Moorestown junior Brian S. Maley said yesterday that his high school’s atmosphere of cutthroat competition likely aggravated the situation.

“I can see where it’s coming from: this competitive nature, like, ‘Oh, I want to be the best,’” he said. “At our school, everyone’s trying to be the best.”

Moorestown School Superintendent Paul A. Kadri claimed that Hornstine’s father, a New Jersey Superior Court judge, threatened to “use any advantage of the laws and regulations” to provide his daughter “the best opportunity to be valedictorian,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

But amid the harsh words for Hornstine and her family, some defend her academic merit. Ewing, the senior who criticized the petition against Hornstine as insensitive, said he once judged the high school senior in a mock trial competition.

“She was the best attorney,” he said.

Hornstine also has a hefty resume to speak for her talents. She and her brother co-founded a service club. She also founded a prom dress drive for local high school students, co-founded a food drive for the local poor and chaired a campaign to raise money for cleft-lip and -palate surgeries for Chinese orphans.

Hornstine has said that she hopes to become a lawyer.

—Staff writer Elizabeth W. Green can be reached at egreen@fas.harvard.edu.