HORRY COUNTY, SC (WMBF) - Internal emails obtained by WMBF News show Horry-Georgetown Technical College told its employees that the firing of the professor who blew the whistle on unauthorized grade changes had nothing to do with the investigation, but the professor says otherwise.
A Freedom of Information Act request filed by WMBF News to Horry-Georgetown Technical College produced three internal emails sent to faculty and staff in connection with a state investigation that confirmed 86 unauthorized grade changes made during the summer and fall of 2024.
Email warns employees not to engage with media
The first email, sent July 23 from the HGTC public relations office and signed by Chief PR and Communications Officer Nicole Hyman, warned employees not to engage with media.
The email attached the official statement that the school released about the grade-change investigation.
The email was sent the day before the Post and Courier published its first article on the grade changes identified in the investigation.
Second email addresses professor’s firing
A second email, also sent by Hyman on July 28, the day after former Spanish professor Valerie Falbo-Gasque says she was fired, states that “the recent personnel action is unrelated to the South Carolina Technical College System investigation report on grade changes or the matters addressed in that report.”
That email contradicts what Falbo-Gasque said to the Post and Courier in an article published July 27.
In the article, she...
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