They walked — Why?

ROCKINGHAM — During final exam testing at Richmond Senior High School over three months ago, a student stood up and stated in the middle of class — “I’m not worried about my exam grade or the 8 I have in my class. I’ve been guaranteed that I’m going to walk [at graduation.]”

RSHS Teacher of the Year Tanya Quick, incredulous, consoled other students aghast at this display of arrogance. For a few students, on the cusp of graduation, this exam determined if they would graduate in the next few days. Quick consoled two students, one who was crying hysterically.

To defuse the situation, Quick said she went to Principal Jim Butler in his office immediately, who she said confirmed to her that this student would not pass due to their failing grade.

That student, who failed a core requirement class for graduation, was right — they graduated days later.

This incident, along with a series of similar, confounding decisions by administration, compelled Quick, a beloved teacher tabbed just a month before by Butler as a “highly dedicated teacher with very high expectations for her students,” the embodiment and best representative of what RSHS has to offer, to resign.

The leadup

In the spring 2023 semester, Quick, in her seventh year at RSHS, had two homebound students in her English IV class. Students may be placed on homebound for health, discipline or Exceptional Children cases.

Homebound students are provided instruction outside of the school setting, but are still expected to follow all of the expectations of a typical classroom. According to Richmond County Schools Public Information Officer Kylie DeWitt, there were 77 homebound students in Richmond County Schools following the 2022-23 years, which was a decrease from 95 students in 2021-22, but still a major increase of 27 students from the 2020-21 year.

Neither of these homebound students were turning in work, despite multiple meetings with the students, their parents, the student’s two different homebound teachers and central office staff. After an initial meeting, Quick said there were very clear expectations laid out for all parties.

For one of these students, they had zeros across the board for all of their assignments. According to DeWitt, a student’s overall average received on a report card for the first and second nine weeks will not reflect a grade lower than 50. In semester-long classes, the first nine weeks of that semester a student’s average cannot be lower than 50 on a report card. Students can receive a zero grade on individual assignments throughout the semester or year-long course.

“I don’t understand. You’re telling me he’s not submitting work,” said one of the homebound student’s parents to Quick in February. “[Their homebound teacher Ellen Mabe] is telling me that she’s working with him, but there’s no documentation of the work being done? Mabe has guaranteed that he will walk [at minimum], what does he need to do?” Quick said, outlining the parents understanding.

Quick replied to the parent that it’s expected that a student will do the work or they won’t walk at graduation.

“It was an argument for weeks,” Quick confirmed, who added that she asked that Mabe be removed as the student’s homebound teacher. There was little communication from Mabe during this sequence of events, according to Quick.

For months, this continued — the mother repeatedly stated that she was told that her son would walk at graduation regardless of his grades.

Modified assignments and extended deadlines were granted to this student. Quick met with the student on Zoom 3-4 times a week and met face-to-face eight times from February to May. Despite all of this, minimal assignments were turned in, one with another student’s name on it.

“They were turned in somewhere,” Mabe, whose job is to mediate between the students and their school teacher, said in a phone call with the Daily Journal. “I don’t do grades, I just submit work.” It remains unclear why these assignments were never shared with their teacher, Ms. Quick.

Both homebound students were not on track to pass, and although they had separate homebound teachers, both worked with Mabe and reported to Quick that they were going to graduate despite their failing grades. Little communication or progress was made on this issue until ten days before graduation.

Come final testing, both students were failing spectacularly. A 100% on the final exam would not have inched their grade over the 60% needed to pass the class.

As it turns out, little of their failing grades mattered, and the outburst proved to be premonitory — Both students were “administratively passed.”

Administratively passing

On May 26, Butler sent Quick an email asking if all accommodations possible have been attempted for the two homebound students to graduate. Quick responded with a lengthy, detailed response that addressed all of his concerns concisely — it outlined her attempts at communication, described the student’s failure to adequately follow-up with any assignments, reiterated their failure to complete basic assignments, highlighted their zero attempts for extra credit, and clarified that the removal of laptops from all students did not alter their ability to complete assignments.

