What happened when a school board evidently couldn’t use the internet to double-check a new principal’s resume? Student journalists stepped in to investigate, and the administrator resigned after they discovered discrepancies in her biography.
The staff of the Booster Redux at Pittsburg High School in Kansas started investigating their new principal, Amy Robertson, soon after she was hired on March 6, and found some concerns with her credentials. Robertson claimed to hold a master’s degree and a doctorate from Corllins University, but the students couldn’t locate a working website for the institution and discovered nothing that indicated it was an accredited university.
When the students checked with Robertson, she gave “incomplete answers, conflicting dates and inconsistencies in her responses,” the Booster Redux reported.
According to the student paper, Robertson said most of her work at Corllins was online, but that she had traveled occasionally to its campus in Stockton, California. However, when the Booster Redux staff investigated, officials from the city of Stockton said it found no location there. The Redux also described the school as a “diploma mill,” which sells fake degrees.
Robertson also claimed to have received a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Tulsa in 1991. The student journalists checked with the school, which said that it did not offer that degree at the time.
Robertson had been working as an education consultant in Dubai before being hired by the school board. She resigned Tuesday evening.