In the 10th week of testimony in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating trial, the most stunning statements were about Dobbs Elementary.
Prosecution witness Lori Revere-Paulk testified Wednesday that some teachers at Dobbs denigrated their students by saying, “You all (are) just dumb. You can’t learn anything.” Yet many of those students went on to receive suspiciously high marks on the state Criterion-Referenced Competency Test. And former Dobbs students testified Thursday that teachers threatened them with physical harm if they told anyone about cheating at the school.
The APS trial takes place Mondays-Thursdays, although there have been about 10 days off thus far for holidays and to accommodate attorneys who have fallen ill or suffered a death in their family.
Here are highlights from Week 10:
MONDAY, DEC. 8
Former Dunbar Elementary School teacher Rose Neal testified that she and other Dunbar teachers changed students’ answers on state tests as the school’s testing supervisor watched. She said no one in the room suggested cheating was wrong or that they should stop. “I wish they had, but no,” she said.
TUESDAY, DEC. 9
Before the day’s testimony started, a defense attorney confronted Judge Jerry Baxter about a previous decision to continue with the trial despite the absence of a backup juror. Baxter acknowledged that most of the 12 defendants’ attorneys had lodged their objections, but he had decided to plow on, since the juror was ill. “This has been a long trial, and I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said, explaining why he was unwilling to stop.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 10
Former Dobbs Elementary School teaching coach Lori Revere-Paulk said she brought up concerns about suspicious state test scores at the school several times. After the release of 2008 test results, she mentioned that a lot of students had the same scores and missed the same questions. “I was told that that just meant that the teachers team-taught,” she said.
THURSDAY, DEC. 11
A former Dobbs Elementary School student testified Thursday that after he reported possible cheating to a school employee, a former teacher threatened him. “If I lose my job, I’m ’a beat your ass,” the student testified fourth-grade teacher Derrick Broadwater said. Through his lawyer, Broadwater emphatically denied ever physically harming or threatening to harm “any child, at any school, for any reason.”
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“There are no winners here. No winners. All lives have been destroyed.”
— Former Dunbar Elementary School testing coordinator Lera Middlebrooks, speaking Monday.
"Maybe some time when this is all over we'll have a reunion."
— Judge Baxter to the jury Wednesday after explaining he couldn’t speak with them outside of court during the trial.
“If you tell anyone, it’ll be the last person you tell, I promise you that.”
— A student witness Thursday recalling defendant Angela Williamson’s alleged warnings about reporting cheating at Dobbs.
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