Malverne High School alumna demands forensic investigator

All Malverne High School alumna Sarah St. John wants is more scrutiny.

So she told the Malverne Board of Education at its monthly meeting Jan. 10, some time after it had mailed her a letter saying it conducted an investigation into whether her academic records were accessed and used by unauthorized persons — a charge she and her parents made after someone found a printout of her records on a teacher’s desk.

The incident is related to the high school’s top honors mix-up in June, where an error awarded St. John the senior-class valedictorian title when she was in fact the second-highest ranking student. The episode was fraught with controversy and gave way to racial tensions because school administrators decided to name both St. John, who is white, and the other student, Aalique Grahame, who is black, co-valedictorians. After some consideration, board trustees awarded Grahame the sole valedictorian title and named St. John salutatorian.

Although the matter was settled before graduation, it had led the school district to investigate the error that had caused the mix-up, and it recalculated the grades of the top three students. As a result, administrators had to access St. John’s academic records, and she believes they fell into the wrong hands.

“I truly believe that the [top honors] error was no more than an honest mistake,” St. John said, “but the access to and use of my high school records was not.” She asserted that someone in an administrative position accessed her transcript and used it without consent, violating the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

“A FERPA law was broken when my transcript was released,” St. John told the Herald, “and we don’t feel that the district has dug deep enough to find out who was involved.” The Molloy College freshman is also concerned that other personal information, like her Social Security number and medical history records, was exposed. Board attorney Florence Frazer said personal information was neither accessed nor included on the print out.

“The [board’s] letter documents that fact there was an internal investigation of a thorough nature that, at this time, does not permit the district to go forward against an individuals for any wrongdoing,” school Superintendent Dr. James Hunderfund said in a recent interview. “Whatever [St. John] believes and alleges has been looked into to the extent that the board has authorized, and the conclusions are that the district did due diligence in this matter. There’s nothing else that can be done except for the board to reconsider what has been done to date.”

Board President Danielle Hopkins, who was not at the Jan. 10 meeting, said she would have to discuss the issue with the other trustees “to see how we will move forward in the future with this matter.” She said she could not provide “a solid answer” as of press time.

In the time since St. John and her parents first approached the board about the matter, Deputy Superintendent Richard Banyon has worked with the high school administration to put into place procedural protocols that ensure access control, particularly to printouts of student ranking and averages, according to Hunderfund.

Although human error caused the top honors mix-up, the district has conducted a review of the ranking computation system — which it has not yet completed — and has implemented several interim controls that call for double and triple checks on everyone who uses the system. As a result, “we do know who is using the system for what purposes,” Hunderfund said, “and we have access control limited for certain documentation.”

The changes are of no help to St. John, who asserted that the board should approach this investigation in the same way it did the ranking error — by bringing in an auditor or external investigator. She went on to appeal to board trustees’ sympathies by reminding them that it was she, not they, who experienced the humiliation and anxiety that accompanied the valedictorian-salutatorian calamity, which made headlines throughout the region, in newspapers and on local news channels.

“The only point me and my family are trying to make,” St. John told the Herald, “is that we want Malverne to bring in a forensic investigator to get a more thorough investigation on finding out who printed out my grades.”

St. John also requested that the district share a copy of the printout with her. “I think I deserve a better investigation than what was given to me and my family,” she told the board.

Board Vice President Karen Aker apologized on the board’s behalf. “I know … there are a lot of questions you have that we can’t answer,” she said. “Sorry is not a strong enough word for … what you and your family had to go through.”

Stay with the Herald for updates on this story.