Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for December 8, 2006 BUSTED

Never have figured out how folks think they will get by with this.

From the New York Daily News...

Teacher nabbed in grade-selling scam

BY RACHEL SCHEIER and LEO STANDORA
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

If F plus $2,500 equals A, what does F equal?

Up to seven years in the clink for LaGuardia Community College instructor Elvin Escano.

Escano, 46, who teaches computer science, was arrested yesterday for allegedly selling better grades for cash and things of value such as wine.

Payoffs ranged from $200 to $2,500 to boost grades, sometimes from an F or incomplete to an A in various courses and tests - including the CUNY proficiency exam that students must pass to graduate from associate degree programs or transfer to a four-year college.

In one case, a student is said to have used college financial aid to grease Escano's palm.

The Queens district attorney's office capped a six-month investigation into the cash-for-grades scam by busting Escano at Kennedy Airport on his return from the Dominican Republic, where he had been enjoying a paid sabbatical since September.

A 137-count indictment charged him with grand larceny, forgery, falsifying records, conspiracy and other crimes.

It also charged him with recruiting students as "runners" to drum up business in the 14,000-member student body, paying off his "workers" with inflated grades.

The indictment also accuses Escano of tampering with a witness, a student whom he reportedly asked to lie to authorities.

Escano, who has worked at the college as an instructor and lab technician since May 2004, allegedly changed grades by tampering with computer records at the registrar's office.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Escano "violated his own professional ethics, destroyed the public's trust and confidence in the school and its grading system and unfairly smeared the reputation of honest students ...."

By all accounts, Escano ran his scam without raising suspicion among colleagues.

"He seemed like a nice, normal man," said Maria Depena, the Math Department's office manager, who said she has known Escano for nearly 10 years.

"I never heard any complaints from the students. All those who had him always said he was a good professor."

Math teacher Orlando Alonso said Escano's alleged conduct is "unacceptable."

"Many of our students are immigrants and we give our hearts to give them skills and opportunities," Alonso said. "And we do our work with integrity. I'm shocked that anyone in our department would be involved in anything like this."

Escano pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on $100,000 bail by Queens Supreme Court Justice James Griffin. He surrendered his U.S. passport.