The Atlanta Public Schools cheating verdicts: How to deal with illegal behavior by teachers and school administrators? Indict some black or brown people.

See also Brittney Cooper's Salon article.

The Atlanta Public Schools test cheating case proves a couple of things:

1) Teachers and administrators lie under oath.  I knew that before the Atlanta case.  I've claimed this for several years, based on personal experience at my school district, but a lot of people simply didn't want to believe me.

2) If you're a corrupt teacher or school administrator, your chances of being charged with a crime are miniscule--unless you're black or brown.

In my case in Chula Vista Elementary School District, the teachers and school officials who committed illegal acts were overwhelmingly white.  The school board consisted of four white members and one Mexican.

I reported the wrongdoing to District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, and was ignored.

Imagine my surprise a few years later when 15 officials in neighboring school districts were indicted and eventually pleaded guilty to corruption charges.  These 15 individuals were overwhelmingly Mexican.

Ironically, one of these indicted officials was Bertha Lopez, the only Mexican among the five board members who violated the law in my case, including violations of Labor Code 1102.5 and 432.7 (a section with criminal penalties).  Bertha made the mistake of leaving CVESD and running for office in Sweetwater Union High School District.  She ended up pleading guilty to a ridiculous charge: accepting a gift over the state limit.

In Chula Vista, Lopez and her four white colleagues committed illegal acts that harmed children at Castle Park Elementary in order to protect law-breaking adults who were in political favor at the time.    I think that this sort of direct undermining of the education of children is a far more serious form of corruption than accepting a gift.

Students were harmed by the rogue group of teachers at my school. This self-styled "Castle Park Family"was protected by the district when its illegal actions were exposed, while at the same time, many good teachers were forced out.  The power-hungry teachers chewed up and spit out 11 principals in 11 years, enabled a $20,000 embezzlement by a PTA-president crony, and cost the district $100,000s in legal fees and increased liability insurance premiums. Finally the district decided that the teachers in charge of Castle Park Elementary were out of control, it tried to transfer some of them out of the school.

Here are a couple of recent cases that illustrates contempt for the law among white school boards:
Elaine Allyn case in Fallbrook--violations of Labor Code 1102.5
Sharon McClain case in Del Mar

Interestingly, Patrick Judd, one of the board members in my case, was found liable in civil court for sexual harassment of an employee.