“These students have fought to not pass my class,” Quick said, still unsure of how this situation would unfold.

On June 6, Quick reiterated in an email: “I have parent contact logs, student contact logs…records showing that both the parent and student were informed of the classroom expectation and grading requirements for this class…With this, I will conclude that the student DID NOT DO THEIR PART….I will testify that this student has been given every opportunity to earn their grade; however, he has yet to meet even the minimum requirement.” It also mentions the students flippant attempt at the final exam.

Butler responded a few hours later: “This is a bad situation that has been handled poorly….His final grade for English IV will be an F. I appreciate all your efforts to hold the student and the process accountable. I will make a decision on administratively passing him. Then we will all have to live with that decision. I don’t think there will be a solution that will be satisfactory to anyone. There will be changes before the next school starts so that neither of us is in this position again. The system did not work. But ultimately, the responsibility for this is now mine.”

Butler referred to a “third-party” interference as part of his rationale for passing the students.

Quick was taken aback by the terms “administratively passing.” It was a term she was unfamiliar with in all of her 13 years in teaching. According to North Carolina General Statute 115C-288, a principal has the authority to determine the grade for a student attending public school, and must consider class work, grades, standardized test scores and the best educational interests of the pupil, shared Richmond County Schools in an email.

“What about all the other students that are in the same situation? Family issues, social issues, medical issues, and miscommunicated issues? Who is advocating for them? I now feel that this student is receiving unequal consideration due to who his homebound teacher is,” Quick responded an hour later. For months she had catalogued her frustration with this situation, and now ten days before graduation, it appeared that she had zero resources to provide a satisfactory solution.

“There is nothing that you need to do,” Butler responded, concluding the back-and-forth. “You have completed your part of the process. You will enter his grades and final exam like you would normally do. Any further action will be up to me. There is not a next point of contact or next step in this situation. If you are inquiring about who to contact about my actions, then it would be the district leadership. I hope this is not the case. While we may not be totally in sync, I do believe we both want to do what is best for the student.”

“I do not interfere in a teacher’s grading,” Butler said in a July interview. Documented in Quick’s email is an assignment that was apparently given by Butler to the students in a last-minute effort to get them to a passing grade.

A question remained for Quick — Why weren’t these accommodations being made for any other students under her care?

Compelled to be equitable

Following the students mid-exam outburst, Quick said she received more than 10 phone calls from concerned parents curious as to why certain students were magically granted the ability pass. Daily Journal staff listened a few of these messages. Quick said despite being guaranteed from administrators that certain students would not be able to pass, she was baffled to learn that they were going to walk at graduation.

On June 9, hours before graduation, following the debacle with the two homebound students, Quick sent this email to Butler, RSHS administrators and guidance counselors.

“Attention: as of 5:30 today, all students [taking] English IV with Mrs. Quick have passed and earned their credit towards graduation. All grades now reflect their passing.” In conjunction with the email, Quick resigned.

“Teachers are responsible for their grading,” Butler said. “I try to hold that very close. I’m not going to interfere in their grading. I oversee it and I am the final word on it….If you’re going to celebrate that moment with the pageantry of graduation, with fireworks, with balloons, with proud parents, teachers and principal — it needs to be worth something. If a teacher grants credit, and that student has achieved the number of credits to graduate, we’re going to do everything in our power to allow them to march and be a part of Friday night.”

Quick acknowledges that she was not forced to resign from Richmond County Schools, but that the pressure she was put under by other staff, namely Butler and repeated intimidation and harassment from girls basketball coach Teddy Moseley, forced her hand.

Across three of Quick’s English IV classes composed of 85 students, about 20 students were failing. These were not edge cases; these students would not even bring in a box of tissues or an example of a euphemism for extra credit.

“I’m not lowering my standards and expectations because of their [non-honors] level,” Quick said, adding that some of her senior students do not understand basic grammar and sentence structure. “These students have fought to not pass my class.”

