One of the problems that I have with the world that we live
in is the lack of accountability. Every time something occurs that is contrary
to our own expected outcome, it must be someone else’s fault, because it can’t
be that of our own. The previously mentioned logic is one of the main reasons
why I support any derivative of “stop snitching” campaigns because I would
rather be a part of a society where people are noble enough to be accountable
and accepting of the punishments related to their actions as opposed to relying
on the work of snitches. As I stated in a discussion with a friend earlier this
week; if you are afraid of the consequences of your actions, then maybe you
should think twice before you do it. Maybe that’s why I don’t have a criminal
record, but I digress.
Yesterday, a Fulton County Superior Court Judge sentenced
eight of ten former Atlanta public school employees charged with racketeering
and other lesser-included offenses. I have seen a variety of postings on
Facebook regarding how this is a tirade of justice and another example of the
system “holding us down” especially when there have been instances of teachers
who were charged with statutory rape that have seen far less jail time. (I have admitted to being wrong about
the racial implications of these statutory rape cases after reading a CBS
article detailing about 40 such instances where none of those particular
defendants meted a punishment nearly equal to that received by Ethel Anderson.)
As I have been known to do in my posting I will describe the parameters that
enables me to think the way that I do.
The defendants in this case have been charged with
racketeering, a crime loosely described as the activities associated with
fraudulently offering a service to solve a problem. So while others may argue
that this was mainly teachers who cared about their jobs enough to cheat the
system and did nothing more than offer answers and change responses can have
several seats. These employees did this as part of a criminal conspiracy in
order to keep their jobs as well as financial compensation. The actions
committed within this conspiracy show the fault in trying to rectify a problem
that has been going on too long; the question of whether public schools and
their teachers are failing our children, or whether parents themselves are
failing their own offspring. I won’t touch on other analyses where people
question test taking skills or the purpose of judging education based upon
standardized tests because in life one is readily defined by their ability to
perform under pressure as well as various assessments, besides, this rhetoric
for education has been in place much before we acknowledged things such as ADHD
and test taking deficiencies.
YES, America is in a tremendous need of education reform,
but this was not the proper means to accomplish these ends, and if you are
unwilling to display any regret, remorse, or responsibility for you actions, in
my opinion you deserve all seven of those years in prison, if not more.
