Dana Evans doesn’t want to go to prison, and could have avoided that sentence. But she refused to admit to something she says she didn’t do.
"I can't take criminal responsibility for the actions of other people, particularly when those people did things in direct opposition to my directions," Evans said Wednesday, a day after she and seven other former Atlanta Public Schools educators were sentenced to prison for conspiring to cheat on the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Test.
They refused an offer from the prosecutors that required them to admit they were guilty of racketeering. Two of those convicted took the offer and will not go to prison.
“For me, it’s a matter of faith,” said Evans, who was principal at Dobbs Elementary School.
“There were moments when I felt like maybe I should take the shortcuts,” she said. But, “I’m innocent. I have nothing to stand on but the truth.”
She was sentenced to a year in prison and four years on probation.
She was convicted April 1, along with 10 other former educators, of violating the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. Evans was also found guilty of one count of false writings and statements. Only one of the 12 who went on trial last summer was acquitted. Another had a baby over the weekend and will be sentenced in August.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter was kindest to Evans, who at one time was an up and coming star in the Atlanta Public Schools system. He said in court that Evans’ conviction was “probably the biggest tragedy of all of them … And I want to tell you I consider you a wonderful educator, and that is what makes it so sad.”
Evans said Wednesday, “I was surprised by the verdict. I couldn’t fathom how they (jurors) could come to that decision … that I knowingly and willingly was involved in a conspiracy.”
She said she doesn’t blame former school Superintendent Beverly Hall, the alleged ringleader, who died of breast cancer before she could be tried.
Evans said she is disturbed at the suggestion that she harmed students under the care. “Every child there (at Dobbs Elementary) received strong academic support. I am broken-hearted.
“I never hurt a child.”
The offer she turned down would have required her to spend weekends in jail for six months and perform community service. But she had to admit she was guilty of racketeering.
She had told the judge in court, “I know you may want to hear an admission of guilt, but I can’t do that because it’s not the truth. But I am willing to say I’m sorry … for the distrust the public now has in public education. I’m sorry that I had teachers who elected to do things that were in opposition to what I told them to do, and I was unable to uncover it, and I am sorry.”
Evans recalled that on April 1, when Baxter ordered the just-convicted educators immediately taken into custody after the jury verdict was announced, the women and men were handcuffed and their cuffs were attached to waist chains. Deputies put on leg irons and the women were linked in groups of four. They held hands and prayed for themselves and for the judge.
She said the convicted educators could feel other inmates’ eyes following them as they passed. Then they heard, “There’s the teachers.” “Keep your head up.” “You don’t belong in here.” “It’ll be all right.”
Evans said each of her co-defendants cried at some point. They would sing to stop the tears or to relieve tension.
“Prison isn’t a place where you want to break down,” Evans said. “Every one of us did not do well at one point or another.”
The convicted educators were released on appeal bond Tuesday night. Her appeal could take two to three years, but Evans knows she could eventually go back to another cell, in state prison.
