HUDSON, Fla. — Agents with the FDLE arrested three former Pasco County high school teachers that allegedly took part in a testing scam over four years.
The teachers arrested include Robert Edward Herrington, 38, of Port Richey; Harold James Martin III, 47, of Hudson; and Kathleen Rebecca Troutman, 31, of Bradford, Arkansas for their alleged role in the testing scam.
According to FDLE, an anonymous tip from a former student at Hudson High School was the first signal that something might be wrong. The tipster said they had cheated on a certification exam for Agriculture Educators Services and Technology (AEST), Inc.
FDLE said two more tips came in and AEST conducted a statewide audit of the exam results.
The AEST test has between 50 and 100 questions and usually takes at least 30 minutes to complete, FDLE said Friday.
FDLE said the audit found students at Hudson High sometimes finished the test in just five minutes and the school had much higher pass rates than any other school in the state. That’s when FDLE was called in by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.
The investigation from FDLE uncovered teachers were paid a bonus of $25 to $50 for each test that was passed by students and the school district received hundreds of dollars for each passed test.
According to FDLE, agents investigating found none of the mandatory requirements were followed by the three teachers arrested, including having the tests proctored.
FDLE said the arrested teachers “took their administrator exams together, and, after recording the test questions, they prepared study guides for their students, which were exact copies of the certification exams.”
Investigators with FDLE said the three teachers recruited students to help pull more students into the scheme and that more than 200 students took the tests. FDLE alleged in one case a teacher even took the exam for a student.
Additionally, FDLE said Exceptional Student Education (ESE) students routinely had exams taken for them and often, the ESE students didn’t know they were even scheduled to take the exam.
The scheme, FDLE said, lasted for four years and the three defendants allegedly received a combined $36,725 in teacher bonuses for their roles. According to FDLE, the scandal resulted in losses of more than $700,000.
“We are extremely disappointed in these teachers who were placed in a position of trust, and repeatedly chose to violate that trust,” Pasco Superintendent of Schools Kurt Browning said in a statement. “They took advantage of students for personal gain. That kind of behavior is shocking to teachers everywhere who sacrifice for their students every day.”
As a result of the investigation, AEST said they would invalidate more than 1,000 certification exams from Hudson High School.
