It seemed like such a great idea at the time! Braylon Linnear was not only an assistant football coach at Pinkston High School in Texas, but he was also scheduled to be the test administrator for the annual exam that measures if students are actually learning anything in school. According to the school district, Linnear wanted to make sure that his players did well on the exam so he allegedly slipped them a note at the beginning to tell them NOT to complete any answers on the test as things would be “taken care of.”  And taken care of they were: one football player who was also in the Honor Society got a zero on his test . . . which is nearly impossible. Others had the blanks filled in, but got every answer wrong.

Thanks coach!

Linnear is still with the district, but all the exams taken that day were thrown out and the kids had to retake them. And, in the future, coaches will not be allowed to proctor these types of tests.

Here’s more from the Dallas Morning News:

The test administrator, assistant football coach Braylon Linnear, wanted some of the students to pretend to answer questions for the exam they needed to pass to graduate, according to DISD documents recently obtained by The Dallas Morning News.  In a note he slipped to a student after the exam began, Linnear instructed a football player to turn in an empty answer sheet because it “would get taken care of,” the report described.

But questions arose when officials discovered an odd test result.  Linnear, who didn’t return calls for comment, told Dallas ISD investigators he didn’t tamper with the exams. But the district’s months-long investigation concluded he “directly or indirectly” assisted students, a violation of both DISD and state testing procedures.

Linnear is still employed at Pinkston. Dallas ISD spokesman Jon Dahlander would not discuss Linnear’s duties or whether he had been disciplined.  After the internal investigation, Dallas ISD officials said they have banned Pinkston coaches from proctoring exams, added more classroom monitors during testing and have introduced other procedures to prevent cheating.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that we won’t have any issues,” said Leslie Williams, executive director of the district’s Central Learning Community, which oversees West Dallas’ Pinkston High School.