Firing of Dobbs Elementary teacher upheld for aiding students on tests
The firing of a fifth teacher in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal was upheld Wednesday by a tribunal.
Derrick Broadwater, a teacher at Dobbs Elementary, was accused of helping students with words they didn't know and prompting them to recheck answers if he suspected something was incorrect.
The tribunal voted to uphold APS' decision to terminate Broadwater after hearing recordings of the teacher talking to GBI investigators in March 2011.
“I always tell my kids to go back and check over their answers ... that means something is wrong. They know that’s a prompt I do,” Broadwater said on a recording.
The school board will have to vote on the tribunal's decision before it is final.
Broadwater did not attend Wednesday's hearing, but his attorneys said the two and a half hours of recordings were "ambiguous" and insufficient evidence under Georgia law, as it applies to criminal cases.
"You have to have independent evidence of some type to support that confession," attorney Harold Corlew said. "Since this is a quasi-criminal case, we think the same principle applies here. The only evidence is the alleged admissions he made on that tape."
Throughout the recordings, Broadwater maintained he never erased or gave a child an answer. But he discussed prompting students to recheck answers and helping them pronounce words on the tests that they didn’t know. He said at the time he didn't realize those were testing violations.
Broadwater's hearing began in April, but was continued until a copy of the GBI's recordings could be produced. The tribunal wanted to hear the recordings to see whether Broadwater confessed to wrongdoing, as stated in a state cheating investigation.
Attorneys for APS said Broadwater was not candid with tribunal members during the first days of his hearing. The district encouraged the panel to "send a message" that behavior like Broadwater's should not be tolerated.
“He said what he said, it’s on tape and he can’t run away from it anymore,” APS attorney Nina Gupta said.
