BALTIMORE — A Baltimore Circuit Court judge is allowing a lawsuit filed against the City school system to proceed.
Back in January a Baltimore couple, Jovani and Shawnda Patterson, sued the school system accusing them of enhancing student attendance and grades for funding purposes.
The lawsuit came on the heels of a September 2020 investigative report that found former administrators at Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts, schemed to alter student attendance, grade average, and graduation rates.
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Months before that, City School administrators announced they would no longer make failing students repeat their grade levels.
Since then, more scandals have come to light.
In June Maryland's Office of the Inspector General revealed 12,552 failing student grades were changed to passing, between 2016 and 2020.
Patterson High School was reported as having the highest number (1,390) of failing grades changed, within that five-year span.
Nearly 130 Baltimore City Schools between grades 6 through 12, were reviewed by the Inspector General.
They found that principals and assistant principals were pressured from higher-ups at City School headquarters on North Avenue, and they in turn passed that pressure onto teachers in the classroom.
The bombshell report led Governor Larry Hogan to call for a criminal investigation into the matter.
It also attracted national attention, leading renowned Attorney Ben Crump to join the Patterson's lawsuit.
Their lawyers now say they anticipate taking numerous depositions under oath from those responsible for, and impacted by the alleged failures of the school system.
"We anticipate taking numerous depositions that will force school administrators, principals, and others responsible for the failures in Baltimore City Public Schools to raise their right hands and testify under oath about those failures," said Attorney, Scott H. Marder. "Teachers, who have been silenced by a culture designed to prevent them from revealing what they know, will now have the opportunity to testify under oath and reveal the truth, without fear of retribution."
WMAR has reached out to Baltimore City Schools for comment, and are awaiting to hear back.
