The trials and tribulations of Rosita Hernandez, Houston’s disgraced former manager of the pro tem office, have been all the talk around town for weeks. Certainly, something is wrong with those bonuses, and investigations are ongoing.
Now, though, we learn that the woman who drew a salary of $126K lied about whether she graduated from high school in 1983. In fact, there is even a question as to whether her now-modified story of a GED is true. From today’s Chronicle:
When questioned by the Houston Chronicle, Hernandez confirmed through her lawyer that she did not graduate from Bell. Instead, she told lawyer Walter Boyd III that she earned her GED while enrolled at Barclay Career School in Houston in the late 1980s.
But the Texas Education Agency has no record of her receiving a GED, and a TEA spokeswoman said Barclay never was a GED-testing site. Barclay no longer has a listing in Houston phone books, has no Internet site and does not appear on lists of Houston trade schools.
Questioned by the Chronicle again, Hernandez insisted through Boyd that she received her GED there. She even recalled the classroom and teacher for the Barclay GED class, Boyd said, so it is possible she was deceived by the school.
Polimom has known many people who, as adults, regretted that they hadn’t finished high school. I’ve known very few, though, who were successful in spite of it.
Get a grip, folks. According to the article, Rosita Hernandez started her career with the City of Houston as a municipal court secretary, earning a whopping $19,000 per year. She apparently was very good at her job – enough so that she moved up through the ranks for ten years. Her rise was downright meteoric, in fact… but at the end of the day, she was still working in the same field.
Is it really a problem that she lied to get a position as a municipal court secretary? We’re not, after all, talking about civil engineering projects or neurology. Or is the subtext that somebody who didn’t finish school shouldn’t be able to advance?
Next thing, we’ll be hearing she’s an illegal immigrant. This is starting to sound like a witch hunt.
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