Alex Torres-Perez gives a breakdown of the class action lawsuit filed against the former Limestone and Athens City School Superintendents along with four others.
New information - the former limestone and athens city school superintendents along with 4 others are now facing a class action lawsuit.
It represents every student whose information was stolen in a school enrollment fraud scheme that allowed the group to pocket millions of dollars in state funding.
Waay 31's alex torres-perez joins us live with a breakdown of the lawsuit.
Attorneys filed this class action lawsuit this morning in order to prevent hundreds of separate lawsuits against the group from being filed.
The goal is to offer protections and restitutions to the students involved.
Will "it's basically about money, power, all under the guise of helping and educating underserved communities and students in the blackbelt former superintendents trey holladay, tom sisk and 4 others are facing several federal charges in an elaborate scheme -- where they offered private schools perks and benefits like laptops, equipment and paid conferences in exchange for student information.
Eric "their names, social security numbers, and dates of birth were stolen to perpetrate this scheme.
Students who lived out of state were given fake addresses from vacant homes advertised on real estate websites.
The lawsuit and federal indictment say the group used the information to enroll students into their virtual learning program.
Will 2:32-2:40 "knowing that it requires a parent signature" the lawsuit claims holladay said private school headmasters could sign enrollment forms -- meaning parents and students had no idea their information was transfered.
Eric 2:40-2:48 "the biggest thing that they experienced was shock and surprise that their students were enroleld in a program at the other end of the state that they had no, knew nothing about" report cards were even modified to not include the private school names.
The lawsuit claims they were filed as though the students earned the grade through the district.
Allowing the group to collect around 7 thousand dollars in state funding per student!
Eric "these childrens identity were stolen to make money" at this time -- it's unclear how many students were impacted by the scheme but... eric "we think there may be hundreds of students invovled and we think there may be millions of dollars at stake here."
Attorneys say students involved are already at risk of having their identity stolen.
It could even impact their college applications.
Attorneys hope the class action lawsuit will help protect them.
"help these chidlren move forward with regard to their identity and their personal information being out there" since the lawsuit was filed this morning -- attorneys are now waiting for a response from the defendants regarding the class action lawsuit.
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Former Limestone County school leaders face class action lawsuit