County Diplomas Bear Spelling Error

Hot on the heels of the Scripps National Spelling Bee comes an epic spelling gaffe out of Prince George’s County Public Schools. 

The diplomas of PGCPS high school seniors, including Northwestern High School, contain a blatant spelling error, misspelling the word “program” as “progam,” omitting the second “r.”

PGCPS Communications Director Briant Coleman confirmed today in that the misspelling appeared on all county high school diplomas, and was the result of a vendor error. He also said PGCPS became aware of the misspelling sometime last week, and that all students and parents have been notified of the error. 

The vendor, National Quality Products, located in Fairfax, VA, will pay for the reprinting of the diplomas and mail them to the students in about six weeks, according to an apology letter issued by the vendor to PGCPS.

Lynn Bryant’s daughter, Heather, graduated from  in Upper Marlboro about two weeks ago. Bryant's daughter brought the error to her attention after her friend noticed it last Thursday.

The rest of Heather’s friends, also recent Douglass grads, checked their diplomas and all found the same spelling error.

“That’s kind of embarrassing,” Bryant said.

When called for comment, Frederick Douglass Principal Rudolph Saunders said he was unaware of the diploma misspelling.

Patch also received an email from Vickie Walker of Bowie, whose son John graduated from last week, reporting that “program” was also misspelled on her son’s diploma.