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Diploma shenanigans in the Bronx

One Bronx high school has degenerated into being little more than a degree mill:

Ramses Santelises was supposed to graduate from John F. Kennedy High in the Bronx in June 2005, but, he said, he goofed off his senior year. He failed senior English in the second semester and two gym classes. "I got senioritis," he said.

He was planning to make up the courses at summer school, but said that he got sick and was hospitalized, and that by the time he reported to summer school, he had missed too many days. They told him to sign up for night school in the fall. "I was upset," he said. "I was hoping to start college."

In late August he went to Kennedy to register for the night program, discussed the three courses he needed and, he said, got a big surprise. "They said, ‘No questions asked, we’re going to let you graduate,’ " he recalled. "I never had to take the two gym classes and English class I should have taken."

And he wasn’t alone, he said. "I know for a fact there were kids there they let graduate to get it over with," he said. At Kennedy’s September 2005 graduation, Ramses was one of 105 students awarded diplomas, 31 more than graduated the September before.

For the last year, the city has been investigating whether long-troubled Kennedy High, which has been perilously close to landing on the state’s failing school list, used several illegal methods to improve its academic standing. In February, this column raised questions about the principal’s decision to change scores to passing from failing on 16 students’ English Regents exams required for graduation. City officials were so concerned about grading practices at Kennedy that they issued a memorandum in March to all high school principals, announcing a new citywide policy aimed at closing loopholes in graduation requirements.

JFK High School?  Shudder.