Two Nashville Teachers Say Bureaucrats Pressured Them to FABRICATE Grades for Failing Students — One Suspended After She Refused to Cook the Books

Two former Metro Nashville Public Schools teachers say administrators directed them to change failing grades so the district’s performance would look better on paper.

Samira Hardcastle, an eight-year art teacher at John F. Kennedy Middle School who was named the school’s 2025–2026 Teacher of the Year and recognized as a district Blue Ribbon Teacher of the Year, resigned in May.

Hardcastle said a student failed to complete an art project and received a failing grade. After the student’s parent challenged the grade, three administrators met with the parent and concluded that Hardcastle had not supplied an adequate rubric. Hardcastle refused to change the grade herself. According to her account, administrators then changed it.

Hardcastle described the episode in her resignation letter as grade fabrication and told WSMV that she believes such changes make district performance appear better than it really is.

At Tuesday’s Metro Nashville Board of Education meeting, Hardcastle also alleged that teachers were being discouraged from formally reporting some student misconduct. She warned that the numbers were being skewed to protect the district instead of children, according to FOX 17’s report on her appearance.

Samira Hardcastle: I was Teacher of the Year at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Antioch this past year and Blue Ribbon Teacher of the Year for the district. What you have in front of you right now is my resignation letter. I resigned in May. You can read those three pages at your leisure, but I’ve heard a lot of positive data in this meeting, and I just wanted to give you some facts from my firsthand experience.

So, first, district leaders asked me to fabricate grades for a parent who sat in the office for hours until her daughter’s failing grades were changed.

It creates false entitlement. What happens when these kids lie, cheat, and cry their way through school and end up as future doctors, police, or politicians? When will you protect the future of our society?

Second, that same parent has harassed over 30 teachers. Teachers have filed police reports, and entire schools have had restraining orders against her, yet she’s still allowed on school property, showing up to field trips her child didn’t earn and filming other students.

When will you stop prioritizing parents’ feelings over the safety of our teachers and our students?

I heard you also mentioned that we’re closing gaps in teacher vacancies. I want the public to know that many of those are filled with uncertified teachers.

My third point: HR withheld money from my employee paycheck, as well as many others. They took $500 from me specifically, and it put me behind on my mortgage. And then they sent out an email saying that they had to do it to pay other employees. When will you pay teachers what they are owed?

My fourth point: The news reports that behavioral issues are down. They are not. We are simply banned from reporting them, forcing us to keep disruptive students in the classroom.

Statistics are being skewed to protect the district, not our children. Our children cannot read and write. They cannot do basic math. And we spend 40 hours a week with these students, so we know them better than the district and those fake numbers.

Please stop undermining our professional decisions because, honestly, it’s breaking the efficiency, and it’s giving HOA quality.

WATCH:

Diana Wills, a former math teacher at John Overton High School, faced the same pressure.

Administrators told her she had to pass failing students with D’s because she allegedly hadn’t alerted parents to the failing grades as required by a district policy technicality. Wills refused.

In emails obtained by WSMV4 Investigates, Wills wrote: “What is being done is unethical and could very well be interpreted as illegal.” She added that administrators were “latching onto a very vague line in the policy so you can cook the books to have the data look the way you need it to.”

One student had been told repeatedly to make up exams and never did. Wills noted she was on medical leave for much of one semester.

The district suspended her. She is now suing.

WSMV reported:

District responds

WSMV4 Investigates requested an interview with Metro Schools for three days. The district responded by email instead.

A district spokesman said in Wills’ case there was a difference of opinion on district policies, and that the grade changes did “not meaningfully affect the student’s final outcome in those courses.”

In response to Hardcastle’s complaints, the spokesman wrote that her claim “does not fully reflect what occurred.” Regarding the incomplete art project, the district said there was “no written schoolwide policy at the time that prohibited the student from being given an opportunity to complete the work,” and that the student finished the project and received a grade.