Peekskill High School Transcipt Case Goes to District Attorney
The findings of an investigation into transcript irregularities at Peekskill High School will be turned over to the Westchester County district attorney for possible criminal prosecution.
In a letter to parents last week, Peekskill Superintendent of Schools Jim Willis said a preliminary probe by district officials revealed at least 34 students were affected by the apparent altering of transcripts by four guidance counselors, all of whom have been temporarily reassigned with pay.
“The Board of Education and I, along with my administrative team, are absolutely appalled by what we have discovered,” Willis stated. “This won’t be tolerated. Moving forward, I am organizing an internal protocols team to assess the current transcript review process and to make recommendations to ensure something like this can never happen again.”
Willis said the bulk of the irregularities, which were first noticed by Principal Fred Hutchinson, stem from class credit that was issued for a “Co-op” class that apparently was a legitimate ‘work experience’ course in the district that was discontinued several years ago. In addition, an isolated number of transcripts contained credits that seemingly were given “inappropriately” for other courses.
For a portion of the students affected, Willis said the illegitimate course credit will have no bearing on their ability to graduate. A second group of students will require personalized solutions of additional course work and passage of all classes in order to graduate. Meanwhile, other students will need additional coursework over the summer and/or another semester beyond this year to graduate.
“To date, we have not identified any specific common thread among the impacted students, other than the fact that the bogus credit seemed designed to help students meet graduation credit requirements,” Willis said.
All of the approximately 800 transcripts of current high school students will be reviewed, along with recent graduates as well, in order for district officials to determine if the irregularities were a common practice in past years.
Hand-delivered letters were given to the families of affected students and replacement guidance counselors have been appointed to serve the needs of students.
“We are doing all we can to forcefully address this matter for current students,” Willis stated.
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