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Students return to class after grade-fixing scandal at John F. Kennedy High School

New principal Harold Clay said that the school will be more student-focused for the upcoming year.
Credit: Meghan Kee
John F. Kennedy High School students return to the classroom today for the first day of school. Today, alumni cheered for students as they walked off the buses. They say they wanted to show their support after the school went through a grade-fixing scandal.

NEW ORLEANS — Students at John F. Kennedy High School in New Orleans returned to class Monday for the first time since a grade-fixing scandal rocked the school.

New principal Harold Clay said that the school will be more student-focused for the upcoming year.

"The expectation is that we arrive every day to work for students. That's the bottom line," Clay said. "The families and the students have been through a lot. I recognize that. But in order to move forward, we have to have a growth mindset, not a fix mindset."

Nearly a month after their graduation ceremony, about half of the senior class learned that they would not receive their diplomas because they did not meet graduation requirements.

Instead, dozens of students had to return to school over the summer to take online classes through a system called Grad-Point. That number has been reduced, but about 30 students who walked across the stage are still working to get their diplomas.

Clay, along with newly appointed New Beginnings Schools Foundation CEO Kevin George said even though they are new to the job, they are already making changes.

Eyewitness Investigator David Hammer broke the story in March after a whistleblower, former New Beginnings data manager Runell King, went to The Lens and WWL-TV with evidence that F's were changed to D's and dozens of other grades issued by a teacher who left the school were later inflated without her knowledge.

But New Beginnings dismissed his allegations fired him, at least in part for making the allegations. At the time, he told WWL-TV that he wanted to prevent students from being hurt.

Outside lawyers hired by NBSF to investigate the various allegations found additional instances of grade changes involving Kennedy’s Class of 2019. Those separate allegations, not related to those raised by King, led NBSF to fire five school leaders at Kennedy, including the principal and two assistant principals.

The foundation also voted unanimously to surrender the charters for John F. Kennedy High School and Pierre A Capdau Charter School after the 2019-2020 school year. 

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WWL-TV reporter Meghan Kee can be reached at mkee@wwltv.com;

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