Official charged

Former school official charged with stealing chess club funds
Scott McCabe, The Examiner
2007-11-01 07:00:00.0
Current rank: # 365 of 3,350 WASHINGTON –

A former school administrator has been charged with stealing $30,000 from an Anacostia grade school chess club whose run to the national championship four years ago captured the hearts of local residents.

Federal prosecutors filed information in U.S. District Court this week that charged Sandy Jones, a former business manager with the Moten Center Special Education School, with ripping off the money from the chess club’s bank account between May 2003 and November 2003.

Jones was a signatory on the account. According to federal court documents, she, “used the [chess club] account’s debit card to obtain cash from ATM machines; and wrote checks, payable to herself, and cashed them.” She also forged the signatures of other club officials on checks she cashed. Stealing about $250 at a time, Jones eventually siphoned $30,000 from the account, documents charged.

She could not be reached Wednesday, and an official at the school said she no longer worked there.

The Moten chess team was comprised of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students who had been removed from other elementary schools because of behavioral problems.

Before chess, the students couldn’t sit still in class, their volunteer coach Vaughn Bennett told The Examiner on Wednesday. The students were diagnosed with bipolar disorder or attention-deficit order, and labeled as too dysfunctional to learn, Bennett said.

But the students eventually learned to concentrate, often for hours. Their school grades improved and the team started to beat “regular” students. “Chess saves lives,” Bennett said.

When the city residents learned that the team wouldn’t be able to attend the National Scholastic Chess Championship in Nashville, Tenn., more than $70,000 in private donors poured in to the school and the team. The team of “special needs” students finished 33rd out of 64 of the nation’s top scholastic chess squads.

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