In 2012, Dana Evans had a six-figure salary and a well-respected job as principal of Dobbs Elementary School in Atlanta.
On Wednesday night, Evans was a convicted felon, eating spaghetti and what she described to her lawyer as a “wilted” salad for supper.
Evans and nine other convicted defendants in the Atlanta school test-cheating trial were set to awaken Friday from their second night in jail.
The images of teachers and school administrators slowly removing their earrings and handing their belongings to their attorneys and loved ones before being handcuffed were seen worldwide and underscored startling realities of their new existence. For example, no family members can visit them in jail for the first two weeks.
The judge, Jerry Baxter, said it was time for the nine women and two men to start serving time for their crimes — an organized effort that cheated children out of a proper education. One of the convicted, Shani Robinson, is expecting and was at home when the verdict was read. Her due date is later this month.
"They have been convicted of felonies, serious felonies," Baxter said upon immediately sending the defendants to jail. All were found guilty of racketeering. "They have made this decision (to go to trial) and they have not fared well. I don't like to send anybody to jail … but they have made their bed and they have to lie in it."
For the two men, that bed is in the Fulton County Jail on Rice Street in a sparse corner of northwest Atlanta. For the women, it is in a jail annex in Alpharetta.
Their backgrounds were varied. One of the defendants, Donald Bullock, said he served in the U.S. Army. Another, Sharon Davis-Williams, said she was a Red Cross board member in Indiana. Some defendants said in job applications they considered teaching a calling.
“There is no career that could be as rewarding as teaching,” Tabeeka Jordan said in her 1996 job application.
The job was financially rewarding as well. Personnel records show some defendants had annual salaries of more than $140,000, nearly three times the median salary in Georgia. Prosecutors said some educators involved in the scandal were enticed by bonuses to participate in the cheating.
The maximum weekly transaction in a Fulton County inmate’s account is $100.
When new inmates arrive at the jail, deputies get a thumbprint to verify their identity, they’re photographed and then booking starts.
In no particular order, they are given a medical screening, prints are taken from all fingers, and they are interviewed so they can be classified. The jail makes a special effort to keep gang members from each other.
Finally, they remove all their clothes and put their belongings into a bin. An inventory is taken. Then they are strip-searched and given a blue jail jumpsuit.
Bob Rubin visited his client, Evans, Thursday afternoon. The former principal has been married 20 years and had no prior criminal record. He said she is “surprisingly strong. She got a little teary but she had a smile on her face.”
The eight women, educators with master’s degrees and doctoral degrees, are in a barracks-style unit at the jail. They can make phone calls and see their attorneys at any time.
“The deputies were kind enough to give them some additional cleaning supplies because they know they are not used to conditions like that, so they’re cleaning the barracks,” Rubin said. “When they’re all together, they’re okay. But some will slip away and cry.”
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