Five people have been charged in Texas with organizing and participating in an illegal cheating scheme that certified more than 200 unqualified teachers and helped the plot’s “kingpin” rake in more than $1 million, prosecutors said.
In the scheme, people would typically pay $2,500 to have proxies take certification tests for them at two testing centers in Houston. The scandal involved bribing a testing proctor to allow test applicants and their proxies to switch places, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said at a news conference Monday.
Overall, more than 400 fraudulent exams were taken and over 200 teachers were falsely certified on a variety of exams and are now scattered across the state. The scheme was traced to May 2020, during the Covid pandemic.
Prosecutors allege the plot was orchestrated by Vincent Grayson, 57, the head boys basketball coach at Booker T. Washington High School in the Houston Independent School District.