Anderson County Sheriff's Office investigating allegations of grade changing at Clinton High

The Anderson County Sheriff's Department is iinvestigating allegations that a group of teachers and counselors conspired to change students' grades at Clinton High School, a boost that may have qualified some students to graduate who wouldn't have otherwise.

The matter was referred by Director of Schools Tim Parrott to Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark and Sheriff Russell Barker. Clark's office said in a news release Wednesday afternoon it would be improper and potentially unethical to give detailed comments on the investigation.

"It can be reported that there are several different types of allegations and they will be carefully reviewed. It should be noted that some of the allegations involve potential criminal behavior and some involve mismanagement, malfeasance or other behavior that would fall short of actual criminal conduct," he wrote.

Earlier this year, Principal Dan Jenkins resigned amid an investigation by the school system into whether the grades of high school students had been changed. Other members of the Clinton High School staff have been dismissed, suspended or resigned as part of the investigation.

• As reported in The Oak Ridger and Knox News this week, Clinton football coach Darell Keith's contract was not renewed Tuesday after he was linked to the investigation.

• Three guidance counselors' contracts at the school also were not renewed for the next school year, Ryan Sutton, an Anderson County Schools spokesperson, confirmed Wednesday.

• Jenkins' wife, Carrie, who is head of the counseling department at the school, has been suspended pending the results of the investigations, Sutton confirmed.

• Two teachers, Rachel Jones and Clay Turpin, who were under Dan Jenkins' supervision, were fired by the Anderson County Board of Education by a vote at a May 13 meeting, according to meeting minutes. Jones is a tenured teacher and will have an opportunity for a public hearing at her request. Turpin is nontenured. Parrott recommended they be dismissed for unprofessional conduct, insubordination and neglect of duty.

Parrott outlined the investigation of Jones and Turpin in a written document, alleging they changed students' grades to make them eligible to graduate. The document says that although the state of Tennessee previously recognized Clinton High, under Dan Jenkins' leadership, as a Reward School for the 2022-23 school year, Parrott and other administrators realized this year that there was something amiss at Clinton High. A group of central office administrators and Parrott started an investigation into Clinton High students' access to and performance within credit recovery and virtual programming.

Credit recovery is described in the 17-page document as a "course specific, standards-based extended learning opportunity for students who have previously been unsuccessful in mastering the standards required to receive course credit or earn promotion. Credit recovery programs, in general, have a primary focus of helping students stay in school and graduate on time."

Parrott, working with attorneys, reported "concerning issues" to the Tennessee Department of Education on March 25 after completing part of the investigation. Those issues include multiple Clinton High students who were shown as on track to graduate but hadn't completed the necessary courses. Parrott said he thinks some of last year's graduates did not complete the necessary courses, either.

He said at the time he and administrators began working with the Clinton High seniors who were not on track to graduate.

On April 12, he and administrator Suzi Schmidt met with Jenkins and Jones, the educators primarily assigned to the school's credit recovery students. He said he planned to suspend both pending an investigation. Jones has worked as a teacher at Clinton High since 2011 and Turpin since 2021.

"While Jones accepted her suspension, and even expressed remorse for what she was knew was improper conduct, Jenkins instead decided to resign as (an) Anderson County Schools employee," Parrott said.

In the document, Parrott said he referred the matter to the district attorney general and that since then his office has worked with and supplied records and data to investigators from the sheriff's department.

The document include statements made by Jones during the interviews with administrators in which she said she altered records to show that students had successfully taken certain courses at the request of Principal Jenkins. The document says such alterations took place during most of Jenkins' time at Clinton High and when Jones told him she wouldn't do it anymore, he assigned Turpin to the task.

Jones reportedly told two administrators that Keith, the football coach, in August 2022 told her to "replace the grades" and when she said she couldn't do so, he returned with the grade transcript with Jenkins' signature and told her "Dan said to put him in the (credit recovery) classes." She said she called the principal to confirm, and he did.

Keith told Knox News earlier this week he is a "scapegoat." He steadfastly denied he was involved in changing grades and said the public outing was defamatory. He said he was directed by the counselor’s office to get the player into a credit recovery class. Keith said he went to Jones to do that and she told him to get approval from the principal. Keith received approval and the student was entered into the class.

Turpin reportedly told administrators he received no training for the credit recovery position and functions. He said he was under the impression that every student on Edgenuity (credit recovery) had first taken a course in a normal classroom setting and failed. But, he said, he learned that multiple students had been behind on credits as seniors and were taking all their required credits via credit recovery.

"Turpin also learned later that he had students who were seen as 'troublemakers,' and were placed in credit recovery simply to achieve enough credits to graduate (and soon exit CHS)," the document said.

Administrators confronted him with data showing he'd made 1,009 student grade changes between Jan. 5 and April 15. "Soon, Turpin admitted he changed student grades because he knew others were doing it and aware of it, and 'if this is wrong, somebody would tell ... us to stop doing it.'

"I will say that the counselors did tell me to go through classes and change - and change - scores for students," he reportedly said. He later said he recalled the principal making it clear he wanted credit recovery students' grades to be above 60 so they could get out of courses and school.

The Oak Ridger's News Editor Donna Smith covers Oak Ridge area news. Email her at dsmith@oakridger.com and follow her on Twitter@ridgernewsed.

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This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Anderson County Sheriff's investigates allegations of grade changing at Clinton High