tonight an alarming discovery out of a
baltimore city high school where
hundreds of students are failing
as project baltimore's chris papps
explains we found a student who's passed
three classes in four years and is
ranked near the top
half of his class
we're not letting none of this get the
best of us
all right be strong son we got this
he's stressed and i am too like i told
him i probably will start crying like my
son is i don't know what to do for him
this coming june is when tiffany france
thought her son
would receive his diploma and i'm just
trying to fight he like mom what
what was all this for what did i do this
for like
don't he get a chance do he get a chance
but after
four years of high school this mom just
learned
her 17 year old has to start over
he's been moved back to ninth grade
why would he do three more years in
school yes
he didn't fail the school failed him the
school failed
at their job they failed they failed
that's the problem here they failed they
failed he didn't deserve that
france's son attends augusta fell savage
institute of visual arts in west
baltimore
his transcripts show in four years
he has passed just three classes
earning two and a half credits which
places him in ninth grade
but france says she didn't know that
until
february she has three children and
works three jobs
she thought her oldest son was doing
well because even though he failed most
of his classes
he was being promoted his transcripts
show
he failed spanish one and algebra one
but was promoted to spanish two in
algebra two
he also failed english too but was
passed on
to english 3. i'm just assuming that if
you are passing
that that you have the proper things you
know to go to the next great and you
know the bright grades you have the
right credits
as we dig deeper into her son's records
we can see
in his first three years at augusta
fells he failed
22 classes and was late or absent
272 times but in those three years
only one teacher requested a parent
conference
which france says never happened
no one from the school told this mother
her son was failing
and not going to class yeah france's son
in his four years at augusta fells
earned a grade point average of
0.13 he only passed three classes
but his transcripts show his class rank
is 62 out of 120
this means nearly half of his classmates
58 of them have a gpa of
0.13 or lower he's a good kid
like he didn't deserve that where is the
mentors where is the help
for him i don't i hate that this is
happening to my child
in your opinion did the school system
fail this
child absolutely this city school
administrator who works
inside north avenue asked not to be
identified
for fear of retaliation that school
community failed
this administrator told fox 45 news city
schools failed
because it has protocols and
interventions set up
to help students who are falling behind
or
have low attendance in france's son's
case
they didn't happen i get angry
i there's nothing but what frustration
we see on the news uh the
the crime that occurs the murders the
shootings
we know that there are high levels of
poverty in baltimore
things like this are adding to that
these children are why i do this work dr
sonia santelesis was school ceo four
years ago
when france's son was a freshman but she
will not interview with fox 45 news
instead
we receive this two-page statement which
explains what
should happen when a student is
chronically absent or failing
the district says students received a
letter about their academic status this
past summer
and records can be accessed through the
campus portal
when a student is absent an automated
call
is placed to the number on file the
statement also said the school conducted
recent home visits and
the student's parent visited the school
but france says
none of that happened what this
statement does not
address is why france's son was promoted
despite failing classes it doesn't
discuss his class
rank or the 58 other students
with a gpa of 0.13
or lower but it does say north avenue
is reviewing actions that impacted
student outcomes
at the school prior to this year i
really it took a lot for me to just
build the courage to do this like
if you were to talk to this mom what
would you say to her
you know i didn't have a hand on this
student but
i worked for city schools so he is one
of my kids
i would hug her and i would
i would i would apologize profusely and
he feels embarrassed like
he feels like a failure and i'm like you
can't feel like that
and you have to be strong and you gotta
you gotta keep fighting you know life is
about fighting things happen but you
gotta keep fighting
and and he's willing he he's he's trying
but he where
who would he turn to when the people
that's supposed to help him is not
who did he turn to france has pulled her
son
out of augusta fells he is now enrolled
in an accelerated school program
at another high school in west baltimore
she is told
if he works hard he could graduate by
2023 and if you would like to read city
school's entire two-page statement we
have posted it on our website
foxbaltimore.com i'm chris pabst and
this
is project baltimore