Bishop Sycamore, the so-called high school that was revealed to not be a high school following a televised appearance in a football game on ESPN recently, is "not a school," new head coach Tyren Jackon said in an interview, calling the controversial classificatioin "a mistake in paperwork."
Jackon described Bishop Sycamore as a “post-grad football academy” in an interview with NBC4-Columbus, "We do not offer curriculum. We are not a school. That's not what Bishop Sycamore is, and I think that's what the biggest misconception about us was, and that was our fault. Because that was a mistake on paperwork.”
Bishop Sycamore’s founder, Andre Peterson, said Bishop Sycamore was classified as a “non-charter, non-tax supported school” by the state of Ohio in the previous school year, but it was due to a mistake in paperwork. He insisted that the “school is not a scam.”
The Columbus-based “school” appeared on an ESPN broadcast against nationally recognized IMG Academy in what was billed as “a high school football game.” IMG won 58-0, but that wasn’t the most embarrassing occurrence. After the game, Bishop Sycamore fired its head coach, and after some initial investigating, the question asked was whether Bishop Sycamore was a legitimate school.
Initial findings concluded that Bishop Sycamore doesn't have a physical school building or any type of curriculum, despite being identified by the state of Ohio as a "non-charter, non-tax supported school."
The situation prompted Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine to order an investigation into the “school.” Since the GEICO ESPN High School Football Kickoff appearance, Bishop Sycamore has been accused of having no students, an indoor sports training facility as its location, issuing bad checks to pay for hotels on the road, and of being a fraudulent institution.
Jackson said they will not file the paperwork to declare themselves as a school for the current academic year, and that whoever did so last year did it before he arrived. When asked about a report that they had an official bell schedule and address, Jackson said, “I don’t know anything about that. A lot of it (the issues), you can say, was self-inflicted, and I’m willing to say that.
“But at the same time, that’s probably from a head-down type of thing. Don’t attack these kids. Don’t take that part from them, now that they don’t have a season, possibly. Once the smoke clears, we’re national news. Whoever does schedule us next will be national news.”
As of now, there is no one scheduling Bishop Sycamore, other than state investigators, to take testimony and check out suspected improprieties.
