This article on kids buying their high school diplomas in Houston is dated 2007.
The requirements for high school graduation from a public school in Texas include 22 credits and passing the state test called TAKS ( Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills). However, kids in Houston can buy their high school diploma from a specific private Christian school without re-doing the TAKS test.
The school is Parkway Christian school, and now it’s in the news in Houston in 2008Â after LaVern Jordon (in the story above) offered to waive fees if a mother of a potential student had sex with him.
And if that isn’t bad enough the school changes it’s webpages (was formerly Meet the family and is now Meet the staff, sans LaVern Jordon) and plays the victim. LaVern has been scrubbed from the site hastily, there is a typo under the daughter’s bio -”Daughter of and Mrs. Jordan”.
They are outraged the solicited mother did not chose to go to Mrs. Jordon (wife of LaVern) so this could quietly go away, they are outraged the local media did not acquiesce to their demand to make a statement on their terms.
In August 2007 the school had no problem with Mr. LaVern Jordon being named a founder, and now they are demanding an apology from the Houston television station.
Furthermore, we would like to add that the woman in question did not handle the situation properly. Had she called to inform me of this incident, the matter would have been handled promptly and properly. I can not do anything about a situation that I am not aware of. As soon as I was informed, Mr. Jordan was no longer a part of Parkway Christian School,Inc., nor is he the founder. I started PCSI 13 years ago, to help the lives and futures of teenagers that got lost in the system of public schooling. Mr. Jordan was never and is not a founder of PCSI.
       Channel 13 and the woman in question owe Parkway Christian School, Inc. a public apology for the unjust manner in which the incident was handled. My family, students, and school should not have to suffer the blame for something that we did not know was happening.
When Mrs. Jordon was approached for a statement which she says was not “received in a timely fashion,” she chose to follow legal advice and not grant an interview. This school slides around TAKS and is known for doing so, and the husband is caught asking for sex from a parent on tape (NSFW). And of course it’s everyone else’s fault.
All the bible verses in the world stuck on a website aren’t going to make this mess okay.
There is another very telling aspect of the revised webpages. It’s hard to spot, but check out the history on the front page of their site. It begins:
“Parkway Christian School, Inc. was founded in September 1995 by Mrs. Barbara Jordan.”
There are two spaces between “by” and “Mrs”. This is the only place on the whole page where you have two consecutive spaces within a paragraph.
It’s one thing to dismiss Mr Jordan from the school and remove him from the staff list. It’s another entirely to rewrite history as if he never existed. The latter is deliberate dishonesty.
It is also telling to look through that page for poor spelling, and the improper apostrophe. It is not a good advertisement for a school.
Nice catch.
Mrs. Jordon probably wishes he never existed when that story went public…
The public statement is offline.
If any of their advertisting was true and they put 1500 ‘grads’ through this school; “I can not do anything about a situation that I am not aware of,” can have all kinds of meaning.
i agree that asking for sex is completely wrong and the oppisite of what the bible preaches. but who are we to judge and point fingers and to gossip. we are all humans and we all have imperfections. no one has the right to juge but god. and i dont think that all of us students should have to suffer. and i think that the taks test that public schools require students to take is a waste of time and holding alot of smart kids from reaching there goals. i think there should be more schools willing to take students who cant pass the taks test!