ATLANTA — Nearly seven years after the convictions of teachers and administrators in the infamous Atlanta Schools cheating scandal, one of those convicted, former principal Dana Evans, has exhausted her appeals. She is now asking the judge who sentenced her to prison to change his mind and let her serve all her time on probation.
In a motion filed in Fulton Superior Court, Dana Evans, who was a Dobbs Elementary School principal, tells Judge Jerry Baxter that if she goes to prison, it would take her away from the children she is helping now — children who she said need her.
The scandal was like no other in Atlanta history.
A decade ago, Atlanta School Superintendent Dr. Beverly Hall and nearly 200 other Atlanta Public School educators were implicated in a conspiracy to change their failing students’ standardized test answers — erasing the students’ wrong answers, and filling in the correct ones to make themselves and the schools look good.
Ultimately, 35 educators, including Hall, were indicted. Hall died of cancer while the case was being prosecuted.
All but 12 of those indicted ended up confessing.
Of the 12 who went to trial, 11 were convicted.
One of those convicted was Evans. She never confessed, saying others at her school are the ones who cheated, not her. Yet she said they were let off and she was convicted, then sentenced to one year in prison and four years on probation.
The Georgia Supreme Court just rejected her final appeal.
So Evans is now appealing to Judge Baxter to let her serve all of her time on probation, not in prison.
Evans’ motion describes how, since her conviction, she has become a licensed professional counselor, working her way up to become, “Clinical Director of a community based mental health program that serves 500 individuals and their families. Over 90% of those individuals are living below the poverty guidelines and have been impacted by mental health challenges.”
The motion to Baxter claims Evans “has helped hundreds of underprivileged children and their families on the precipice of disaster.”
It goes on to claim putting her in prison now would take her away from the people she is helping, and “hurt the community most affected by the cheating scandal.”
The lead prosecutor in the trial was Fani Willis, who is now the Fulton County District Attorney. 11Alive is working to reach her office for a response to the Evans motion.
Six of the others who were convicted are still pursuing their appeals.
Evans wants a face-to-face meeting with Baxter to try to make her case that justice would be served by letting her stay out of prison on probation for five years. The hearing may be scheduled for next week.