Oak Lawn seniors won't walk after forging community service papers, school says

OAK LAWN, Ill. (WLS) -- Forty-eight Oak Lawn Community High School students won't walk at graduation or get a diploma because they faked their community service requirement by forging papers.

The school requires 24 hours of community service to graduate.

School officials first noticed a discrepancy while going through the papers of two seniors last week. They said the handwriting of the general manager and golf pro at Oak Lawn's Stony Creek Golf Course didn't match those of 45 other students who volunteered there. Stony Creek Golf Course is part of the park district.

"There was one primary student who was orchestrating the whole thing, which is why all the signatures looked pretty much the same until those last two at the very end. So if it wasn't for those last two we might very well have never found out this," Oak Lawn Community High School Supt. Michael Riordan said.

The Stony Creek manager confirmed there was no record of those students participating.

Forty-seven students who submitted the forged papers and the student who did the forging will not be allowed to participate in Wednesday's graduation ceremony, school official said. That's about 10-percent of the graduating class.

"They had four years to do it, so, it's not like it's really that hard. I did it in like the first week of freshman year," Mitchell Gonsch said.

Once the students have completed their 24 hours of community service, they will receive their diplomas, according to Supt. Riordan.