educational record” before it can even be considered whether they were wrongly released to other students.

As long as the student receives a grade for something, it could never be made public without explicit parental consent. So much for the days when students’ artwork hung in the halls of elementary schools, because if it got graded, it’s an educational record.

Teachers and students should both rue the day that FERPA prevents student grading. Teachers now have countless more papers to grade, and students don’t receive immediate acknowledgement of how they did, let alone the opportunity to make their case for a better grade.

People with learning disabilities may need help, but they don’t need it from the federal judiciary.

There are far better ways to take care of this situation than to simply create inconvenience and inefficiency in the academic arena. In time, deficiencies will all become public. If someone can’t spell, add or read, eventually that’s going to be pretty apparent to the people around them.

Maybe kids shouldn’t even play sports at recess, because they get graded for physical education.

By Falvo’s logic, the child that does is violating FERPA by disclosing their own weaknesses, which would be considered educational records. The basic fact is that children are astute enough that they’ll taunt each other for their shortcomings whether they result from a student grading another’s paper or not.

If you can’t dribble a basketball, you’re an outcast. If you can’t spell, you’re an outcast. If you’re the kid who’s allergic to everything, you’re an outcast. Kids are cruel, and that’s the way things are.

It doesn’t end with the termination of student grading. I’d even venture a guess to say that Falvo’s son probably gets abused more for having a litigious mother than he did for not doing well in school.

I don’t mind if my educational records are public. Anyone who wants to can listen to them. Would you like “Learn to Speak French in 30 days” or “Barry Manilow Teaches the Metric System”?

Tim Kearns is a senior in political science from Bellevue, Neb.