El Paso student says lost SAT answers prevents him from applying to college early
EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14) — United Parcel Service (UPS) apologized to El Paso High School and its students after a driver lost students' SAT answer sheets in transit.
UPS shared the following statement with KFOX14:
We have apologized to the school and extend our apologies to the students. Our employees are working to recover as many tests as possible, and we will work with the school to resolve the situation. The driver’s actions in this case are not representative of UPS protocols and methods, and we are addressing this with him. Safely meeting our service commitments is UPS’s first priority.
KFOX14 spoke with an El Paso High School student who said his answers were lost.
Senior Ezra Ponzio had already taken the SAT last year but said he wasn't pleased with his score. He was hoping to redeem himself this year.
“I’d say that I felt pretty good going into it," he said.“ I was hoping to land around a 1260 to 1300 this time.”
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Ponzio will never know what he scored on that test because it was destroyed after the test sheets somehow flew out of a UPS truck on Mesa and Executive.
“UPS, just try your best to make it right with us," Ponzio said.
According to the school district, students' SAT answers were lost in transit after they were "securely submitted to UPS."
“It turns out that around 250 of them were completely destroyed and unusable, but all the tests became invalid because they could have been tampered with," said Ponzio. "That is still time and effort that went into studying and trying to do good on this test.”
The El Paso Independent School District said the incident affects students who took the exam on Oct. 27 on campus.
EPISD said it is working with the College Board to come up with a solution for the El Paso High School students whose SAT exams were lost.
Occasionally test materials are lost in transit. When such instances occur, we work with the school to ensure that students are able to retest as soon as possible. We are currently working with El Paso High School to provide options for the impacted students," The College Board stated.
Counselors are providing students interested in taking the ACT with waivers to retake the exam at no cost, EPISD added.
The deadline is Nov. 4 and the exam is Dec. 10 at El Paso High.
“Either apply for the ACT, which is a test that we don’t know anything about, or pay again for the SAT and take it in December. Today is the last day that you can even pay for the cheaper version," said Ponzio.
Ponzio said this incident prevents him from applying to schools early, which he was hoping to do.
“I was mostly looking at A&M so the early deadline is already shot. Hopefully, the SAT score can come in time for the actual deadline in January, but here’s hoping," he added.
KFOX14 asked UPS if they would reimburse students who pay to retake the SAT test, and they said they are working with the high school to resolve the situation.
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