Opinion: An ex-Atlanta school principal is going to prison. It’s wrong

In this guest column, Girvan contends that Evans does not deserve prison.

By Saji Girvan

I recently learned that my former guidance counselor Dana Evans will be going to prison as part of the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal.

I am a Morningside Elementary, Inman Middle and Grady High School graduate. While attending Morningside, I slept in a room the size of a closet. In middle school, I begged my parents not to put me on free and reduced lunch due to the shame.

Since leaving APS, I graduated from Emory University and the London School of Economics on full scholarships. I invent new products, design organizations and run international summits. I am a researcher and a builder who has been to five continents. I even worked on the campaign to stop the state takeover and privatization of APS in 2016, a proposition that was defeated and which is deeply connected to why this trial occurred.

This is not a history told to self-aggrandize. This is a list to display the effect of educators like Mrs. Evans. Where does a young Black person gain the confidence and gall to do what I have done in a relatively short time? The ability to say yes to yourself, when others say no? The confidence to dream and achieve beyond the vision of the status quo?

I’ve heard horror stories from friends in other cities and states of teachers and counselors actively sabotaging and undermining the dreams of their students. Teachers told them what they couldn’t do and what they should do. This was not my experience with Mrs. Evans.

Credit: Courtesy photo

Credit: Courtesy photo

If I had a dream or a scheme, I was told, “Let’s do it!” I was told, “Here’s how and you better make that deadline.” I was told, “Oh you missed the deadline. OK, let’s see what we can do.” I was loved and cared for by Mrs. Evans and my Black elders at school. I am but one of thousands of students that Mrs. Evans and their colleagues have affected and empowered in ways that are diametrically opposed to the system of testing and its proponents.

The standardized testing system’s true purpose is to perpetuate the superficial and self-serving interests of policymakers and the new behemoth of commercial education players. This scheme is top down, from the federal No Child Left Behind Act to the superintendents themselves. On the ground experience, anecdotes and aggregate data show that the number of resources and time spent on standardized testing does not efficiently or constructively move the needle on what matters: creating a safe space for the positive growth of our next generations. This is what educators do. Black educators like Mrs. Evans have been on the frontline, serving as school parents and caregivers.

The real scandal is for policymakers, judges, journalists and politicians to collaborate to blame and scapegoat frontline educators in the name of an impotent bureaucratic scheme that actively defrauds our children by convincing everyone that a test score is equivalent to a good education. This intentionally shifts the focus from who is actually cheating our children: these same politicians, corporate consultants, voucher evangelists, and charter school libertarians.

And this whole time, as they are derailing public education to sell us back our own public goods, they would have you believe the teachers were harming the children. What a scam. APS teachers, guidance counselors and principals grow the seeds of our children into dynamic people. Standardized tests cannot do that.

It is shameful what has happened to the 11 educators convicted in the scandal. If trial Judge Jerry Baxter and District Attorney Fani Willis are concerned about the well-being of students in APS as they contend, they will not spend one more dime on the imprisonment, probation, or fining of these teachers, and will let our communities heal from this trauma.