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Dana Evans, a former Atlanta principal, requested that she not be sent to prison after being convicted in a test-cheating scandal several years ago.
The former principal now faces one year in prison after years of seeking to get her conviction overturned and living four years on probation. Last month, the Georgia Supreme Court declined to hear Evans’s case.
The former principal’s attorney, Bob Rubin, is now requesting that his client avoid incarceration. According to Rubin, Evans has been working in the nonprofit sector and supporting low-income families and refugees who moved to Georgia, since her conviction.
“She’s absolutely terrified at the potential of having to report to prison, and not just for herself, but for her family and for her clients. To be pulled out of the work that she’s doing is difficult for her to fathom,” Rubin shared with Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter. “She wants to continue to help the at-risk population that she’s working with and continue to do as much good as she can as long as she’s on this earth.”
Evans was one of 11 educators who were found guilty of racketeering, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In 2011, an investigation revealed widespread cheating across the Atlanta Public Schools system, wherein administrators, such as Evans, “knew or should have known” about educators changing answers on standardized tests.
Several teachers at Dobbs Elementary School testified that they alerted the then-principal, Evans, about the suspected cheating and she failed to investigate.
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In addition to Rubin telling Judge Baxter about the “extraordinary rehabilitative efforts,” Evans has been working as a state-licensed counselor in recent years, the attorney added,” Since April 2015, Dr. Evans has brought to bear all of her incredible emotional and intellectual skills to help underprivileged children and families.”
Rubin further argued that Evans’s prison sentence “is unduly harsh” and “would undoubtedly hurt the community most affected by the cheating scandal, by depriving it of a true warrior for these families.”
Evans’ hearing is scheduled for early next week.
To get more details, read The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s full report here.
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