Grady High’s football team investigated for recruiting
Atlanta’s school system is investigating allegations that Grady High School’s football team recruited about 20 athletes who faked their home addresses so they could play at the Midtown school.
The team’s head coach, Ronnie Millen Sr., has been transferred because of the investigation, and parents who signed affidavits swearing they were telling the truth about their children’s home addresses could potentially face criminal charges, said Superintendent Erroll Davis.
“We depend on the integrity of parents who have an ethical obligation to the district to provide accurate addresses to the district,” Davis said Monday as he announced the investigation. “However, our commitment to ethics is higher than any individual program.”
Several of the students involved allegedly used identical home addresses so they could play for Grady High, Davis said. The students could be transferred to schools closer to their real homes, and college scholarships could be endangered if they were found to have been using inaccurate addresses.
Atlanta Public Schools launched the investigation after receiving an anonymous written complaint about fraudulent addresses on Nov. 7, Davis said.
The Grady High football team finished this season with an 8-3 record after losing in the first round of the playoffs.
The Georgia High School Association, which oversees school athletics, has been informed about the investigation, Davis said.
About the Author
Mark Niesse is an enterprise reporter and covers elections and Georgia government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is considered an expert on elections and voting. Before joining the AJC, he worked for The Associated Press in Atlanta, Honolulu and Montgomery, Alabama. He also reported for The Daily Report and The Santiago Times in Chile.
