A 19-year-old Connecticut youth is taking legal action against her former public high school for failing her by allowing her to graduate “with honors” when she was basically illiterate.

Last June, Aleysha Ortiz graduated from Hartford Public High School in Hartford, Connecticut, with honors and even earned a college scholarship, but she is now suing her former school for negligent infliction of emotional distress. The 19-year-old is accusing the public learning institution of neglecting her education, claiming she can barely hold a pencil in her hand and her reading abilities are comparable to a first-grader. Born in Puerto Rico, Aleysha exhibited learning difficulties at a young age, and her roubles continued after she moved to the US at age 5. She claims her school and the special teacher appointed to her case were of little help until a month before graduation when they finally conducted the additional testing she had been asking for and realized she was virtually illiterate. School district officials told the youth that she could defer accepting the graduation diploma in exchange for intensive services. She refused.