Hall’s lawyers: ‘She never doubted … she would be acquitted’

Lawyers for Beverly Hall, the former Atlanta school superintendent facing criminal charges in a test-cheating scandal, issued this statement after her death Monday:

“It is our sad duty to acknowledge that Dr. Beverly Hall has lost her long, difficult battle against breast cancer. Dr. Hall fought this disease with great courage and dignity. For the last year and a half, Dr. Hall’s directions to her doctor have been simple: get me well enough to stand trial; and to her lawyers: see to it that I get a fair trial. She was never concerned about the outcome of such a trial, only that the process be fair. She never doubted that in a fair trial, with the jury hearing the state’s contentions and her rebuttal, to include her own testimony, she would be acquitted. In the end, she was not strong enough to go to trial although that had been her earnest hope.

“As the Superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, Dr. Hall fought, as she had throughout her career, for urban school children and their ability to learn. She believed to her death that all children, regardless of circumstance, could learn if provided with proper teachers, curricula and facilities. But we now know that there were some educators at APS who cheated in an effort to show improved learning. Dr. Hall long ago accepted responsibility, as the head of APS, for the unfortunate truth that some educators cheated on standardized tests. She was deeply sorry to learn that this cheating had occurred. At the same time, Dr. Hall continued to have deep faith in the thousands of dedicated APS educators and students who worked hard to achieve real learning and success. But one fact never wavered – to her dying breath she denied any role in directing, ordering, or participating in any cheating at APS. Even after millions of dollars, hundreds of witnesses and interviews, and a review of thousands upon thousands of emails, not a single witness has said, nor a single email demonstrated, that Dr. Hall ordered, directed, or participated in cheating. On the contrary, Dr. Hall’s tireless efforts to raise standards of education at APS for every child under her care starkly contradict the notion that she somehow conspired to orchestrate widespread cheating. She rebuilt schools, prioritized literacy, improved teaching, developed leaders, and modernized support systems.