Mom charged with changing kids’ grades

taxguy · 06-26-2009, 07:43 AM

The following article was found on the net about a Pennsylvania Mom who changed her daughter's grades and lowered two classmates grades in order to increase the ranking of her daughter. It just goes to show the extent folks will go to in order to beef up their or their children's credentials.

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Quote:

HUNTINGDON, Pa. — A high school secretary illegally changed grades in a school computer system to improve her daughter's class standing, according to criminal charges filed Thursday.

Caroline Maria McNeal of Huntingdon is accused of using the passwords of three co-workers without their knowledge to tamper with dozens of grades and test scores between May 2006 and July 2007 at Huntingdon Area High School in central Pennsylvania, the state attorney general's office said.

McNeal, 39, is alleged to have improved her daughter Brittany's grades and reduced those of two classmates to enhance Brittany's standing in the 2008 graduating class.

Dave_Berry · 06-26-2009, 07:51 AM

"A Huntingdon County mom was charged with illegally changing her daughter’s grades and test scores while working as a secretary at Huntingdon Area High School."

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MamaDrama · 06-26-2009, 07:57 AM

Facing 29 counts and 7 years in prison. Ouch.

From daughter's perspective, sucks to think your mom thought so little of you that you couldn't take care of yourself (can you imagine what mom must be like to live with at home) but contrarily, it might make for a heck of a college app essay topic down the road.

Weird that it took them 2 years to find it if it happened in 2006-07.

MSmom&dad · 06-26-2009, 08:06 AM

I can see how she thought she might get away with increasing her D's grades, but decreasing other student grades!!! How could she imagine the classmates wouldn't notice. Obviously not too bright...

Biohelpmom · 06-26-2009, 08:06 AM

I wonder if this kind of thing happens more often than we know? I know a high school secretary who changed a number of students' schedules around over the summer so that her (quiet) son would have someone to sit with at lunch!

Chedva · 06-26-2009, 08:08 AM

It didn't take them 2 years to find it; it took them two years to build a criminal case and get an indictment. According to a report I read, they found out in October, 2007.

Quote:

The situation came to light in October, 2007, when an employee of the high school guidance office discovered conflicting SAT scores for Brittany.

Scores provided directly by the College Board showed a cumulative score of 1370, while an unknown source had previously entered 1730, according to court papers.

Further investigation revealed that the data had been entered from Caroline McNeal's computer starting more than a week befor SAT scores for other students were entered.

Pa. mother charged with changing daughter's grades | Comcast.net

I just hope that the school was able to correct the scores, grades and rankings for the other kids before anything went out to colleges, or re-sent them after corrections were made.

Mary Mary · 06-26-2009, 08:13 AM

One of my classmates had that happen to them when I was in school (way back when). It was a teacher who blew the whistle. He said that there was no way that girl could have made the honor roll with the grade she got in his class. I don't think the mom messed with anyone else's grades though. And, for all I know, perhaps all she did was include her daughter on the honor roll list undeservedly.

I don't even remember now what happened to the mom...I don't think she even got fired, but perhaps she did. (She sure should have.) All I could think of at the time was how totally embarassing for the girl. I'm sure she wasn't in on it...she just had a kind of pushy mom who happened to be the school secretary to boot. It was quite the small town scandal though.

MamaDrama · 06-26-2009, 08:13 AM

Quote:

I just hope that the school was able to correct the scores, grades and rankings for the other kids before anything went out to colleges, or re-sent them after corrections were made.

The drop down for the whole article said that it was corrected before graduation. She might have gotten away with the class grades, but falsifying SAT scores by 400 points? Come on, someone got a little too full of herself.

There are some teachers in our school who absolutely cannot believe that honors students would cheat even though there are several who did all the way through honors pre-calc this year. Wish they would be on top of that as well as my daughter is being cheated out of class rank by being honest.

oldfort · 06-26-2009, 08:16 AM

When I first read 1370, I thought it wasn't too bad (out of 1600), then I realized it was out of 2400 when I saw 1730. You know where the kid's genius gene came from. Because of what her mother did, now the whole world knows her SAT scores and grades.

ellemenope · 06-26-2009, 10:37 AM

Wow is all I can say...Seems dumb to change SAT scores, since colleges require a report directly from College Board for those numbers (now we know why). In fact, our school does keep track of SAT scores in the student's official record, but the scores are not reported on any transcript, etc.

I suppose we should be grateful that she didn't plot to injure or kill other rivals ala the Texas cheerleading mom of past years.

ReadyToRoll · 06-26-2009, 11:28 AM

From CBS news:

"The situation came to light in October 2007, when an employee of the high school guidance office discovered conflicting SAT scores for Brittany.

Scores provided directly by the College Board showed a cumulative score of 1370, while an unknown source had previously entered 1730, according to court papers."
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Wow...

powerbomb · 06-26-2009, 11:37 AM

Lol... she just switched around the 3 and the 7... I guess she thought colleges would skip over that.

chintzy · 06-26-2009, 11:39 AM

Maybe she spent too much time on CC and just snapped.....

prefect · 06-26-2009, 12:54 PM

I guess parents and/or students should always keep hard copies of all grades, progress reports, grades, etc, and compare them with final grades.

fireandrain · 06-26-2009, 01:08 PM

Not all colleges need the SAT report from the College Board. Some are OK with the information on the school transcript. (Although after this story, it's clear they should get the CB report.)

Wasn't there a case in Cherry Hill, NJ, a couple years ago where the kids hacked the computer system and changed grades?