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Former SCS principal alleges academic scandal, corruption at Trezevant High School Login/Join 
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Picture of olfuzzy
posted June 01, 2017 08:38 PM
This man is very brave or very stupid....he just hung a huge bullseye on his own back. This is a school down in Memphis.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - In a resignation letter addressed to Superintendent Dorsey Hopson and Shelby County School Board members this week, the former principal at Trezevant High School describes a grading scandal and corruption among district administrators, writing in the letter that the district "promotes dishonesty, fraud and misrepresentations of academic progress in order to promote athletic success."

Ronnie Mackin's resignation comes less than a year after he was named principal at Trezevant High School.

Mackin wrote that he discovered the corruption after being named principal at the start of the 2016-2017 school year, but district leadership failed to correct problems, and, instead, they buried them.

"I was hung out to dry in an attempt to cover up illegal and immoral actions of those who were before me," Mackin said in the resignation letter, which FOX13 obtained from a source Thursday.

The letter describes in detail the 2016 academic investigation of Trezevant's Championship football program, accusations against a former head coach, and the letter suggests district officials attempted to cover up details of the investigation, among other allegations.

During a phone call with FOX13, Shelby County Board of Education Member Stephanie Love, who represents Trezevant's district, confirmed the district received the email and the board is investigating.

Shelby County Commissioner Terry Roland said he also received a copy of the former principal's resignation letter, and that several public officials were carbon copied on the email.

"These allegations are very, very serious. I'm going to ask the district attorney and the U.S. Attorney to look into these allegations, and, if necessary, to prosecute," Terry Roland said.

Perhaps the most outstanding allegation in the letter is mention of a grading scandal involving student-athletes who are now enrolled in college.

"Their GPA's were inflated along with being provided credit for classes they did not pass," Mackin wrote, describing at least 131 former student-athletes at the high school.

Mackin said the district leaders were aware of the scandal and corresponded about it via email, but they did not take action.

"These students were formerly Trezevant students and were actively investigated regarding the transcript scandal," Mackin said.

"The email states the district will not notify or take any action on any of the students who have already 'graduated' from Trezevant, meaning there are multiple student-athletes now enrolled in colleges and universities who did not have appropriate credits to graduate or attend college," Mackin wrote in the letter.

Roland said he's been following the academic investigation for several months, and he said Mackin communicated concerns mentioned in the letter throughout the school year.

"I've been monitoring it," Roland said. "Now that he's releasing all this evidence, then we can take it to the next level."

The former principal mentions attached photos, documents, and emails in the letter, but they were not included in the copy obtained by FOX13.

Mackin also accused a former head football coach of paying students to attend the school, and of changing grades to keep students eligible.

"We discovered several students who came forward and made statements that that the former head football coach paid families of superstar athletes to attend Trezevant High School regardless of academic situation," the letter states.

The letter said families came forward before district leaders during a board meeting, but again, no effective action was taken by district leaders.

Mackin alleges that a former head football coach, who won two consecutive State Championship titles, lied to the TSSAA about Trezevant High School's enrollment totals.

"Trezevant High School should have been playing in 4A classification rather than 2A," he said, describing an enrollment discrepancy of about 250 students.

Mackin said in the letter that he's blowing the whistle on the school district because students in Shelby County deserve a better education that adequately prepares them for the future.

"It is my hope that these concerns are investigated to the fullest extent possible so that we can get back to putting student's first," Mackin wrote in the letter.

Among other accusations, the letter alleges sexual misconduct between senior school officials and employees, and the letter alleges collusion between district leadership, employees and parents.

"I have dedicated the majority of my adult life working with at-risk, impoverished, minority and below grade-level students in efforts to close the achievement gap," Mackin wrote in his resignation.

"Poverty, lack of parenting, lack of community support and rigorous tests are not our students' biggest obstacles," Mackin continued. "It is the pure lack of concern for our kids by adults in our district."

