George Little and Raquel Sabogal, jurors from the Atlanta Public Schools cheating trial, sat down with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Thursday for an exclusive interview. During the two-hour meeting, the jurors discussed the 11 guilty defendants, the one who went free, Beverly Hall and life during the nearly seven-month trial, which ended April 1.
Here's are some highlights that didn't appear in our initial April 10 news story.
On the debate over statistics as evidence of cheating: Both said the experts in statistics were "overkill." "To me it was an obvious correlation. The statistics spoke for themselves," Little said. "None of us questioned (whether there was) cheating. The experts pointed out none of this was happening by chance."
On deliberations: The jury spent almost 50 hours over eight days deliberating. With 12 defendants to discuss, they took each case one at a time and voted to convict or acquit. They started with the first name on the list after Hall, former regional director Tamara Cotman. They struggled with her case so they moved her to the end of the list. On day two of deliberations they moved to the next name, Sharon Davis-Williams, another former regional director. By the end of the day they voted to convict Davis-Williams of racketeering. They acquitted her of two lesser felonies because the schools named in two counts were incorrect. "It was botched in the indictment in those two counts," Little said.
On former teacher Angela Williamson: "We collectively thought she was a pretty good teacher," Little said. But she also "was the easiest to decide. You had kids, co-workers and parents" testify that she cheated. "She could have walked away," Little said.
On acquitted teacher Dessa Curb: The jury voted to acquit Curb on March 23. There were obviously testing irregularities when she left answer sheets out. But even her admission to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent that she would erase the wrong answer if a student marked two bubbles for a single question and she would fill in any that were missed was not enough to erase reasonable doubt. "It could have been a hypothetical the way she was asked," Sabogal said.
Only two of her students passed the 2009 CRCT.
On former Dobbs Elementary School principal Dana Evans: This case was especially sad for the jurors, the two said. Evans was a rising star in the district when she moved from Inman Middle School, which had students from higher-income families and a lot of parental involvement, to Dobbs, in a low-income area of the city where cheating was going on. Little said Evans "inherited a different situation at Dobbs. She inherited a cheating school" with difficult teachers and "had three years to turn it around. I see her as a good person and a good educator. Someone who made poor choices. It's very sad."
She was convicted March 30.
On the former educators from Dunbar Elementary: These former teachers, Shani Robinson, Diane Buckner-Webb and Pamela Cleveland, were discussed as a group, which they called the "Dunbar 3." The jury voted to convict all three on March 31.
“It was indisputable that not only was there cheating, there was flagrant cheating,” Little said.
On former Deerwood Academy assistant principal Tabeeka Jordan: Jordan was convicted of racketeering but acquitted of false statements and writings and theft by taking. Little said the jury voted not guilty on all the theft by taking charges because they didn't think the educators on trial were motivated by the possibility of bonuses or pay raises. He thinks pressure and fear of losing their jobs pushed them to cheat.
On former Benteen Elementary School testing coordinator Theresia Copeland: "People (were) seeing her with tests multiple times when she should not have had them," Little said. "She had control over those tests.
On former regional director Tamara Cotman: The jury returned to Cotman and voted to convict her of racketeering after refreshing their memories of testimony that came later in the notebooks many of them kept. Little had seven spiral notebooks while Sabogal recorded testimony on yellow legal pads. Cotman in an earlier trial had been found not guilty of trying to influence a witness.
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