School principal quits after sending $100,000 to Summer pretending to be Elon Musk – NBC Orlando (31)

The principal of a charter school in Central Florida resigned this week after admitting to writing a check for $100,000 from the school’s account to an online fraudster posing as Elon Musk.

Dr. Jean McGee, who was president of the Burns Science and Technology Charter School in Oak Hill, said she was “scammed” for four months by someone pretending to be the founder of SpaceX, who is also the CEO of Twitter and Tesla, the WESH affiliate of NBC. mentioned.

“I am a very smart lady. Well educated. I fell for a scam,” said McGee, who has been trying to get Musk and his money into STEM school for years.

“In a way, I believed it,” said Chairman Albert Amalfitano. “It must have been really convincing.”

McGee said he gave the check to someone he believed to be Musk’s right-hand man with the promise of $6 million back. The director obtained permission to write checks of up to $50,000 without board approval.

“I put myself in this situation and this mess and made a bad decision,” McGee said.

The check was stopped before it was cashed. At a meeting, McGee resigned after several administrators challenged him for what some called a “toxic” work environment.

“When you lose respect…when your leadership is now in question, you can’t drive properly and that will create chaos,” said Chairman Albert Amalfitano.