As the controversies surrounding continue making headlines nationwide, FOX45 has uncovered an old lawsuit revealing new allegations stemming back to his time with Baltimore City schools.
While serving as the Principal at Friendship Academy of Science and Technology in Canton, a teacher accused him of pressuring staff to improve students’ grades without cause, even for classes they never attended.
The teacher, who was later fired, sued the school system and Roberts for wrongful termination. The lawsuit alleges, “Dr. Roberts actions were meant to make a failing school appear successful.” That was back in 2009, but the lawsuit wasn’t filed until 2013.
In turn, the school system successfully argued that the statute of limitations had run out. Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) also claimed the teacher harassed and threatened school leaders, including delivering a baseball bat to the Human Resources department with a letter reading in part, “I hope it feels good to beat a teacher.” Another message reportedly read, “This is why children are not learning.”
A decade later, Maryland Inspector General for Education Rick Henry confirmed serious allegations of widespread grade changing inside City Schools. The findings were released in 2022 after a year and a half long investigation.
“I think it’s a big deal,” said Henry in a previous interview with , “What was very stunning to us is that, you know, we were being told that this was not the practice, but we were seeing, you know, as we were looking through all of the documents that were provided by the city schools, we kept uncovering more and more.”
The report uncovered more than 12,000 failing grades were changed to passing over a five-year period. Although, Roberts was long gone before that investigation even began — ending his nearly eight-year career with BCPS in 2010.
On Thursday, FOX45 sent the school system the following questions:
Does BCPS stand by its investigation finding no merit to the grade changing allegations against Roberts?
Did BCPS receive any other complaints over the years about Roberts pressuring teachers to alter grades?
In light of the Inspector General’s findings, is BCPS considering revisiting past cases—such as Roberts’—to determine whether similar patterns existed earlier?
As of the time this article was published, we have not heard back.
Meanwhile, FOX45 has also asked BCPS how Roberts was able to pass a background check despite his immigration status. However, the school system claims his employment falls outside of their