Head of parents' committee at Bucharest high school, sentenced to jail in attempted baccalaureate fraud case

The head of the parents' committee at the Bolintineanu high school in Bucharest has been sentenced to two years in prison with parole for her involvement in the attempted baccalaureate fraud earlier this year. The vicepresident of the baccalaureate commission also got a year in jail, with parole. Both sentences can be appealed. Gina Ciontoiu, the head of the parents' committee, was found guilty of having helped the high school director ask for and collect money from the students who had signed up for the June – July baccalaureate exam. Ciontoiu used her influence to convince members of the baccalaureate commission, as well as teachers who had to supervise the exam, to help candidates pass the exam by illegal means. Prosecutors found the amounts collected prior to the exam were to be handed over to the supervising teachers both directly, and hidden in cigarette packs and in newspapers and magazines placed on the teacher's desk in the exam rooms. The court order against Ciontoiu can be further appealed. She will also have to appear for psychological counselling. Meanwhile, the court case against the high school director Costica Varzaru and the school's secretary Elena Dumitru has been separated from that of the parents' representatives and will go to trial in the future. According to prosecutors, the school director, who was dismissed after the scandal broke earlier in the summer, was planning to have the exam subjects solved by teachers in her school, and then copy the results and distribute them in the exam rooms as 'extra writing paper'. She had been pushing for certain teachers to be part of the exam commission, in order to be able to influence them. The whole scheme was only incipient when the prosecutors intervened. Mimoza Vulcu, the vice-president of the Baccalaureate commission at the Bolintineanu high school, and the school's secretary together copied the correct exam answers for the Romanian literature written exam, and were planing to give the answers to several students in the exam room. The students' names were written on a piece of paper later found in Vulcu's bag. The two women were found by prosecutors while on their way to the exam rooms to hand over the correct answers. The authorities also found money in the exam rooms, including in the possession of some of the supervising teachers. Five teachers in the baccalaureate commission and 32 supervising teachers from that high school were then taken to police hearings. The commission was changed after the first exam and the attempted fraud, following which the high-school director was also dismissed. After the baccalaureate was over, tens of students from the high school were also taken for hearings. Most of them said they had collected money, but without mentioning what the money was going to be used for. editor@romania-insider.com