Melissa Bailey File Photo
Carolina and Attorney Jefferson.
On the heels of a scathing report charging him with participating in transcript-tampering to help out student athletes, Hillhouse Principal Kermit Carolina swung back Monday with a call for a counter-probe.
Carolina held a press conference at James Hillhouse High School on Monday two weeks after the school board released a report charging him with participating in changing transcripts for three student athletes at his school. He has proclaimed innocence of all charges. He called on the statewide NAACP to investigate what Carolina called a political vendetta against him. Statewide NAACP President Scott X. Esdaile told the Independent he would pass along the request to the local chapter in order to avoid his own potential conflict of interest.
Click here to read the charges and Carolina’s initial defense.
Carolina and his attorney, Michael Jefferson, on Monday released a PowerPoint presentation analyzing the report. Click here to watch it.
In the presentation, Carolina flags language he believes shows that Floyd Dugas, the attorney hired to conduct the probe, had “a stunning disregard for impartiality.” The probe was launched after an assistant principal filed a complaint. Carolina has maintained the real motive in pursuing the investigation was political retribution for his failing to support Mayor John DeStefano’s reelection, a charge the mayor has denied.
“Tonight’s presentation was an attempt to demonstrate that Kermit Carolina is a victim of plantation politics,” Jefferson said in an email after the event. He said the presentation aims to show that the whistleblower, Shirley Love-Joyner, sought to “retaliate against Mr. Carolina with flimsy allegations because her duties were modified and her longstanding level of comfort at Hillhouse disturbed.”
Jefferson also called on the state NAACP to investigate an “abuse of power” on the part of the mayor and Superintendent Reggie Mayo, and to look into the quality of education at at Riverside Academy, a high school for kids who have trouble at mainstream schools.
The Riverside question is related to a charge against Carolina — that he allegedly struck a deal with Riverside Principal Wanda Gibbs to allow two football players to earn credits for summer English classes at Riverside instead of taking the more advanced classes at Hillhouse. The students had already taken English 1 and English 2, respectively, at Hillhouse; they scraped by with a D and a D‑, according to Dugas’ report. After the students sailed through the Riverside summer classes, football coach Tom Dyer allegedly lobbied to have their summer school grades replace the grades they got at Hillhouse. Hillhouse staff refused to do so, but did change the description of the courses on the transcripts — allegedly with Carolina’s consent — from “summer school” English, which was considered a “basic” level, to “college-level” English.
Carolina denied striking any deal with Gibbs or endorsing the transcript revision; he said he left the matter to be handled by his staff. He added that he understood that all city high school classes were at “college level,” so the revision was not a substantive change.
On Monday, he raised the question of why Riverside, is offering “basic” classes, below the level of other schools.
He asked the NAACP to look into whether kids at Riverside, who are predominantly black and Hispanic, “receive the same quality of education as other students in the district.”
“If he wanted me to do an investigation, I would have to recuse myself, because I know all the players involved,” responded Scott X. Esdaile, president of the statewide NAACP, on Monday. He said he would pass along the request to Jim Rawlings, president of the New Haven chapter of the NAACP. Rawlings couldn’t be reached for comment for this story.
Reached Monday after the school board, Superintendent Mayo said he launched his probe not because of a political vendetta but because “I got a complaint on my desk. Obviously I’ve got to follow through with the complaint. They can press conference all they like, but the bottom line is there seems to be something going on over there.”
Mayo said Riverside provides “a good, basic education” for kids “that have had at-risk situations.” He said shifting the attention to the quality of Riverside Academy does not answer the question uncovered in the probe — “why did they send the kids there?” The students could have taken summer courses at Hillhouse, where they were already training in football and taking SAT Prep, Dugas’ report argues. It also argues they had no need to repeat English 1 and 2.
Meanwhile, Jefferson made bolder statements in what has become an increasingly bitter public fight: “We are not going to take this bullying on the part of the mayor and Dr. Mayo lying down. If they want a fight then we will accommodate them,” he wrote in an email. “What’s most troubling is the fact that Dr. Mayo continues to allow himself to be used simply to remain in the good graces of his political master!”
Mayo responded in a statement Monday night: “This is just another publicity stunt and a distraction from the real issue of grade tampering at Hillhouse. Serious allegations were made by a member of Kermit Carolina’s own staff and were substantiated by a mound of evidence. The report speaks for itself. The real victim is not Mr. Carolina, it’s the students he let down. Now it’s time to move forward and focus on what’s best for the students.”
Dear Dr. Mayo,
What's best for students is to have an elected superintendent, one that isn't appointed by the mayor, and one which parents have a hand in electing.