A few days after Destiny Brannon got back from freshman orientation at the University of Texas at Austin, her parents were called into a meeting with DeSoto ISD officials.

At the June 12 meeting, administrators dropped a bombshell: Destiny, the valedictorian of DeSoto’s Class of 2018, wasn’t the top student after all.

Errors had been made in calculating her academic standing, they were told. The high school somehow based its final rankings on grades from the fall semester, not the spring.

The mistakes were discovered when the high school ran its final transcripts, administrators said.

Despite being touted by the district on social media and the newspaper as its top student, and being asked to give a speech at DeSoto’s graduation ceremonies on May 31, Destiny was now No. 3 in her class.

Brian Uzuegbunam was the new valedictorian, moving from No. 4 to No. 1.

“It’s embarrassing, because I got so much publicity from them on being valedictorian, only to be told that’s a mistake,” Destiny said.

It’s unclear how such a glaring mistake could have happened.

High school rankings are a big deal, used for everything from college admissions to scholarships.

Valedictorians, though, get an even more significant perk.

As the highest ranking graduate, Destiny was in line to receive one year of free tuition at a state university, a perk that’s awarded to every valedictorian from a Texas public high school.

She had already set her schedule at UT-Austin, taking 16 credit hours this fall.

Destiny Brannon was named as DeSoto ISD's valedictorian, until errors discovered nearly two weeks after her graduation moved her class ranking from No. 1 to No. 3. As the valedictorian, Destiny would have received one free year of tuition at a state university, a perk awarded to every valedictorian from a Texas public high school. (Courtesy photo / Courtesy photo)

In a statement, DeSoto ISD said that it “regrets that it failed to ensure that systems were in place to prevent this from occurring, but has since worked diligently to ensure that those at fault have been held accountable and that there is a system and process in place to verify student academic ranking as based on grades, grade point average and course weighting.”

District spokeswoman Tiffanie Blackmon-Jones confirmed that those responsible for the errors have been let go by DeSoto ISD.

But both Destiny and her mother, Samantha Johnson-Brannon -- who works as a secretary in the counselor’s office at DeSoto High School -- said they didn’t believe that the revised rankings were a coincidence, but instead retribution for her graduation speech.

Destiny’s speech, which she said was approved by then-principal Arista Owens-McGowan and the school board, criticized DeSoto ISD for putting athletics first and for providing “subpar teachers who honestly weren’t there to benefit the needs of DeSoto students.”

“DeSoto ISD is plagued with the idea that sports are somehow more important than education,” Destiny said during her speech, adding that she hoped for change under the board of trustee president Carl Sherman.

Samantha said that she believed the final rankings were run several different times in the days following Destiny's speech.

The district's spokeswoman, Blackmon-Jones, said the "recalibrated rankings are in no way a form of retribution or in response to Brannon's address."

"The district was aware of Brannon's perspective prior to her speech," Blackmon-Jones said, adding that Destiny had participated in DeSoto ISD's Board Fellows program, where seniors worked alongside the district's trustees to "offer insight and perspective of the student experience."

Destiny and her family aren't exactly sure how they are going to pay for her first year of tuition at UT-Austin, which runs a little over $10,000 without fees, books and housing. Destiny said that she's got some scholarships that were going to defer other costs, and she's started a GoFundMe page for donations.

She's been told by those at the University of Texas that more money is set aside for scholarships for future years, so she's hopeful that this won't derail her plans, she said.

The new valedictorian, Brian Uzuegbunam, declined to speak to The Dallas Morning News except to say that his scholarship situation at his intended college, Texas A&M, is now "complicated," and that he and his parents are still negotiating with DeSoto to "compensate for the mix-up."

In its statement, DeSoto ISD said that it had apologized to the families affected by the changes, and that it was "working with them to ensure the two students will still be able to pursue their intended pathways and that we, as a district, are working diligently to address deficiencies such as this and others that are detracting from our ability to offer quality educational experiences."

Destiny, however, says that no one at DeSoto ISD has apologized to her, and she didn't expect the district to step in to offer her financial help.

"That is my hope, but do I think this will happen? No," she said. "No one at that school or in its administration is going to take accountability on this."