Illuminate grades lost, graduation delayed
Sydney, Australia, Staff Writer
After two years of facing missed activities and cancellations due to COVID-19, Samo’s senior class has suffered another blow: graduation has been postponed indefinitely, as all grades prior to the 2021-2022 school year are being held hostage by longtime Illuminate CEO Christine Willig. After SMMUSD split in a less than amicable way from Illuminate in mid 2021 in order to switch to the Aeries grading platform, Willig lost over half of her income that previously came from the district, and on March 3, hacked into Samo’s database and hid all student grades prior to the current school year. For the past few weeks, Willig has been holding all student grades for ransom, refusing to send them back to Samo Principal Antonio Shelton and the Samo administrators.
Administration now faces a dilemma with graduation rapidly approaching and no clear way of knowing how seniors performed in years prior. Until Willig’s ransom is paid, administrators have the impossible task of deciding whether or not to trust students who claim that they should be eligible to graduate.
Emily Walters (’22) has said that the past few days have been among the most difficult of her life, after hearing the news of Willig’s escapades.
“It’s been really hard to cope with. I worked so hard all my years of high school to maintain my 4.0, just for this Jeff character to wipe it all away with a few clicks of a keyboard,” said Walters.
However, many of Walter’s teachers tell a different story, including Kyle Joehler, an Honors English 9 teacher.
“Emily failed my class in sophomore year. In fact, I don’t think she even once showed up. And now she’s trying to claim that she’s had straight A’s in every class? I’m just not buying it,” Koehler said.
Students and teachers aren’t the only ones who have been shaken up by the news of the missing grades. The usually organized house offices look like a war zone, with papers sprawled out over every square inch of carpeting in a desperate attempt from advisors to find proof that student's grades are what they say they are.
“It’s been incredibly overwhelming. I’ve been getting hundreds of emails from parents and students who claim that they had perfect report cards. It just feels like a nightmare that I can’t wake up from,” said Samo H House Advisor Stephanie Miller.
In contrast to stressed out staff members and senior students, underclassmen have seemed relatively relaxed about the situation, feeling fairly certain that everything will blow over in time for their graduations, and have resorted to trying to uncover the reasoning behind Willig’s actions. Evidence has surfaced that has led many students believing that it was more than the split from Aeries, with students claim to have proof that Willig and Samo principal Antionio Shelton were former high school enemies, which is also why Shelton was so supportive of SMMUSD’s decision to get rid of Illuminate.
The Samohi has reached out to both Shelton and Willig multiple times, yet both have denied to comment. In the meantime, Samo’s class of 2022 will continue to try and convince counselors and administrators to let them walk the graduation stage come June.