failing students pass <\/a>with the goal of earning enough credit to graduate. Teachers have long complained these are academically lax classes are used to pass kids who haven\u2019t met requirements or were no-shows during the semester.<\/p>\n![\"Entrance](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/nyc-public-school-located-long-133410917.jpg\")
Information Technology High School in Long Island City, Queens, New York. Google Maps<\/p>\n
Under state law, attendance cannot be used to grade a student.<\/p>\n
The United Federation of Teachers union contract states, \u201cthe teacher\u2019s judgment in grading students is to be respected. Therefore if a principal changes a student\u2019s grade in any subject for a grading period, the principal shall notify the teacher of the reason in writing.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the end of the 2024-2025 school year, Muzafar, who also is licensed to teach English as a Second Language and has taught for eight years, said she planned to give student M.H. a failing grade in her AP English Literature class.<\/p>\n
The student had \u201cconsistently failed to complete assignments in a satisfactory manner\u201d, and averaged 55.6% on formative assessments, 60.5% on homework, 56.4% on participation, and 83.4% on summative assessments, suit said.<\/p>\n
But the fix was in, the suit claimed.<\/p>\n
On June 12, 2025, assistant principal Elicia Rodriguez told student M.H. to complete work on a Google classroom assignment so that he could pass Muzafar\u2019s class, Muzafar claimed.<\/p>\n
Muzafar then offered the student an alternate \u201cboot camp,\u201d an end-of-year week-long session where struggling students receive one final opportunity to complete their work.<\/p>\n
But she said M.H. flunked again \u2014 so she allegedly entered a failing grade for the student into Jupiter, the online gradebook system used by ITHS.<\/p>\n
The suit then claimed \u201can unknown administrator converted M.H.\u2019s grade to a passing one without Ms. Muzafar\u2019s knowledge or consent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Muzafar\u2019s suit stated that when she started asking questions about the changed grade, she landed in trouble and received \u201cthree threatening disciplinary letters\u201d from the school administration, the suit said.<\/p>\n
The administration had removed her from per session positions and leadership roles, thus denying her opportunities for additional pay she previously received. She makes more than $85,000 per year, city records show.<\/p>\n
In response to the grade change, Muzafar submitted formal complaints alleging ITHS was \u201cnot properly programming students\u201d and placing unprepared students in AP classes.<\/p>\n
After filing the complaints, Principal Woods observed Ms. Muzafar\u2019s AP class and issued her an observation report that gave her all \u201cdeveloping\u201d or poor ratings, the suit claims.<\/p>\n
Muzafar, a tenured teacher, submitted a union complaint challenging her poor observation rating as \u201cretaliatory.\u201d<\/p>\n
The knives were out, the suit claimed.<\/p>\n
A school social worker with \u201cvery close social ties\u201d to the administration filed a complaint about Muzafar, she claimed.<\/p>\n
And in March of this year, Principal Woods \u201cfalsely\u201d claimed Muzafar was \u201ccurving grades, causing her to have a \u201cpanic attack,\u201d the suit said. <\/p>\n
Muzafar learned from the Jupiter data system support team that administrators and other employees had allegedly accessed her gradebook for students \u201cwithout her knowledge\u201d more than 40 times, according to the suit.<\/p>\n
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On March 16, Muzafar spoke to her fall semester co-teacher, Liberto Rollon, about changes to her students\u2019 grades for the fall semester, the suit alleged. Rollon confirmed she curved her students\u2019 grades, according to the document.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe relentless retaliation, in the form of multiple disciplinary meetings, disciplinary letters, a poor observation, and loss of per session assignments, has caused Ms. Muzafar severe emotional distress, including a panic attack on March 11, 2026, which forced her to leave work,\u201d the suit said.<\/p>\n
The suit said the retaliation led Muzafar to re-enroll in therapy and use prescription drugs \u201cto manage the psychological consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Muzafar is asking a judge for unspecified damages, accusing the school of violating her First Amendment free speech rights and breaking the state civil service law.<\/p>\n
A city Department of Education spokesperson said, \u201cWe cannot comment on any litigation or confidential investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This \u201cF\u201d stands for fix! Queens school bosses changed an advanced placement student\u2019s F grade to boost scores…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[20461,4337,67,11182,57,9,24,56,63,65,64,209,58],"class_list":["post-287920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-cheating","tag-department-of-education","tag-education","tag-high-schools","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-public-schools","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Jean](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/jean-woods-powell-principal-information-133411538.jpg\")
Teacher Susan Muzafar\u2019s lawsuit alleges Queens school bosses changed a student\u2019s failing grade.<\/p>\n