Quick said despite the lackluster efforts from a third of her students, she still begged school administration that if these two homebound students would be administratively passed, then the rest of her students deserved the same treatment.

That night, as the upbeat crowd packed into Raider Stadium adorned in green and gold, behind the scenes, things were a little more hectic. School staff frantically informed students that all of a sudden, they could now walk at graduation. It wasn’t the value of a passing grade or the knowledge gained from a test score; from parent voicemails and student Snapchats shared with the Daily Journal, students were told that they were passing simply because “Mrs. Quick quit.”

“Who call u to tell you could an did they give you a reason?” asked one senior to a friend on Snapchat. “[A RSHS guidance counselor] said Mrs. Quick quit and passed all her classes.” That same same senior asked another student, pictured in a Raider cap and gown on the app, that they didn’t think they were eligible. “miss quick quit so we all passed” replied the soon-to-be graduate. “When did you find out u could walk?” — “Today” responded the graduate.

Quick said that some of her students flaunted on social media that they were able to pass without the necessary pre-requisites. One mother, who declined to be named in the story, shared that her daughter cried at home Friday night because they had failed a final exam necessary for graduation. Scrolling through all the smiling selfies and family photos on Instagram, the mother saw one glaring caption written from a recent grad — “graduated with over 100 absences” with a smiling emoji.

Quick confirmed that there were students with over sixty absences who walked at graduation that night, as well as students with over 15 OSS absences. As Butler announced that this year’s graduation was the smallest ever in the history of the school, partly due to the size of the class, but also to attrition and drop-outs, it’s clear that this cohort of graduates was supposed to be even smaller just a few hours prior to this declaration.

Butler confirmed that there were students who walked at graduation who had more than the nine allowed absences in a course, citing an “extenuating circumstances” policy. RSHS meticulously tracks when a student is on track or has exceeded their allotted absences in a course. Butler said an extenuating circumstance could be anything, from health reasons, a car accident to a homebound status.

RSHS calculates a student’s absences based on period absences, not days. One missed day of school equates to four absences. When determining if a student has failed, it refers to the number of absences in each class individually. Students can amass nine absences before failing a course. Through ASAR (after school credit recovery), students can recover up to three absences in a course and still qualify to pass it. Once they reach 13 absences, they are no longer eligible to graduate, according to RCS.

According to Richmond County Schools, 308 students who walked at graduation had more than nine total period absences. Of those 308 students, 299 had more than 13 total period absences. RCS confirmed that there were 141 students who walked at graduation this June who had more than 50 total period absences. DeWitt confirmed that one student was allowed to graduate with over 75 period absences, and that zero students graduated with more than 100 period absences.

In the 2021-22 school year, 1,195 enrolled students at RSHS missed over 112,000 classes. Last year, that number decreased to 71,000, with a concomitant decline of 13 overall students. Richmond County is not immune to a nationwide problem of students entirely absent from their educational journey. About a third of students in Richmond County Schools (30%) are considered “chronically absent,” indicating that they missed about 10% of the 2022-23 school year. In a 180-day school calendar, that means 30% of RCS students missed 18 days. In Richmond County, 3% of the 6,151 K-12 enrollment, a little over 180 students, missed more than 50 days, or the equivalent number of periods for high school students, of classroom instruction.

“We want students here and we know they’ll do better in school, but sometimes thing are unavoidable,” Butler said. “We make every opportunity to get students credit.”

Chairs were dragged onto the field to accommodate a small wave of students informed of their newfound graduation status hours before. Quick watched from the stands as her son graduated, and saw a cohort of her students, unaided by a Junior Marshall, some deserving, some not-so deserving of the prestige granted by a diploma, walk jubilantly across the stage.

Deleted Facebook post

“This goes out to the person who thought she would stop the show!!” Moseley said in a since-deleted Facebook post. “They all made it to graduate!! You tried but you didn’t stop it!!! There is a special place for you!!! You are truly a POS!!!”

In a later phone call with the Daily Journal, Moseley did not wish to clarify on the post, but he did not deny making the post.

