Grade Altering Has Ramifications

* If anyone wants a good example of why education is in dire trouble, one can find it with the grade altering at Brea Olinda High School (“Brea Academic Counselors Altered Grades,” June 16).

School officials have announced that counselors had changed grades in 70 instances in the last 10 years so that some seniors could have better grade averages for college entrance. The “big lie” is now a monster that eats into the good reputation that Brea Olinda High School long enjoyed.

Supt. (Edgar Z.) Seal called it “a judgment error.” The educational code was violated and that is breaking the law! Brea Olinda needs a housecleaning, not a hand slapping. This so-called “poor judgment” breaks the faith that parents and students expect in the administration of the school they attend.

Hypocrisy has no place in education.

LOUISE BOOTH

Villa Park

* It seems we found one of the reasons today’s schoolchildren lie and cheat. They are doing the same thing the school’s academic counselors do. At Brea Olinda High School it seems it has been a common practice for academic counselors to switch grades in order to allow students to enter colleges.

This we are now told is both illegal and unethical.

It is very serious when one school administrator lies and cheats. When a group of them decide they are above the law it becomes a different matter. What do we expect of students who see their grades are switched by school officials, and nothing is done to these officials. We are told no disciplinary action is planned against these school administrators.

Are we not reinforcing the idea that it is all right to lie and cheat, because if you do, nothing will happen? Are we also teaching that it is all right to break the law? We cannot say that these counselors had good intentions, (because) if the students were not qualified to enter college are they not being set up for failure at the university level?

I do hope that both the school trustees and the teachers’ union press for justice, not only in the future, but in the past as well. Our students must learn that crime does not pay, by anyone.

CHARLES MONTERO

Huntington Beach

* Thanks for your “perspective” on “How Not to Make the Grade” (Editorial, June 17).

The message to the students of Brea Olinda High School from their counselors and Supt. Seal is: It’s OK to cheat and break the law and don’t worry if you do get caught--plead “bad judgment” and you will not be disciplined.

No question about it, the counselors and superintendent get an F and should be looking for honest work elsewhere.

BOB BALL

Anaheim