Super Duper Perp!

[Deltaquarius]

I don't post often, but I just had to pass this on. Here's the actual link to the article:

http://dailynews.philly.com/content/...al/LIAR24C.htm

She wormed into school with fake degree


By THERESA CONROY
conroyt@phillynews.com

Carolyn Reid never even went to college, yet she passed herself off as a certified teacher at a respected Philadelphia private school.

Reid pulled off the fraud so well that she eventually became assistant principal of the Ivy Leaf Middle School in Oak Lane.

Her fake college degree also provided Reid's entry into the esteemed Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She eventually served as president of the sorority's Quaker City Alumnae Chapter.

Her lies were revealed - and punished - yesterday when a Municipal Court judge found Reid guilty of illegal use of a professional title.

"This is a very serious matter, Miss Reid," said Municipal Judge Ronald B. Merriweather. "You know, kids have a tough enough time as it is, especially inner city kids, and for someone - you included - to be part of a fraud, this court finds very offensive. In my opinion, you should go to jail."

Merriweather sentenced Reid instead to 100 hours of community service and three months' probation.

Reid pulled the scheme by passing off someone else's teaching certificate as her own, said Deputy state Attorney General Marc Costanza, who prosecuted the case.

The fraud came to light when Ivy Leaf officials, applying for routine recertification, learned from the state Department of Education that Reid's qualifications were bogus.

Reid had nothing more than a high school diploma from Simon Gratz High School.

"I wasn't aware until we were confronted with the situation, and we handled it by terminating the employee as we were instructed to do," Ivy Leaf director Renee Brooks said yesterday in a telephone interview. "We did what we were supposed to do to continue with the reputation of the school."

Brooks said Reid, who was hired as a teacher in 1998 and terminated in 2000, had been assistant principal for a year-and-a- half.

At least a dozen Delta sorority sisters attended Reid's brief trial yesterday, but declined to discuss her fraudulent association with the organization.

"In order to be a Delta, you have to have gone to college. As the judge just proved, she's never been to college, so she's never been a part of our organization," said Quaker City chapter president Leslie Cousins.

Merriweather, who said he was familiar with the school and the sorority, told Reid she should be ashamed of tainting the integrity of both groups.

"You've impacted on a number of people and a number of organizations," Merriweather said. "You've brought shame. . .I hope, as your lawyer says, you feel the shame."

Reid, who has three daughters, told the judge she was sorry for lying to the students and adminstrators of Ivy Leaf school.

"I'd like to make an apology for what I did," Reid said in a soft voice. "I know that it was wrong and I didn't want to do anything but just move on."

Ivy Leaf, which has 760 students, is the city's oldest African-American school. *