District Officials will only say that it's under investigation and that administrators are trying to determine exactly who's involved.
Students and parents, on the other hand say they know exactly what happened.
18 year old Mohammed Alhomedi said, mainly, the scheme had to do with the "Sadie Hawkin's" dance at the High School. Those with a certain amount of absences aren't able to attend. Alhomedi has 70 absences. He told Action News. "I wanted to clear them for college and also for Sadie's, so when I heard someone was doing it I offered to pay him some cash."
Alhomedi said he'd heard about a guy that was fixing absences for students, and he added himself to the list, saying "I heard he was a Teacher's Aide for some teacher and she was logged on I guess"
Alhomedi said he was one of a couple dozen students, athletes, and football players who were on the list to be cleared. Trish Gonzales tells Action News, her 15 year old daughter was on it too. The teen had 20 absences she needed to get rid of and like Mohammed, knew how to find the guy on campus who was fixing school attendance.
Gonzales said, "If you have all these unexcused absences you can't go to school dances, you can't participate in functions because of that because there's certain standards Madera high holds". Her daughter wrote a statement for the school, detailing how she knew the student in question and how she came to be on the "list".
According to parents and students, the fixing came at a price, depending on how many absences you needed cleared.
Gonzales said her daughter was suspended. Mohammed tells Action News that he lost all school privileges and was also suspended. He also says, he regrets the incident, adding "it wasn't worth it".
Parents, like Gonzales say, they feel the level of punishment isn't equal. "I'm not excusing what they did it was wrong but you're giving the person who did all of this and all these other kids... you're putting them on the same level and I don't think that was fair."
The investigation continues. School leaders won't discuss student discipline but Action News has learned no one has been expelled.
