the school's star players, Kareem Rush and his brother JaRon Rush, to play on his "amateur" basketball team. Piggie admitted to paying JaRon Rush $17,000 and Kareem Rush $2,300, after which the brothers "submitted false and fraudulent Student Athlete Statements to the universities where they were to play intercollegiate basketball", certifying that they had not been paid to play basketball. As a result, the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Missouri found themselves subject to NCAA penalties for awarding athletic scholarships to non-amateurs. On Piggie's 2002 appeal from his prison sentence and restitution for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, and tax evasion, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found that Pembroke Hill had "sustained a loss of $10,733.89 in investigative costs and forfeiture of property as a result of" Piggie's conspiracy. In the Class of 2013, 29 seniors were recognized by National Merit. Of these 29, 21 or 21% of the class, are National Merit Semifinalists. Eight of the students are Commended Students. This number represents the second highest percentage in Missouri. On September 7, 2017, Dr. Steve Bellis announced that the 2018–2019 school year would be his last as Head of School. Dr. Bellis served as the Headmaster of the Ward Parkway Campus of The Pembroke Hill School for 16 years. Upon his departure, Pembroke welcomed in Brad Shelley as the newest Head of School. Shelley was previously serving as associate headmaster at the McDonogh School, in Baltimore, MD. According to The Kansas City Star, students at Pembroke Hill have "faced several incidents of anti-Semitic behavior at Pembroke." On the 2021 International Holocaust Remembrance Day in January, a swastika was discovered on a student's desk. The symbol was accompanied by an offensive reference toward members of the school's LGBT community. The incident was covered by citywide media and contextualized by prior incidents where one student raised his arm in a Nazi salute while calling a Jewish student an offensive name, and swastikas were painted on a Jewish student's locker. Several Jewish parents spoke to The Star on the condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals against their children. Following the incident, officials initiated a hiring search for the newly created position of Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In April 2021, months after a swastika was discovered in a classroom, school officials found "KKK" written on the side of a desk. School