We are an Education Reform Non-Profit Organization. We were established out of a need to protect the children of this country from public school corruption.

Record editorial: Fort Lee’s ‘F’

|

Sunday, March 8, 2009
NorthJersey.com

APPLYING to college is one of the most harrowing events in a young person’s life. At exactly the time when fitting in and being accepted are paramount, adolescents must face rejection of a very public sort. Students who have gone to school together, ridden the bus together and played on sports teams together must apply to colleges alone, competing against each other for relatively few spots, especially at the nation’s elite colleges and universities.

The pressure on these kids is enormous.

Perhaps that’s why the Fort Lee High School grade-fixing scandal is worse than awful. Not only does it reveal the odious actions of adults who are supposed to be role models, it creates even more anxiety than already exists for teenagers during this highly stressful time between sending off applications to colleges and waiting for thick acceptance envelopes to arrive.

It was revealed last week that guidance counselors or administrators at the high school had changed or deleted grades to help students get into colleges and universities. The practice had been going on for at least six years. The people involved have not been named yet. Neither students nor parents knew anything about the grade fixing.

Schools Superintendent Raymond Bandlow announced Friday that employees changed the high school transcripts of six seniors this year. Bandlow told Staff Writer Merry Firschein letters would be sent this week to the colleges and universities to which those students applied, telling them the high school seniors had no idea their grades were tampered with.

Principal Jay Berman was suspended until the investigation is complete, but he has not been accused of anything. At the emergency meeting held Wednesday night, students applauded and cheered when teachers and fellow students publicly supported Berman.

There are so many reasons to be appalled by what has occurred. One is that the credibility of all college applications might come into question. Another is the decision to alter transcripts only sent to elite colleges and universities, a kind of elitism in itself that is almost as bad as the cheating. A third is that innocent people might get caught in the fallout.

Fort Lee High School already weathered the scandal of former Superintendent Joanne Calabro delivering a speech at a National Honor Society ceremony that she plagiarized from the Internet. Now the school faces a grade-changing scandal. How dispiriting for all the teachers, administrators and coaches who worked hard to teach lessons about doing your best and being honest and competing fairly. How sad for the students, who need the steady example of good morals and good ethics as they grow from children into young women and men.

There is more to learn about who did this and why it happened. School officials ultimately will provide an explanation. They can never offer an excuse.