One of the former teachers convicted of racketeering in the Atlanta public schools cheating case delivered a son on Saturday, just two days before 10 of her co-defendants will be sentenced.
Shani Robinson, who taught first grade at Dunbar Elementary, went in to labor Saturday morning and by the afternoon she and her husband had an 7-pound-13-ounce boy, according to one of the attorneys in the case.
Unlike the others convicted in the cheating scandal case, Robinson will not to be sentenced until August. Judge Jerry Baxter sent her 10 co-defendants to jail after the jury verdict was announced, but he allowed Robinson to wait at home because she was close to delivering. He also put off her sentencing because of her advanced pregnancy.
The 10 former administrators, principals and teachers will be sentenced on Monday.
A jury of six men and six women convicted 11 former educators on April 1 of conspiring to cheat on the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Test so the inflated scores would help struggling schools meet federal benchmarks. A retired teacher of special needs children, Dessa Curb, was the only one acquitted of all charges.
Prosecutors say former Superintendent Beverly Hall was the ringleader, who drove administrators, principals and teachers to get improved test scores as she was receiving national accolades for turning around failing schools. Hall, however, did not go on trial with the 12 because she had breast cancer and she died last month before her case could be taken to a jury.
Robinson was convicted of racketeering conspiracy and the crime of making false statements and writings. She could be sentenced to as much as 20 years in prison.
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