A Fulton County judge ruled Friday he will not intervene in efforts to fire six Atlanta Public Schools principals implicated in a massive cheating investigation.
Attorneys for the six elementary principals wanted the judge to delay administrative proceedings against their clients until key evidence could be released. Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter said at this point it wasn't his place to intervene in the dismissal process.
"I am not going to start running the school board and Atlanta Public Schools," he said. "There is an administrative process that needs to go forward."
The district isn't planning to renew the expiring contracts of the six principals, all of whom were implicated in a state investigation released last summer. The principals have job protection rights earned when they were teachers, so while the district doesn't have to promise them another principal position, it does have to guarantee them a teaching contract or show why they should be fired from the district completely.
Attorneys John Myer and Michael Kramer argued the principals can't get a fair dismissal hearing until important pieces of evidence are released — evidence now in the possession of District Attorney Paul Howard.
A representative from Howard's office appeared in court Friday and said they are preparing potentially to indict the case. Releasing evidence could compromise the case, she said.
The principals' attorneys also wanted access to raw data from a test erasure analysis, so an independent review could be conducted. Wrong-to-right answer erasures on state exams were a critical guide during the cheating investigation, and the analysis is being used to suggest the principals knew or should have known about cheating, Kramer said.
Emory University Professor Martin Shapiro was called as an expert witness by the principals' attorneys and testified he believed the analysis was scientifically invalid.
"The best evidence exists, but is simply not being produced," he said of the raw data.
Attorney Thomas Cox, who represented Atlanta Public Schools, said the data doesn't prove an individual cheated, but it shows cheating took place at certain schools. In addition, he said a judge can't determine employment rights have been violated because the principals' hearings have yet to take place.
The six principals are: Marlo Barber of F.L. Stanton Elementary, Anthony Dorsey of Fickett Elementary, Tamarah Larkin-Currie of White Elementary, Mimi Robinson of Connally Elementary, Tonya Saunders of Toomer Elementary and Cheryl Twyman of West Manor Elementary. Most are accused of "failing in their responsibilities" as a principal because cheating allegedly went on during their watch.
Two are accused in the state report of more serious offenses — Barber of changing student answers and Saunders of instructing teachers to break testing rules. Their attorneys said there is no evidence to support the allegations.
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