Christian School Principal Who Cheated by Changing Students' Grades Will Keep Job in California
A principal at a California Christian private school will keep his job after asking for forgiveness for deleting and changing students' grades, including raising the grade of his own daughter who was attending the school.
"I confessed this as a sin to my leadership and my colleagues. I have been forgiven, disciplined and reconciled," John Hynes, the principal at Grace Brethren High School in Simi Valley, wrote in an email to parents earlier this month.
Last Tuesday, Grace Brethren High School parents received an email from Raymond Blackwell, the school's executive director, notifying them of Hynes' actions and explaining that he intended to keep Hynes on staff.
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"Mr. Hynes accepted full responsibility for his actions and since we as a school are confident this matter has been resolved, Mr. Hynes will remain in his position as principal," read part of the email.
Hynes' tampering with grades was revealed after Anke Saldarriaga, a former Spanish teacher at Grace Brethren, reported that she believed something was amiss with the grades she had submitted.
School records obtained by The Venture County Star revealed that Hynes deleted the test grades of four students. The principal explained that he had changed grades because two of the students were absent the day the test date was announced.
Hynes also reportedly changed his own daughter's grade from a C to a B.
"I made a human mistake. Thank God the school didn't fire me like another organization would have," said Hynes. "It was a one-time event. It'll never happen again."
The school's IT department has since changed grade reporting procedures to no longer allow grades to be edited after teachers have submitted them.
