Let that be a Lesson to You!

[Griff]

Principal With Fake PhD Removed
D.C. Elementary School Educator Joins Eastern High Team

By Sewell Chan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 11, 2004; Page B01

A D.C. elementary school principal who claimed a doctorate from a phony school has been removed from her position, according to District education officials...

Durham, 57, remains an employee of the school system and has been detailed to Eastern Senior High School as part of a team of managers trying to reform the school, according to Interim Superintendent Robert C. Rice...

Last year, the District school system's personnel office reduced Durham's pay from $115,226 to $113,751 after learning that she did not hold a doctorate, but wrote to Durham that "this error is not of your doing." Her salary has not changed because of the transfer, officials said...

That should teach her. No, we don't have any problems with accountability, do we?

[SteveDallas]

The Chronicle of Higher Educatoin did a whole article on diploma mill diplomas in higher ed a couple months back. At least one person lost their job due to the article. As I recall one institution was claiming it didn't matter because the person in question was an administrator and not teaching faculty and hadn't been hired because he had a PhD.

[elSicomoro]

The incident that Griff posted occurred in DC...do I really need to say anything more?

It's not just D.C., it's everywhere. When I was still in the field of academe, I don't recall anyone's credentials EVER being checked. I sat on several hiring committees and went through the process of being hired by colleges and universities a couple of times myself. References are called and if those come back well, the person's resume' is taken at face value. The one exception I encountered to this was the Federal government (believe it or not). They required that the applicant for a professional position send a sealed copy of their college transcripts along with the application forms.

[elSicomoro]

Originally Posted by marichiko

It's not just D.C., it's everywhere.

True, but DC raises shit like this to an art form--on the federal AND local levels.

[Scopulus Argentarius]

Originally Posted by sycamore

True, but DC raises shit like this to an art form--on the federal AND local levels.

DC should be vacated....

Shit! This depresses me.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Wait a minute;

Last year, the District school system's personnel office reduced Durham's pay from $115,226 to $113,751 after learning that she did not hold a doctorate, but wrote to Durham that "this error is not of your doing.

Seems to me it's not her fault, someone else, like a clerk or something, screwed up. I think it's reasonable that she not notice a 1.3% pay error after deductions and stuff. The pay level is evidently based on education level and automatic. Doesn't seem to be a fraud unless they screwed up her records and she noticed it but rather than correcting it, took advantage to get a better job.
either way, I wouldn't blow up DC for that. There are plenty of other reasons to, though.

[jane_says]

When I went to work for a mental health and retardation agency, they broke neck to get my college crap verified, and put copies of it right in my HR file. I was making considerably less than $10,000/mo., though.

[wolf]

I had to provide copies of my college and graduate diplomas, including transcripts, as well as my PA State Police Criminal and Child Abuse Checks.

I would think that a school district would have similar requirements. Especially since the school districts are likely paying for the education beyond bachelor's stuff ... although I shouldn't assume anything. The superintendent of my school district scammed my school for a ton of money by going to fake conferences and then he did the same to the district he went to after. He'd expired the statute of limitations on the embezzlement from my district, though. (if you're near the philly area, yes, it's the guy with the samurai swords)

Thing is, everybody knew he was doing it at the time, nobody did anything about it.

[xoxoxoBruce]

They were afraid to mess with a guy that collected samurai swords.
So that's where he was before Wallingford.

[wolf]

yeah. Wissahickon.

He made a career of screwing school districts that started with the letter "W".

[xoxoxoBruce]

Maybe he liked screwing with the Japanese collectors/dealers he delt with so often.

Jane and Wolf, you are talking about different professions. I guess I am, in a way, too. My experience was not with K-12 education, but collges and universities. At that level there is this sort of unstated assumption that everyone is a gentleman (or gentlewoman) and a scholar and would never stoop to such tactics. This attitude may not be prevelent on the public school level, however.

[Cyber Wolf]

Originally Posted by Griff

"Last year, the District school system's personnel office reduced Durham's pay from $115,226 to $113,751 after learning that she did not hold a doctorate..."

Yeah, that oughta show her they mean business!!...