“Graduation happened the way it was supposed to happen,” Moseley said during the call. “As usual Richmond Senior High School graduated the finest class in North Carolina with a great staff and administration. I couldn’t be more proud to call myself a Raider,” he added later in a text.

According to Quick, Moseley would repeatedly come into her classroom prior to graduation and ask about his relative’s grade status in Quick’s class. According to Quick, Moseley said he gave Quick’s son extra credit, so she should do the same for his relative. Quick was inflamed by his assertion. Moseley denied this exchange.

There was a later dispute involving a parent-teacher conference, where students who attended with a family member could receive extra credit. Quick had 22 parent-teacher meetings (she was told it was a record-breaker for the high school). Quick said that Moseley claimed that his relative made an earnest effort to attend the meeting, getting Butler to pull up video evidence of his relative’s presence in the school system that night, although they were unable to attend the prerequisite meeting for unknown reasons. Moseley denied any knowledge of this information. When Butler later questioned Quick and asked if the points could still be awarded, Quick said no.

Afterward, Moseley stormed into a meeting between Quick and an assistant principal and according to Quick, began verbally attacking her over the extra credit, then left while continuing to scream down the hallway. Quick said that the other administrator said it was the “worst thing she had seen in education between two co-workers.” Moseley declined to clarify or corroborate any of this information.

Quick said the intimidation continued, and that any insinuation that she tried to stop the graduation, contrary to all available evidence, is not true. Quick said she wasn’t trying to prevent students from graduating, quite the opposite; all of her decisions were motivated by a desire to be equitable for all students.

Need for greater transparency

Quick, a ninth-grade dropout who had a child at 14 and didn’t go back to school until she was 28, was motivated to be a teacher to help students rise above their challenges.

“That’s why I’m a strong advocate for these students to at least attempt and try,” Quick, born and raised in Richmond County, said. “Why would you care about your education when you know you don’t have to? The system has failed these students and told them that they do not have to be accountable for their education.”

In a low-income, rural economic environment, Quick pressed that expectations should matter even more to students in Richmond County.

“Attendance matters,” Quick said. “If you’re not there, no one is going to hold you accountable.”

Quick maintains that she’s a strong proponent of the current absence policy, but it needs to be uniformly enforced. Quick believes that some of her students were set up for long-term failure from the actions of RCS administrators.

“If you’re going to go against what you believe in, then you have no place there,” Quick said about her decision to pass her failing students which led to her resignation. “I didn’t start in education for a title — the title doesn’t matter. But knowing that you had the respect from your other co-workers to vote you [Teacher of the Year], mattered. [Losing the respect] from my co-workers for standing up what I thought was equitable for all students, is what really matters to me.”

Education needs to be revered, not merely checking off the necessary boxes, according to Quick.

“Your kid should know that their education is valuable,” Quick stressed to the Richmond County community. “Until that is understood, we’re not going to change anything. As a community we need to be concerned with our children and young adults so that they are employable.”

Quick said there needs to be greater transparency and communication regarding homebound students, and that she’s seen a meteoric rise in this institution that should be a “last-resort” during her time as a teacher. Quick said students are taking advantage of the system. Parallel comments were made by Superintendent Dr. Joe Ferrell at a board of education work session that identified short and long-term goals for RCS. “There are too many students on homebound,” he said in June.

Principal Butler maintains that the integrity of this year’s graduation was not in any way compromised, and looked to a few positives he took away from this most recent school year, such as the decline in chronic absenteeism and a 70% decrease in physical fights at school.

“We have excellent teachers at Richmond Senior High School,” Butler said. “All of them are dedicated to trying to do their best. There may be times when we disagree or we disagree with parents, or parents disagree with us, although I do believe that parents, teachers administrators, counselors are all trying to do the best for students. I will stand behind our teachers and the job they do at all times.”

“My heart is broken about [leaving] Richmond County Schools,” Quick said. “My goal was to help this community. And I feel like, what I’ve been through, it’s not an option. [RCS has] really shown me it’s not what I do or how I teach. All that matters is if I play the game they want me to play.”