The Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent's tape recorder wasn't working.
So she quietly pressed record on her cell phone and proceeded with an interview of Terance Shipman, an Atlanta Public Schools teacher who has been accused of cheating on the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Test.
That cell phone recording was at the heart of Tuesday's tribunal, where Shipman was fighting for his job and APS was fighting just as hard to fire him.
The district alleges that Shipman admitted to GBI agents that he prompted his students at Parkside Elementary School to change their answers on the CRCT. Shipman, questioned for 30 minutes by lawyers representing the district, said he was intimidated by the agents, who pressured and badgered him into saying things he didn't get a chance to fully explain.
But on the cell phone recording, played to riveted silence in the tribunal hearing room, Shipman was heard laughing with the agents — Eve Rodgers and Anita Ivy — who seemed less like hard-driving investigators and more like flattering, probing confession-seekers.
"I'm simply asking that you be candid," Rodgers is heard on the recording saying.
"What she's trying to do is get you to take ownership," Ivy said.
Shipman said several times that he did not cheat on the CRCT, but he acknowledged offering guidance. "You never give them the answers," Shipman said. "You never tell them the answer. During the test, you might say: 'Go back and look at that one. I know you know this one.'"
Early in his interview with GBI agents, who questioned Shipman as part of a broad investigation into alleged cheating on the 2009 CRCT, Shipman insisted that he did nothing wrong.
Later on the recording, however, he told investigators training would be useful in reminding veteran teachers not to offer guidance to students.
"You know you're not supposed to do it," he said.
One of the agents then said: "Thank you for taking ownership of that."
Questioned by his own attorney, Shipman said he deviated from the test procedure script — but only to encourage students who seemed unfocused or panicked by the test, not to give them answers.
Tuesday's tribunal ended without its members ruling on whether Shipman will keep his job. They plan to re-convene on Monday morning to rule on Shipman's fate.
About the Author
