A former Atlanta school official claims she was fired in an act of retribution after she accused her principal of inappropriately altering student transcripts.
The allegation by Ailisha Jones comes after she was named as a participant in the latest scandal to engulf the Atlanta Public Schools. Last week, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported about grade changing at several schools, including Booker T. Washington High, where Jones was the registrar until spring.
The school district accused Jones of inappropriately changing a student’s transcript there, giving course credit despite a failing score. She says she was only doing what she was told and got in trouble because she accused her principal of violating protocol by ordering other transcript changes. The principal at Jones’ former school could not be reached.
Jones said she was fired after a district investigation.
An April 21 memo about a district investigation indicates there was cause for disciplinary action against Jones. The memo, which APS gave to Channel 2 Action News on Friday and the TV station subsequently provided to the AJC, says Jones acknowledged altering a transcript and said she was merely trying to “clean up” duplicate records.
In an interview Monday, Jones said she was told by the district central office to give students credit for classes that some records said they had passed and others said they had failed.
She said she got in trouble in January just one day after complaining to her principal about another act of transcript manipulation: Jones said the school was violating the rules by giving grades to students in three classes whose teachers were no longer teaching. The school should not have issued grades using those teachers’ licenses, Jones said.
“Teachers who were no longer employed at Booker T. Washington High School — they were using their names to change grades,” Jones said. She said district investigators did not look at information that corroborated her claims in her own case, and she alleged that administrators were acting in concert to protect themselves. “They think they’re untouchable,” she said. “They’re going to do whatever it takes to protect themselves.”
A statement from the school district Monday said in part, “During this investigation, the former employee never reported on any alleged retaliation. When the district receives information regarding unethical conduct by its employees, that information is carefully reviewed and the appropriate actions are taken.”
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