It was a story that grabbed statewide attention, with major, flashy headlines, even captivating the New York metropolitan news broadcasts last week.
As first reported by the Hudson Reporter, education officials were alleging a major grade changing scandal at Lincoln High School in Jersey City, with rumors of widespread preferential treatment given to student/athletes at the school.
The stories said that countless members of the Lincoln football team had grades changed in order to play this past season, a year that saw the Lions reach the NJSIAA state championship for the first time in 29 years. One report had as many as 14 players getting grades changed in order to be eligible.
It was also widespread enough to include both the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams, turning the entire athletic program upside down.
It was so scandalous that the powers-that-be at the Jersey City Board of Education, headed by Superintendent of Schools Charles Epps, chose to remove three administrators from their positions, namely the school’s principal Jeanette McRae-Braswell, the school’s athletic director Artie Williams and a former Lincoln teacher, John Gonzalez, who had been recently promoted to a vice-principal position at Snyder.
The three administrators were reassigned while the investigation into the grade changing scandal continued.
Epps remained silent about the situation before releasing a statement last Tuesday, stating simply that the Board of Education was carrying out the investigation and will not offer any further statements until the search is completed, citing confidentiality restrictions.
“It sets us back a half of a step,” Epps said in the statement. “But as professionals, we have to move forward. If there was any wrongdoing, it will never occur again.”
However, after doing some further investigative research, this columnist has found that there really wasn’t a major scandal at Lincoln at all – rather a bunch of concerned people trying to do what was best for kids, and one overzealous teacher drawing attention to something that has been going on in education for decades.
Here’s what we found out.
A few weeks before Christmas, some unidentified teacher, disgruntled with what was believed to be impropriety in grades, sent a letter to the Board of Education, outlining situations where the teacher believed grades had been changed, both for student/athletes and general students.
The letter apparently named the students involved and named the teachers and administrators as well.
The Board of Education began its investigation right after classes resumed after the Christmas recess. The records of the student/athletes in question were collected. Teachers, guidance counselors, and even general office workers were grilled, asking how the grade-changing situation could take place.
The investigation apparently focused on the grades of two prominent football players and two members of the girls’ basketball team.
Now, were grades changed? Apparently so.
But is this scandal as widespread as it’s being made out to be? Hardly. Instead of being dozens students involved, it was apparently four.
Over the years, there have been so many cases of top athletes being put in danger of losing eligibility if the athletes had failing grades. So the athlete pleads with the teacher, asks to do special work after school, asks for a second chance in order to stay on the respective playing fields, and grades have been altered to keep the kids eligible. That procedure happens everywhere on every level. Not condoning it or saying that it’s right, but it’s a way of life in athletics since the turn of the century.
This case at Lincoln is a bit different. The grades were apparently changed without the consent of the teachers involved. Therein lies the problem. And when someone took the time to blow the whistle to the Board of Education, heads had to roll.
However, because it was only four, it could have been handled internally.
We spoke to several of the coaches of the respective athletes and asked if they knew anything of the grades being changed. They were not permitted to speak for attribution, but they denied having knowledge of the grade changes.
Other close sources said that the coaches were not the ones who instigated the policy to keep the student/athletes eligible.
The apparent whistleblower had a personal vendetta against McRae-Braswell and wanted to do whatever possible to take McRae-Braswell down.
And we’re using inner-city kids as pawns? Not good.
One member of the Board of Education hinted that the Lincoln football team should forfeit its games and whatever it won for using allegedly ineligible players. Only problem with that is that Lincoln didn’t win any championships in football, having lost in the HCIL conference standings to St. Anthony and having lost the Group I sectional title game to New Providence. So what should they forfeit?
The shame of it is that two of the aforementioned football players involved are college prospects and if the grade changes affect their standing with the NCAA Clearinghouse in terms of freshman eligibility, then this whistleblower has caused these players the chance to gain a scholarship to play college football and the opportunity to escape the troubles of the inner-city.
And who wins there?
Bottom line is this: This new Lincoln so-called scandal is not as widespread as originally believed. It is limited to a handful of students who were involved in two totally different sets of circumstances regarding their eligibility.
For example, two of the football players were instructed to stay home and receive special education at home because their lives were allegedly threatened by another student/athlete who was toting a gun around the school. But since an administrator did not file proper home schooling applications in time, it was believed that those students were ineligible.
What’s more pertinent? Having the students attend classes, or risking their lives?
Well, because of these snafus and glitches in a system that had been in place forever, three educators and administrators have seen their worlds turned upside down, a school is in complete turmoil, and the futures of student/athletes are left hanging in the balance.
And it all stems because one disgruntled person didn’t like another.
Everyone was very quick to rush to judgment last week when the news broke. This columnist was one of those people, screaming to high holy heaven about the situation.
But after learning what legendary radio announcer Paul Harvey used to call “the rest of the story,” it’s not widespread at all.
Here’s to hoping that the entire mess can be rectified quickly so that order can be restored at Lincoln.
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.