Former Bowie High assistant principal speaks out on EPISD cheating scandal

Former Bowie High Assistant Principal Johnnie Vega admits he’s no angel.

He was put on leave and later resigned in Nov. 2011 “because I was guilty I knew what I was doing,” Vega said.

And now he says he has nothing to lose and wants to reveal everything he knows. He said he was there when the cheating began and watched it spread from campus to campus.

“The cheating scandal started at Bowie in 2007 under Pricilla Terrazas,” Vega said.

Vega said Terrazas, who was recently hired by La Fe Preparatory Academy then immediately resigned, came up with the idea with former EPISD superintendent Lorenzo Garcia. And former Assistant Superintendent James Anderson, who was recently fired, allegedly carried out their orders.

Vega also said Principal Randall Woods, who was put on leave Wednesday from Burges High School, was also involved.

“You know Woods isn’t being fired for his job as principal,” Vega said. “He’s being fired for his job as assistant principal because him and (Anna Luisa) Kell were doing to the same things, they were buddy-buddies.”

Kell was fired from Bowie High this year for her alleged involvement in Bowie’s test cheating.

But the list goes on according to Vega who claims Central Office Departments of Curriculum and Instruction and Special Education are entirely contaminated with administrators involved in the cheating.

“They sent support staff to all the schools to shore up the math, the science and the English,” Vega said. “Nobody from that department has been asked to leave and they were well aware of the cheating.”

He claims 60 to 70 percent of administrators cheated, and prompted middle schools such as Henderson, Wiggs, Ross and Guillen to do the same, that way non-English speaking eighth graders were sorted out before reaching high school. He also says every high school with the exception of Franklin, Coronado and Chapin cheated under Garcia.

“If you want to know who all the crooks are in the district, just look at all the bonuses,” Vega said. “And a lot of those people are still working in central office with (interim superintendent) Dr. Vernon Butler.”