By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

ATLANTA – A former 5th grade teacher who allegedly helped students cheat because they were “dumb as hell” was recommended for termination in the latest tribunal hearing resulting from the Atlanta cheating scandal.

Witnesses testified that Dobbs Elementary School teacher Shayla Smith helped students by pointing to the correct answers during test time and discussed her transgressions with her colleagues, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

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Schajuan Jones taught across the hall from Smith and testified she overheard her talking with another teacher.

“The words were, ‘I had to give your kids, or your students, the answers because they’re dumb as hell,’” Jones said, according to the Journal-Constitution.

An unidentified student testified Smith pointed her to the right answers on a math test in 2010. A state analysis also found evidence of changed answers on tests Smith administered, the newspaper reports.

The tribunal found Smith guilty of willful neglect and immorality and recommended the school board fire her. According to the Journal-Constitution, a total of 180 teachers were named in a state investigation that originated from the newspaper’s coverage of widespread cheating in Atlanta Public Schools.

Of the 180 educators named, employment contracts were not renewed for 16 of them, 110 resigned or retired, 17 were fired after a tribunal, 16 were reinstated, and 21 are still waiting for a tribunal hearing, the Journal-Constitution reports.

It’s encouraging that the school district is making progress in putting the ugly cheating scandal behind it, and is weeding out educators like Smith who apparently don’t have the desire or skills necessary to help struggling students.

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Teachers like Smith, who take the easy way out and slip students the correct answers, don’t deserve to be in a public school classroom. Giving students the answers because they are “dumb as hell” does nothing to help them. It’s purely a selfish act.

Smith and others like her are a disgrace to the teaching profession.

But the tribunal process and cheating scandal in general may have a silver lining. It will purge the city’s school system of its lazy and defeated cheaters, to make room for real educators.