A special investigator is probing the snowballing grade-fixing scandal in city schools, including the case of a failing Queens student who told The Post she was shocked she was awarded a diploma, officials said Monday.
Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon is looking into the circumstances surrounding Melissa Mejia’s June graduation from William Cullen Bryant HS in Long Island City, the city Department of Investigation said.
“SCI, as part of DOI, is aware of the matter and investigating,” spokeswoman Diane Struzzi said.
Mejia, 18, told The Post that she regularly skipped her government class, had scored failing grades of 55 and even missed the final exam — yet she was awarded a minimum passing grade of 65 that allowed her to graduate.
Her teacher Andrea McHale admitted Sunday that she and other teachers at the school felt a “tremendous amount of pressure” from Principal Namita Dwarka to just graduate students.
Condon will investigate Dwarka and Bryant HS as well as other grading scandals, including one that preceded the suicide of a Harlem principal, who jumped in front of a subway train in April.
Jeanene Worrell-Breeden, of Teachers College Community School, had admitted to a colleague that she filled in the answers on a state English exam for third-graders who couldn’t finish the test.
Dwarka — the subject of a scathing Facebook page created last year and titled “Dwarka Must Go” — has refused to comment on Mejia’s graduation.
Suspended Bryant gym teacher Peter Maliarakis, however, claimed on Monday that Dwarka “has quotas in place where we have to pass a certain number of kids to make her look good — whatever percentage the [Department of Education] expects from her.”
Maliarakis, who was removed from the classroom in June after refusing to work in an unsanitary fitness room, said Dwarka makes it clear she “is obligated to fulfill those mandates if she wants to keep her job.”
“The state, the city, the mayor, the chancellor all look good with an inflated passing rate,” he said.
Last year, Maliarakis filed a federal lawsuit claiming he got bad job reviews and disciplinary letters after telling a schools investigator in June 2013 that Dwarka was illegally inflating students’ grades.
That probe, conducted by the DOE’s own Office of Special Investigations, was closed as “unsubstantiated” two months later, said education officials.
Another Bryant teacher, Mary Bozoyan, said there is “absolutely” pressure to graduate kids there, and she hailed Mejia as a “hero” for going public about her unearned academic credentials.
“I don’t know her, but I’m proud of this kid,” said Bozoyan, who teaches math at the school.
“Other kids might keep their mouths shut, thinking, ‘I got away with something.’ She has integrity.”
Requests for comment from Mayor de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña were returned by City Hall spokesman Wiley Norvell.
“Carmen Fariña never tolerated cheating as an educator, and she won’t tolerate it as chancellor,” Norvell said in an e-mail.
“She has taken aggressive steps to hold schools accountable and make sure everyone follows the rules.”
Additional reporting by Frank Rosario