MCPS Chief: "We will not chase the wind."

The above quote from the MCPS Chief Technology Officer, Sherwin Collette, means that MCPS will not investigate if any grades were changed at Churchill High School in previous school years.

According to The Washington Post quotes from Mr. Collette and Principal Joan Benz, the problem at Churchill High School was that students didn't turn in other students soon enough. If the students had turned each other in earlier the grade changing would not have gone on for so long.

MCPS can't detect unauthorized grade changes unless students notify school staff?

The Washington Post: Officials can't prove who changed Md. high-schoolers' grades

...The grades of 54 students were changed, but the school system is unable to prove who changed those grades. The grades of 46 of the students were changed back, rather than lowered, as is done when a student is caught cheating, Benz said.

"There is no way in that computer system to determine who changed that grade," she said. All grades for this academic year have since been verified, she said...

..."I'm just surprised that it took this long" for teachers to notice grade changes, Dave Williams said. "I'm surprised there were not more" students involved.


Benz said the school has received direct questions about the situation from University of Maryland officials but has no plans to issue a letter to colleges because that would be a "red flag" and is "absolutely unnecessary," Benz said...

...Chief Technology Officer Sherwin Collette said school officials have also found no evidence that grades in other academic school years had been changed. He said he has no plans to investigate any other semesters, unless given proof that similar breaches occurred.  "We will not chase the wind," he said.

...Collette and Benz both said the grade-changing incident could have been stopped earlier if students had notified officials and turned in their classmates.


"Young people often don't think, and it's our job as adults to make them think," Benz said...