Metro

Students: Bronx school forced out struggling kids

Struggling students were forced out of a top Bronx public high school with such regularity that kids dubbed the practice “POE” — or Process of Elimination, students said today.

The Post reported Tuesday that Bronx Health Sciences HS had been allegedly maintaining its prestigious 95 percent graduation rate by forcing dozens of low-performing students to transfer elsewhere.

Students named assistant principal Maudi Rodriguez, a strict disciplinarian, as the main force behind the push-outs — which they said often occurred early in students’ tenure at the Baychester school.

“Once the grades come in she pretty much decides who’s going to stay and who’s going to leave,” said a 16-year-old student. “She just picks up the people she wants and lets go the people she doesn’t.”

Among the schools that received the castaways were Banana Kelly HS and Bronx Regional transfer high school, as well as some GED programs, according to sources.

Parents inadvertently legitimized the illicit practice — and helped keep it under the radar — by signing transfer forms under pressure, students and parents said.

Rodriguez could not be reached, and principal Miriam Rivas did not respond to an email seeking comment.

A DOE spokeswoman said the agency has referred the allegations to the Special Commissioner of Investigation.

yoav.gonen@nypost.com