Community leaders ask judge to spare teachers appealing verdicts in APS cheating scandal prison time

ATLANTA — Community leaders are calling on a Fulton County Judge and the district attorney to agree to a resolution to spare prison time to a half dozen former APS educators still appealing their cases.

In 2015, eleven educators were convicted on racketeering and conspiracy charges for changing scores on standardized student tests.

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“These teachers have suffered enough. Ten years of having your name sullied and not being able to work. The specter of prison hanging over your heard,” Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs told Channel 2′s Tom Regan.

Griggs represented one of the accused teachers who was later convicted. She spent a year in prison and has moved on with her life.

He said the other teachers still in limbo should be allowed to do the same.

“Allow these teachers, many of who have done exorbitant amounts of community service, to do more. I think it would be better to dismiss the case and allow them to get back to their lives,” said Griggs.

Griggs said the prosecution of teachers was one of the longest-running trials in county history and cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

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“Hindsight being 20/20, nothing was fixed. No child was put in a better place by sending school teachers to prison,” Griggs said.

On Thursday, the judge that presided over the teacher cheating trial will hear a motion by an attorney representing the six teachers still appealing their convictions. The attorney wants to be recused from representing the teachers because it is a conflict of interest. If the judge allows him to step down from the case, the teachers would have to find new legal representation, and the appeals process could potentially drag on for years.

Channel 2 Action News reached out to the judge and district attorney for comment on calls for leniency in the remaining former educators’ cases, but had not heard back.

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