Lassiter High counselor cleared of battery

By Joel Provano

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Lassiter High School counselor who was accused of improperly touching a student  has been cleared of all charges by a Cobb County jury.

It took a Cobb State Court jury only 45 minutes last week to acquit Frank Robinson, who had been accused of inappropriately touching a female student in his office in 2009.

Barry Hazen, Robinson's attorney, told Channel 2 Action News that jurors expressed anger that the charges of misdemeanor sexual battery and simple battery were even brought before them.

“They said the case was over after the first witness,” Hazen told the Marietta Daily Journal.

After the charges were brought against Robinson, the school system began the process of terminating him after he was given the opportunity to resign and refused. He was allowed to return to work in 2010 but was reassigned to another high school. Then, his teaching certificate was revoked, leaving him without a job.

Robinson told Channel 2  that Lassiter officials took the girl's word over his, ignoring his long, spotless record.

"And to have colleagues, not teachers that worked with me, [but] administrators and board people from the office turn their back on you is disheartening, because teachers work so hard, not to have support of the administration and like I said, the county office people," Robinson told Channel 2.

"It hurts that every morning I would drive my son to school and after I dropped him off at school, I would make a right to go to the high school … to know that I could not make that turn, to go to where I loved to work, it hurt. It hurt deeply and … I'm really trying to get past it, but it's tough," Robinson said.