A three-member Atlanta Public Schools tribunal voted Thursday not to renew the contract of M. A. Jones Elementary School fifth-grade teacher Precious Moon, one of about 180 APS educators implicated in the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Test cheating scandal.
Moon was accused of “prompting” students to change answers or giving them the correct answers while she monitored the tests. But during a hearing Monday APS attorneys did not produce any witnesses or evidence to support those allegations. Three students called to the stand by Moon’s attorney, Gerald Griggs, testified she did not prompt them to change wrong answer to right answers or give them the right answers.
Superintendent Erroll Davis testified during the hearing that he had lost confidence in Moon because of the findings of a state investigation that cited her for cheating and the Georgia Professional Standards Commission’s recommendation that her teaching license be suspended for two years.
Griggs said Friday the tribunal found Moon was negligent in her duties but was following orders. “Basically, they said she obeyed the chain of command, and she is being terminated for that,” he said.
Griggs said he will appeal the case to the Georgia Department of Education. The Atlanta school board still has to decide whether to follow the tribunal’s recommendation.
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