Some Teachers Accused

in the Atlanta test cheating scandal have decided to "have their day in court" testifying in their defense in a rigged tribunal. They should know better than that because no matter whether they are guilty or innocent, they are presumed guilty.

I seriously doubt any teacher would risk his or her teaching license to cheat unless "encouraged" (read threatened) by a higher-up administrator.

That's no justification, but teachers don't do this kind of unethical behavior without getting orders from someplace.

This teacher was ultimately fired, but note this important detail:

It escalated when Parks Middle School Principal Christopher Waller asked Damany Lewis, a math teacher, to slice into standardized testing booklets.

It grew over four years into a well-orchestrated cheating scheme, where Parks’ staffers changed wrong answers to right.

It perhaps ended the first of many careers Wednesday. A tribunal of educators fired Lewis, making him the first APS teacher to be let go as a result of the massive test cheating scandal. Lewis asked the panel for a lighter punishment — and to consider the pressure he and other teachers were under to meet testing goals.

“We were told failure was not an option,” Lewis said. “Teaching and learning was the primary focus of the teachers. Results were the primary focus of this district and our administration.”

Of course he was pressured to do so by his principal. If he hadn't done it, he would have been forced out of his job anyway.