Chapel Hill High School Letter to Parents

Dear CHHS Parents and Guardians,

I am writing to inform you of two recent incidents that have occurred at CHHS. I apologize for not communicating with you sooner; however, I wanted to share and discuss with the staff first.

The two related incidents are:

1) Several years ago students obtained a master key to the campus and have had access to most of the rooms at the site since then. It appears copies of the master were made and passed down as students graduated. Allegedly, students used the keys to go through teacher's offices and obtain copies of tests and answer keys, which they shared with other students. Students typically came into school late in the evening, not during the school day.

2) In a separate cheating incident students obtained copies of the answers to a test and were passing these around. At least one copy of the key was sent via a cell phone attachment. Investigations concerning this incident led to the uncovering of the master key problem.

During Wednesday's faculty meeting, I asked the staff to have a discussion with their homerooms about the recent events and how it affects every student at the school. I also urge you to have a discussion with your child about these recent events. Evidently a large number of students were aware that this was happening and remained silent. Perhaps if we [teachers/administration] had heard about this sooner, fewer students would have been involved in it and fewer students, teachers, and parents would have been hurt in this whole unfortunate ordeal.

Security and administration continue to investigate all reported related incidents. All exterior doors are in the process of being re-keyed. New master keys will be issued only to a select few.

Thank you for your support. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have additional questions.

Jackie Ellis