APS TRIAL: DAY 6
TUESDAY’S MOMENT:
Under his plea deal, former Gideons Elementary Principal Armstead Salters agreed to testify that Beverly Hall and former regional director Michael Pitts applied so much pressure on him to improve test scores that he had no choice but to encourage cheating at his school. But on Tuesday, he said, “I may have to go to prison for it, but they never placed pressure on me to cheat under any circumstance.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“I think he’s a hostile witness trying to make himself look better. … I’m not prepared to just kneecap the state because this happened.” — Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter, in response to Salters’ testimony, which prompted the defense to ask for a mistrial or to exclude the testimony
NEXT UP:
Salters is expected to take the stand again on Wednesday. Testimony from former Gideons Elementary testing coordinator Sheridan Rogers could follow.
The prosecution’s first cooperating witness in the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating trial was anything but cooperative.
In fact, Armstead Salters, the former principal of Gideons Elementary School, almost completely disowned an agreement he reached with prosecutors and which he swore to in open court when entering his guilty plea. On Tuesday, during often tortured testimony, the 74-year-old educator acknowledged what he was doing could land him in prison.
Salters was expected to be a key prosecution witness against former regional supervisor Michael Pitts, one of 12 defendants on trial for an alleged racketeering conspiracy to inflate scores on state-mandated standardized tests. When Salters pleaded guilty last December, he admitted to orchestrating test-cheating at Gideons and said he did so because he felt “excessive and extreme pressure placed on (him) by the administration.”
At that time, Salters was under indictment for racketeering and other felonies, charges he said were affecting his health.
“I was getting sick from it,” Salters said Tuesday. “I did what was in the best interest of myself, but maybe I did it the wrong way. … I made a mistake in signing off on some of those things.”
Salters acknowledged initialing or signing every page of the Dec. 19 agreement, which provided extensive details about how test-cheating occurred at Gideons. On Tuesday, however, Salters said he was recovering from cataract surgery at that time and couldn’t read what was written on the pages.
Fulton County prosecutor Clint Rucker then reminded Salters what happened when he entered his guilty plea. Rucker read aloud the agreement in open court and not once did Salters disagree with any facet of it, the prosecutor noted.
Rucker repeatedly questioned Salters as to whether he allowed cheating to occur on state-mandated standardized tests because he felt pressure to do so from Pitts and former Superintendent Beverly Hall.
“Mr. Pitts nor Dr. Hall ever encouraged me to cheat,” Salters said. “ … I may have to go to prison for it, but they never placed pressure on me to cheat under any circumstance.”
As part of the deal, prosecutors dropped three felony charges against Salters, including a racketeering conspiracy count that carried a maximum 20-year sentence. Salters pleaded guilty to making false statements and writings. He was sentenced to two years on probation and ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service and return $2,000 in bonus money.
The plea agreement also says if Salters fails to cooperate “fully and truthfully,” prosecutors can void the plea deal and recommend a sentence “up to and including imprisonment.”
After Salters stepped down from the stand, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter said he’d just heard the former principal give a “recantation” of his plea agreement. “I’ll wait and see until after the trial is over” whether to take action against Salters for his conflicting testimony, Baxter said.
Salters began his career at APS in 1966 and became principal of Gideons in 1981. After Hall became superintendent and began setting targets for schools to meet on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, it became a struggle at Gideons, Salters testified.
Twelve people confessed to cheating at Gideons, according to a 2011 report compiled by special investigators appointed by the governor. The report said cheating at Gideons took place since 2001.
By 2009, Gideons had the second-highest number of abnormally high wrong-to-right erasures on standardized tests in the state, court records show.
In addition to Salters, former testing coordinator Sheridan Rogers pleaded guilty in December to an obstruction charge. In her plea agreement, Rogers said she followed orders from Salters to give Gideons’ teachers access to the CRCT tests and answer sheets after students had turned them in. This allowed teachers to correct wrong answers.
Rogers is expected to be a prosecution witness as well.
On Tuesday, Rucker clearly became frustrated with Salters’ deviation from his plea agreement. Eventually, Baxter allowed the prosecutor to cross-examine his own witness.
“I think he’s a hostile witness trying to make himself look better,” Baxter said, apparently displeased.
Rucker then walked Salters through the plea agreement and read aloud each key point. For example, the prosecutor noted, the plea deal said that in 2008 Salters told several teachers to go to Rogers’ office to get the answer sheets and make sure students passed the CRCT.
Isn’t that true? Rucker asked.
“I know I signed off on this, but I didn’t direct them to do this,” Salters replied. “I think it was of (Rogers’) own accord. I didn’t talk to the teachers about that.”
Rucker also noted the plea agreement said that based upon pressure from Pitts and Hall, Salters felt he had no choice but to encourage and aid cheating on the CRCT, even though he knew this was wrong. Isn’t that true? Rucker asked again.
Neither Pitts nor Hall put any pressure on him to cheat, Salters said. “I made a mistake initialing this, but I had no pressure from them at all.”
When Rucker reminded Salters he had met with the prosecution team and discussed this, Salters said, “I don’t recall talking to you about it.”
Finally, Rucker reminded Salters that his plea deal said that during the 2009 CRCT he also told teachers to see Rogers to get the test booklets and answer sheets to change answers.
“Each person has their version” of what happened, Salters said.
“I was the captain of the ship and I took the blame,” Salters told Rucker. “I’m going to leave it like that.”
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