Posted on 04/03/2013 4:56:30 PM PDT by blam
Edited on 04/03/2013 5:09:46 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has posted mug shots of 35 educators booked for allegedly colluding to raise standardized test scores.
A 73-year-old principal, a middle school secretary, elementary school teachers, and other school workers are accused of being behind the nation's biggest cheating scandal.
Prosecutors are going after them under a racketeering law originally enacted to target the mafia, and they face prison time for allegedly changing students' test scores. Many of the teachers had bonds of $1 million or more that they had to argue to get lowered to six or five figures.
The scathing indictment of mostly black teachers has sparked allegations of racism from the Concerned Black Clergy and a prominent former mayor, The New York Times has reported. Rev. Timothy McDonald, a spokesman for Concerned Black Clergy, called the indictment "overkill" at best.
“Look at the pictures of those 35,” he told the Times. “Show me a white face. Let’s just be for real. You can call it racist, you can call it whatever you want, but this is overkill. We have seen people with much deeper crimes with much less bond set.”
It's clear prosecutors meant to send a strong message by arresting so many teachers after a sting
(snip)
Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Jackson, like the Concerned Black Clergy, has rushed to the teachers' defense and accused the media of unfairly skewering them.
"Yes cheating is awful," she writes on her blog. "And so is conviction before a fair trial. I believe every accused person deserves a fair trial under a set of laws that promises to be just and balanced. I don’t support public hangings. It is barbaric."
Jackson added, "Prosecutors, judges and jurors make mistakes and overreach."
Before this is over with, the teachers will be the victims...mark my word.
They ought to be facing the death penalty.
does Georgia have the death penalty?
Considering the fact that there was so much bonus money involved and it sure sounds like organized crime to me.
No different than fixing a prize fight in my book.
I don’t understand what the problem is here, it was organized, and it was crime. So, “Organized Crime”.
????
Why wouldn’t an organized crime syndicate be prosecuted like an organized crime syndicate?
By the look of some of those teachers the investigators might need to investigate those who gave them teaching credentials!
This slime was teaching kids to cheat.
certainly it is racist, but not racism from whites.
It is black raism that is at fault here.
Don’t worry though Holder will come through for them.
Yup, Holder’s Peeps. No surprise there.
Mobsters don't cheat children!
no they are being prosecuted like a bunch of conspiring union thugs.
I noticed a trend in these mugshots.
Sounds like their goal was to raise the test scores of the children to more acceptable levels and apparently this was accomplished. The process in which they accomplished the raising of the test scores seems to be what the group is being charged with. JMO.
More proof that the “Noble Savage” syndrome is spreading.
This once great country is quick to forgive anybody who is not White. Anybody who is non White can do no wrong.
It even goes so far as to elect someone president who is not qualified.
Of the 65 counts in the Atlanta indictment, Beverly Hall and 34 others were charged with one count of violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Hall also is charged with making false statements and false writings, and theft by taking. If convicted on all counts, she faces a maximum 45 years in prison.
SAP-HAPPY SUPERINTENDENTS GROUP HONORS HALLIn 2009, Hall was named National Superintendent of the Year by the Schools Superintendents Association, which at the time, said Hall's "leadership turned Atlanta into a model of urban school reform."
HALL'S REIGN OF TERROR But the Atlanta indictment paints another picture of Beverly Hall, one of a supt with "a single-minded purpose, and that was to cheat."
The message from Beverly Hall was clear: There were to be no exceptions and no excuses for failure to meet her targets. For example, teachers who reported other teachers who cheated were terminated, while teachers who were caught cheating were only suspended," the indictment alleges.
"It is further part of the conspiracy and endeavor that targets achieved through cheating were used by Beverly Hall to obtain substantial performance bonuses.....which was at the heart of the conspiracy to cheat, " the indictment said. The indictment alleges a number of educators received performance bonuses based on test scores.
According to the indictment, Hall protected and rewarded teachers who achieved her academic targets by cheating. It also alleges she fired principals who failed to achieve goals and that she ignored "suspicious test score gains" throughout the school system.........a turn of events outed by ace investigative reporters at the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Four of Hall's executive administrators, six principals, two assistant principals, six testing coordinators, 14 teachers, a school improvement specialist and a school secretary were also indicted.
====================================================
So how did educators get nailed under RICO? Read on, bloggers.
Rhonda Cook one of the ace AJC reporters who bird-dogged the Hall story reported: The 1980 Georgia General Assembly was concerned about “the increasing sophistication of various criminal elements,” so it adopted the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), patterned after a similar federal law. RICO is often used to try to prove that a legal business was being used for illegal means, and, in the beginning, was used to prosecute drug traffickers or organized crime members.
But in recent years prosecutors have applied RICO to government officials accused of using their offices for personal gain---such as those named here--- the various former and current Atlanta public school officials.
To bring a case under Georgia’s RICO law, there must be at least two underlying felonies — such as fraud, bribery, witness tampering (among others). RICO allows prosecutors to include multiple defendants charged with various crimes in the self-same indictment, and to charge that they were allegedly part of an ongoing criminal enterprise.
Where da white men at? Over 30 mugshots and not one cracka male? That’s racist! Every one of these felons has that brain dead ‘0bamabot’ look on their face.. Think of the many more thousands of teachers still teaching kids how to grow up to be Communists. Arrest them ALL.
I guess money is more important than duty.
Ever since Obama got elected, we have learned a lot about how his people govern and manage. It's not racist to notice a difference in standards and ethics.
That said, there are many fine folks of Obama's race...but it appears that the majority of Obama's folks are ruining the reputation of its fine minority (like Thomas Sowell, Dr Ben Carson, LTC Allan West, et al).
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