Report: Players on winning APS football team fraudulently enrolled
At least one player on an Atlanta high school football team that made it to a state championship game in 2014 was fraudulently enrolled, according to an internal report The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained this month under state open-records laws.
It’s the second time in three years that allegations of address fraud involving Atlanta football players have surfaced.
This time, the allegations concern the 2014 Mays High School Raiders. Two of the team’s approximately 99 players had been improperly enrolled, according to a district investigative report. In addition, the district could not determine where another five students lived.
Atlanta Public Schools spokeswoman Latisha Gray said a follow-up investigation found that only one student was improperly enrolled. However, APS could not provide records supporting that finding.
In 2014, the Georgia High School Association, which oversees high school competitions, sanctioned Atlanta’s Grady High School after an investigation found that 17 members of its football team had used fake addresses to attend the school.
The AJC reported on allegations of address fraud at Mays shortly after the end of the 2014 season and in May 2015 requested copies of any investigative reports.
Atlanta Public Schools refused to release the reports then, citing a state law that allows investigations of complaints against public employees to be kept private until the agency they work for has been presented with the investigative report to act on — or the investigation is concluded.
The district investigation found that two students had been enrolled in Mays using their grandmothers’ addresses. In one case, the student’s parent later moved into the Mays attendance zone. In the other, the student was withdrawn. Both parents were billed tuition for the time their children were improperly enrolled, according to the report. One of those students was later found to be properly enrolled, Gray said.
Gray said Atlanta was not sanctioned by the Georgia High School Association in connection with the investigation and that no recruiting violations where found.
The Georgia High School Association bars coaches and boosters from recruiting students to play for their school.
No employees were disciplined in connection with the investigation, Gray said.
Mays football coach Corey Jarvis and Georgia High School Association media relations director Steve Figueroa did not respond to calls and emails from the AJC Tuesday.
