Grade Scandal Costs School

A school official has resigned and another has been suspended after an investigation found that grades were changed at Menifee Paloma Valley High so athletes could remain eligible to compete.

Paloma Valley will forfeit an unspecified number of victories and its 2003 Sunbelt League co-championship in girls’ volleyball, plus its only football victory, Barry Kayrell, assistant superintendent of the Perris Union High School District, said Monday.

Kayrell said that “under 10” volleyball and football players who did not earn the required 2.0 grade-point average were allowed to compete as a result of unauthorized changes on their transcripts purportedly made by school personnel.

Principal Carl Phillips, who denied any wrongdoing, resigned Jan. 20. Guidance technician Roberta Greer, suspended in December after a parent tipped off the district, was facing disciplinary proceedings. Kayrell said he was looking into what involvement, if any, other staff members might have had.

The school does not have an on-campus athletic director. But Kayrell said he had instituted a new reporting policy that ensured that more than two people would have grade oversight in the future.

It was unclear how the changes would affect the athletes for the remainder of the school year, but Kayrell said he did not intend to review previous seasons.

Southern Section officials lamented that the grade-fixing incident violated their highly publicized Victory with Honors campaign but said that no further sanctions were expected.

“This is an internal problem,” section spokesman Thom Simmons said. “It has nothing to do with us.”

Dan McNeill of the Los Angeles-based Josephson Institute of Ethics expressed disappointment that rules violations were becoming commonplace in high schools.

“Cheating is nothing new in sports, but in recent years pressure to win in the high school ranks has become intense,” he said. “People think winning is everything. If that means breaking rules and no one notices, that’s fine. It sends a terrible message. It sends exactly the wrong message.”

-- Paul McLeod

Football

Randy Estes, former Los Alamitos football standout who left the team and school after a drug arrest last fall, reportedly committed to Washington State.

Estes, a 6-2, 200-pound defensive back who transferred to Long Beach Poly, had not made his commitment public; however, Greg Biggins, director of recruiting for Student Sports, said he had heard from several sources who confirmed that he committed during a recruiting trip on Jan. 16.

“He has told several people he is going there,” Biggins said.

Marty Tadman, a 6-foot, 185-pound defensive back from Mission Viejo, has committed to Boise State.

-- Dan Arritt