By Leila Merrill
WASHINGTON — Almost half of D.C. Fire and EMS’ biggest class of cadets failed out of the program, and some of them cheated, WTOP reported Friday.
Cadet Class 24 started their training in November. D.C. Fire and EMS posted on social media that the class was the biggest in the program’s history.
But the news outlet reports that 14 of the 32 cadets were academically eliminated because they failed the EMT final twice.
https://twitter.com/dcfireems/status/1455255843948142593
D.C. Fire and EMS spokeswoman Jennifer Donelan said in a statement that the eliminations are “extremely disappointing.”
The training program had made changes such as adding teachers to lower student-teacher ratios, the class time was lengthened from 12 weeks to 20, and the time between tests was increased to allow more time to study. And tutoring and life coaching were provided.
Donelan said that an investigation into integrity issues done after the 14 cadets tested out found that three of them cheated.
“There were insufficient facts to determine if the testing process was violated by the other members of the class,” she said.
For the remaining class members, graduation is in September.