Come Again?

"Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter called the scandal "the sickest thing that's ever happened in this town."

I took that quote from here. 

Sentences were handed down to the Atlanta educators. A group of them would not accept pleas. I assume because they did not wish to forfeit the right to appeal. But I don't know, maybe it is deeper than that.
I do know that whenever I talk about this -with spouse, teacher friends, folks -I find it hard to make my few points heard, and I find myself frustrated with trying to explain the last fifteen years of my teacher life after NCLB. I find it hard to understand why we seem to devolve back to something basic, but I will start there today.

So here I'll go.

I don't think I ever had a teacher, K to 12, in West Virginia, in all my years that was willing to "cheat" on a state test, or any test, to get any results. Nor did they test in classrooms-our Principals tested us in large groups in an auditorium or cafeteria, proctored by ALL the instructors and outside observers-in 4th, 7th, 11th grade. No one left any of that security up to chance. It was another time-I'm 55. They were also not rated, rewarded, punished based on the scores, and they, AND the community, considered it the home and the child being tested responsibility, their effort and achievement being viewed in their score, and a reflection upon the child's work with the school environment lastly as they considered the school in terms of doing the work of educating. We were expected to go to college. If I remember nothing else in kidhood it is my father stating to me at test time it would entirely reflect if I paid attention and was learning-and reflect on our family if I did not do well. Of that he was clear. That is just how I thought it was everywhere. And I did do well. I doubt my father considered it a test of my school or teacher. Now he would consider it I think-but if he were raising me today he would handle it exactly the same way. A poor result was seen as a student's lack of application to their studies for him. Period.
It took me working in South Central, LA in 1986 to gain another perspective on what homes might need basically, that I took for granted, to assist children in that learning-though I'd seen up close poverty in my state and knew, of course this had incredible impact on learning outcomes.
And the teachers I knew then, and who taught me in WV schools, vocally abhorred "cheating." I grew up with a similar frame. It's an awful thing to consider in any situation. I say that, as I hear everyone saying, right up front.

But.

I'm trying to understand how a judge in Atlanta could see this test cheating "scandal," that has so much to unpack involved in it, as the "sickest thing ever" in Atlanta's history.


I am asking are judges purveyors of hyperbole?

Because just off the cuff I would guess Atlanta has seen its fair share of murders, pedophiles, serial killers, adulterers, malpractice and so on. I assume that is much worse. Sicker. Altho organized crime was the intention of RICO, and then that was used in this case, I'm sure I could google enough to find they've used the statute in Atlanta on folks doing more than erasing and bubbling-like in terrible crime.

But, what about segregated schools?
Was that not a worse, more sickening Atlanta issue?

What about slavery in Atlanta?
That sickens me.

Jim Crow?

The burning of Atlanta strikes me as fairly sickening.

It would seem to me that somehow, perhaps, this judge is needing to do a little homework.

And one day I may raise the questions I have. That I don't think he had the capacity to consider.