• Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009
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Student gives Kansas writing test an F for spelling

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WICHITA, Kans. _ Catch an error, start a firestorm.

East High School junior Geoffrey Stanford spent much of Friday fielding media requests, phone calls, text messages and random comments _ some complimentary, some not so much _ after a story about his editing prowess drew national attention.

Stanford, a 17-year-old linebacker and International Baccalaureate student, caught an error on a state writing test last week: The word "emission" _ as in "the emission of greenhouse gases" _ was spelled "omission" in one of the writing prompts.

The Kansas Department of Education has since e-mailed a correction to test coordinators.

But after a Wichita Eagle story about the glitch appeared on the Yahoo home page Friday and received more than 3.9 million page views, Stanford heard from people around the world.

He's scheduled to appear on the Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" morning show Sunday.

Stanford got more than 100 Facebook friend requests, most from people he's never met. One e-mail from a woman in Boulder, Colo., proclaimed: "You have done a good deed!... Thank you for coming forward to do the right thing."

Stanford was blindsided by the attention.

"I just never thought it would get to this point," he said. "Some people are saying, 'Good job,' and some are giving me a little grief about it."

Read the complete story at kansas.com

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