Florida Student Hires Civil Rights Lawyer After Her SAT Scores Were Invalidated

Miami Gardens high school student Kamilah Campbell put in the work.

After receiving a 900 on her SAT the first time around, the graduating senior who hopes to head to Florida State University buckled down. She took classes, got a tutor and worked on SAT prep books. Her score improved to a 1230, but it came along with an upsetting note from the SAT operators at The College Board.

"We are writing to you because based on a preliminary review, there appears to be substantial evidence that your scores ... are invalid," the letter said. "Our preliminary concerns are based on substantial agreement between your answers on one or more scored sections of the test and those of other test takers. The anomalies noted above raise concerns about the validity of your scores."

Her results were invalidated, but Campbell isn't giving up. She's hired a famous civil rights attorney Ben Crump to argue her case before she runs out of time to be accepted into FSU's fall semester.

"I did not cheat. I studied, and I focused to achieve my dream," she said on Jan. 2, according to CNN. "I worked so hard and did everything I could do."

Crump, an FSU alum himself, agreed with Campbell's argument.

"Instead of celebrating her and celebrating her achievement, they are trying to assassinate her character, and we won't stand for that," he said.

However, the College Board is standing by their process, saying that there were more reasons than her gain in scores for her test being flagged.

"The letter never references score gains as a reason for her scores being under review," College Board spokesperson Zach Goldberg said.

Golberg said that The College Board is working with Crump and Campbell on an investigation into her scores and that they will only cancel her test scores if the investigation provides enough evidence to wipe out Campbell's test.

"At the end of the score validity process, we will only cancel scores if we are confident that there is substantial evidence to do so. We never cancel scores on score gains alone," he said.