Shelby County Schools later issued the following statement:

SCS received Ronnie Mackin’s letter concurrent with the letter being provided to the media. The letter’s import is clouded by Mackin’s prior demand that SCS pay him 2 years of severance pay, and his inability to provide names and facts to support many of his most defamatory allegations.

Any claims of questionable practices by current or former staff members at Trezevant High School and SCS that were reported to district leaders have been investigated or are currently under investigation. Should any evidence support wrongdoing by an employee, we certainly want that information brought to light so he or she may receive appropriate discipline.

SCS remains strongly committed to providing the families at Trezevant High a high-quality, positive and supportive school culture, which is why the District announced additional resources, funds and new leadership for Trezevant earlier this year.



http://www.fox13memphis.com/to...igh-school/528695853
 
Posts: 5181 | Location: 20 miles north of hell | Registered: November 07, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Equal Opportunity Mocker
Picture of slabsides45
posted June 01, 2017 10:02 PMHide Post
Mr. Mackin had a disadvantage in his position. He was not of the same ethnicity as the great bulk of the students and faculty, and that was that. I hate that I sound so flip about it, but in this area the Shelby County Schools are notorious for being corrupt and for hiring and promoting their own agenda.

It is alleged that he even had faculty loan their school keys to students in order for the students to take spray paint (supplied by the same faculty) and deface Mackin's automobile with racial slurs. Nothing "hate crime" about that, of course.


________________________________________________

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving."
-Dr. Adrian Rogers
 
Posts: 6393 | Location: Mogadishu on the Mississippi | Registered: February 26, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Striker in waiting
Picture of BurtonRW
posted June 02, 2017 03:30 AMHide Post
He should hire Marzy to do an independent investigation for him. Big Grin

-Rob




I predict that there will be many suggestions and statements about the law made here, and some of them will be spectacularly wrong. - jhe888

A=A
 
Posts: 16340 | Location: Maryland, AA Co. | Registered: March 16, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted June 02, 2017 10:09 AMHide Post
The reported corruption is probably the tiny tip of the iceberg. I don't know this school system at all, but a close family member worked as a teacher for 20+ years in several jurisdictions and describes a staggering horror show of corruption that could spawn a complete season of a TV police/courtroom drama including:

1. Feeding students answers to questions on standardized tests to pump up school wide scores and staff bonuses. When said family member reported the cheating, family member was assigned different duties during test days. This kind of cheating resulted in RICO convictions for teachers and administrators in or around Atlanta, I believe.

2. Kids being passed along to higher grades without mastering skills like reading and math creates massive pressure to continue passing these kids along to avoid admitting how poorly educated these kids are. This results in middle and high school kids barely reading at first grade level. If, as a teacher, you honestly grade and report on your students' condition, you, the teacher, are going to be singled out as incompetent - how could you let your students' reading and math scores get so low? Your colleagues don't have this problem. Their kids' test scores are just fine (because they're cheating). You can't be a very competent teacher...

3. School supplies bought, paid for and delivered to schools, but diverted or sold and never reach classrooms or students.

4. Student classroom art projects being taken and sold in a privately owned store controlled by a school administrator. Essentially the illegal use of students and school art classes to manufacture products that were subsequently sold in a nearby art store. The ringleader of this scheme, a school principal, did get prosecuted, but prosecutors cut a deal with him, leveraging his criminal behavior to get to more corrupt officials higher up the food chain.

5. Contracts for school equipment and services awarded at inflated cost to close family, friends or associates of school officials.

6. Teachers and administrators using fake diploma mill degrees to obtain employment, advancement and raises.

7. Serial child molester staff rotating in and out of school systems using fake ID, fake credentials, privacy rules and cross jurisdictional cleverness to avoid detection.

8. Denial of services to special needs minority children because there were already too many minority children in those programs, and putting more in would "look bad" for the minority community.

9. Ghost employees who are on the full time payroll, getting paid every month, but never show up for work.

10. Incompetence and idiocy on an epic scale.

11. Harassment, reassignment and firing of anybody who bucked the corrupt system.
 
Posts: 1330 | Location: Gainesville, VA | Registered: February 27, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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