Black Educators as Convicted Felons in the Era of #BlackLivesMatter

• In Event: 42.038 - Black Like Me: Urban Education and State Violence in the Era of #BlackLivesMatter

Abstract

On April 14, 2015, eleven Black educators formerly employed by Atlanta Public Schools (APS) were sentenced to varying terms from probation and community service up to 20 years in prison after having been found guilty of false swearing and conspiracy charges in the biggest cheating scandal in American education history. This is especially alarming in the era of #BlackLivesMatter, as we continue to watch murderous police officers and neighborhood vigilantes go uncharged, untried, exonerated, and/or free, while these educators are convicted felons, inmates, stripped of their professional livelihoods. Due to the continued American injustice in which we see unarmed Black people killed without due process and without justice sparking movements such as #BlackLivesMatter, the authors would be remiss if they did not elucidate the severe overkill in these educators’ charges, trials, and sentencing.

In addition to the severity of these educators’ sentences, accepting their supposed guilt and agreeing that their sentences are justified means the state cares for Black children more than these Black educators do. The state protects its own interests, not Black children. If the state cares so much about Black children, why is Trayvon Martin’s killer free? Why is Tamir Rice dead? And why hasn’t Relisha Rudd been found? If the state cares about Black children so much, why have states prosecuted Black mothers for “stealing” education by sending their kids to wealthier schools out of district? The state protects its own interests, and in duping the standardized testing system, these educators were looking out for their own interests. While we do not condone or support the actions of these educators or those of the state, we do not demonize these educators for what happened or of what they have been convicted.

The curious nature of the APS cheating scandal centers around four major points: the active investigation into test score increases and the subsequent charges and use of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute; the handling and treatment of these Black educators by the judge; and the judge framing the case and sentencing as justice for the children; and the status of the standardized test scores after the cheating was exposed. This paper explores and explains how the curious case of the Atlanta cheating scandal came to be. It examines the roles of market-based/ neoliberal school reform and racial realism in this context and what these elements mean for Black lives. This paper then goes on to discuss the context of the Atlanta cheating scandal, the overreach on the part of the state to humiliate and make examples of these Black educators. To this end, we use a critical race perspective to argue that cheating is a natural outgrowth of market-based/neoliberal school reform, that racial realism will always lead to scrutiny of Black performance, and that the sentences of these Black educators is overkill and rooted in anti-Blackness and can be best understood as a means of preserving Whiteness as property.

Authors

• Camika Royal, Loyola University Maryland

• Vanessa Diane Dodo Seriki, Morgan State University