Grady High coaches, officials disciplined in football investigation

Atlanta school employees have resigned, been suspended and reassigned as the result of an investigation of fraudulently enrolled students on Grady High School’s football team.

A statement Friday from Atlanta Public Schools announced that the school will have a new head football coach and athletic director next school year, and a majority of the lay coaches involved with the team have been dismissed from the program.

Seventeen Grady High football players were found to have been fraudulently enrolled at the school following a four-month investigation.

The students lived outside the school’s attendance zone, and several didn’t live within the city limits. Superintendent Erroll Davis has said parents who falsified enrollment documents could potentially face civil and criminal penalties.

“APS strives to maintain a highly ethical culture; thus, employees who falsified documents or knowingly allowed students to attend out-of-zone schools have suffered consequences,” the school system’s statement said. “We must ensure that our sports programs win with integrity and have proper oversight to prevent this from recurring at Grady High School or any of our schools.”

The Georgia High School Association penalties require the school to forfeit any games from last season in which ineligible players were used, and the school can’t participate in the playoffs next season.