principal forces forgery
Johanna
I read this article through why we homeschool news.
So according to the principal, if it serves your need, it's ok to coerce someone to forge someones signature. Isn't that a federal offence?
By Matthew Barakat, Associated Press, 4/6/2001
PRINGFIELD, Va. - A high school's administrators encouraged dozens of students to forge their parents' signatures on forms that help the school get federal aid.
Student reporters at the West Springfield High School newspaper, The Oracle, broke the story Wednesday. Fairfax County police are investigating.
''I don't think there will be any criminal charges,'' police spokeswoman Julie Hersey said yesterday. ''We just want to make sure that they know that we know what happened so it won't happen again.''
On March 22, school officials gathered 47 students in the cafeteria and asked them to forge their parents' signatures on a county form the school system uses to seek federal funding. Ten to 20 students did so.
Several students told The Oracle that school security staff and Bill Renner, a coach at the school, pressured them to forge the signatures.
''We had two options,'' freshman Christy Gudely told the paper. ''Fill it out and sign it or put `refuse' and be dealt with.''
The school's honor code states that forging a parent's signature is punishable by at least a one-day suspension.
The forms are used to determine whether a student lives on federal property, such as on an Army base. The federal government reimburses school systems for the education of those children because their parents do not pay county property taxes.
Renner defended his actions to the paper, saying the students were supposed to turn in the forms three months ago.
''They didn't do it and that's open defiance and disobedience. They need to have a better attitude,'' he said. ''They don't have any reason to speak their voice because they were in the wrong.''
Principal David Smith told the Washington Post he takes responsibility for the incident and had asked Renner and the security staff to have the students sign their parents' names.
Smith told The Oracle, ''I would say that it is not a good thing that we ask students to forge their parents' signatures, but if these students had done what they should have done for this form three months ago, we would not be in the position where we need to look for shortcuts.''
Yesterday, Smith's secretary referred calls to the county school system.
County schools spokesman Paul Regnier said that the incident is under investigation.
This story ran on page 3 of the Boston Globe on 4/6/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
Johanna
Life is the ultimate learning experience!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
So according to the principal, if it serves your need, it's ok to coerce someone to forge someones signature. Isn't that a federal offence?
By Matthew Barakat, Associated Press, 4/6/2001
PRINGFIELD, Va. - A high school's administrators encouraged dozens of students to forge their parents' signatures on forms that help the school get federal aid.
Student reporters at the West Springfield High School newspaper, The Oracle, broke the story Wednesday. Fairfax County police are investigating.
''I don't think there will be any criminal charges,'' police spokeswoman Julie Hersey said yesterday. ''We just want to make sure that they know that we know what happened so it won't happen again.''
On March 22, school officials gathered 47 students in the cafeteria and asked them to forge their parents' signatures on a county form the school system uses to seek federal funding. Ten to 20 students did so.
Several students told The Oracle that school security staff and Bill Renner, a coach at the school, pressured them to forge the signatures.
''We had two options,'' freshman Christy Gudely told the paper. ''Fill it out and sign it or put `refuse' and be dealt with.''
The school's honor code states that forging a parent's signature is punishable by at least a one-day suspension.
The forms are used to determine whether a student lives on federal property, such as on an Army base. The federal government reimburses school systems for the education of those children because their parents do not pay county property taxes.
Renner defended his actions to the paper, saying the students were supposed to turn in the forms three months ago.
''They didn't do it and that's open defiance and disobedience. They need to have a better attitude,'' he said. ''They don't have any reason to speak their voice because they were in the wrong.''
Principal David Smith told the Washington Post he takes responsibility for the incident and had asked Renner and the security staff to have the students sign their parents' names.
Smith told The Oracle, ''I would say that it is not a good thing that we ask students to forge their parents' signatures, but if these students had done what they should have done for this form three months ago, we would not be in the position where we need to look for shortcuts.''
Yesterday, Smith's secretary referred calls to the county school system.
County schools spokesman Paul Regnier said that the incident is under investigation.
This story ran on page 3 of the Boston Globe on 4/6/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
Johanna
Life is the ultimate learning experience!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]