April 16--Two weeks ago, Atlanta's schoolchildren learned a powerful lesson about the disastrous consequences of cheating in the classroom -- by teachers. A jury convicted 11 former Atlanta educators for widespread fixing of test results. Teachers had inflated students' test scores -- and collected bonuses or protected their jobs -- to make it seem that the school district was delivering excellent student progress.
In addition to feathering their own nests, the educators had cheated students of fair evaluations of their academic strengths and weaknesses.
On Tuesday, a judge turned that lesson in trust and honesty into a graduate-level seminar on what to do when you're caught doing wrong: Take responsibility.
Eight of the convicted educators refuse to do that. So Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter sentenced them to prison. And not just for a token few weeks or months. Baxter sentenced three top administrators to seven years in prison, 13 years on probation and fines of $25,000 each. The prison terms were longer than prosecutors had recommended for the racketeering convictions.
Baxter pulled no punches. He called the cheating scandal "the sickest thing that's ever happened in this town."
He sliced to the heart of the terrible, enduring damage of this scandal: Not primarily to the educators' careers. To the children's education.
"Everyone starts crying about these educators," Baxter said. "There were thousands of children harmed in this thing. This is not a victimless crime."
Nor was it a momentary lapse: The cheating went on for years, as the district's superintendent collected national accolades and teachers held "changing parties" on weekends to doctor the answers.
On Monday, one day before sentencing, Baxter offered educators a chance for lighter sentences if they admitted responsibility and waived appeals. He told everyone "this is the time to search your soul." Two did accept responsibility and drew gentler sentences; the 11th will be sentenced later.
For many, though, the search of their souls came up empty. That further flummoxed Baxter. "All I want for many of these people is to just take some responsibility, but they refuse -- they refuse," he said Tuesday. He then handed out sentences that drew gasps and tears in court.
Many of those educators likely will appeal their convictions. They'll probably also argue that their sentences are too harsh -- that, as one defense attorney contended, "a conviction for changing answers on a test is not an offense that should send" someone to prison.
But jurors not only convicted these educators for changing answers on tests. Jurors convicted them for putting their jobs, not their pupils, first.
Today in Atlanta, parents can point to this case, this judge, and explain to their children that everyone makes mistakes. But some people compound those errors by ducking the blame, and the just penalty, for their actions. The teachers convicted in Atlanta will never stand at the head of another classroom. But the consequences they face can still teach students across that city, across America, that vital lesson.
In the aftermath of a different scandal, the stripping of the Little League title from Chicago's Jackie Robinson West baseball team, we suggested that mastering life is less about celebrating the successes and mourning the calamities than it is about setting aside the past and moving forward. Honestly.
The best way to set aside the past and move forward: Make good choices. And take responsibility when you don't.
