HS Students Bust Principal's Fake Degree

[Martin Eisenstadt]

High school kids doing the administrators' jobs. Corllins University?? Sounds legit! Seems like the old cow picked up a little taqiyya whilst visiting Dubai.

$93K fraud: Amy Robertson Pittsburg Kansas High school principal resigns after credentials exposed

By Christopher Koulouris -
April 5, 2017


Amy Robertson Pittsburg Kansas High school principal

Amy Robertson Pittsburg Kansas High school principal: How an educator came to be caught out with fraudulent credentials with a starting salary of $93K.

Amy Robertson a Kansas High school principal has resigned after a high school journalist dug into their school's new principal's credentials.

It wasn't upon being found out that the teacher, who had recently being hired on a starting $93 000 salary at Pittsburg High School was forced to resign. The educator reported the Topeka Capital Journal had been slated to start in August.

"She was going to be the head of our school," Trina Paul, a senior and an editor of the Pittsburg High School's newspaper, Booster Redux, told The Kansas City Star. "We wanted to be assured that she was qualified and had the proper credentials."

Adding, "We stumbled on some things that most might not consider legitimate credentials."

After a search online, the students found articles that the Dubai's education authority suspended Robertson's clearance to teach at Dubai American Scientific School; they accused her of not being authorized to be a principal. Robertson had lived in Dubai on and off for 19 years.

"That raised a red flag," told Maddie Baden, a 17-year-old junior at the school. ""If students could uncover this, I want to know why the adults couldn't find this."

Intrigued, student journalists at the school's newspaper, a team of six students -- five juniors and one senior, turned up the switch to only now come up with even more inconsistencies.

Come Friday, the Booster Redux published a story that questioned the legitimacy of Robertson's degrees. She had apparently received her masters and doctorate from Corllins University.

But there was a problem, research failed to find evidence the university even existing.

Instead, research found that Corllins was a diploma mill, where one is able to buy a degree. Furthermore, its website does not have any actual information.

The Better Business Bureau's website says Corllins' physical address is unknown and the school isn't a BBB-accredited institution.


Pictured, Amy Robertson Pittsburg Kansas High school principal

In turn Robertson denied her degrees were illegitimate, arguing that she'd attended Corllins before it lost accreditation.

In an email to The Star, the "educator" wrote, "The current status of Corllins University is not relevant because when I received my MA in 1994 and my PhD in 2010, there was no issue ... All three of my degrees have been authenticated by the US government."

Adding, "I have no comment in response to the questions posed by PHS students regarding my credentials because their concerns are not based on facts".

But come Tuesday, Pittsburg Community Schools Board of Education President Al Mendez announced Robertson's resignation.

"In light of the issues that arose, Dr. Robertson felt it was in the best interest of the district to resign her position," Superintendent Destry Brown said in a statement. "The Board has agreed to accept her resignation."

The board previously approved of Robertson's hiring on March 6. At the time, Superintendent Destry Brown approved, with Brown saying he felt responsible for what happened.

"As superintendent, I feel like I let the teachers and the students down. I publicly admit that," he said.

Brown went on to concede that the district would probably be making changes to its vetting process. How or why the vetting process existed in its current format is yet to be necessarily understood....

Emily Smith, the high school's journalism adviser, said she was proud of the students.

Told Smith, "They were not out to get anyone to resign or to get anyone fired. They worked very hard to uncover the truth."

Robertson is currently working in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, according to the Washington Post, Robertson said she most recently worked as the chief executive of an education consulting firm known as Atticus I S Consultants there. Or did she?


Amy Robertson Pittsburg Kansas High school principal. Pictured the school the educator had been slated to begin her $93K post at in August.