ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) -
On Thursday, eleven educators with Atlanta Public Schools learned their punishment for their involvement in widespread cheating throughout the district.
Georgia's Professional Standards Commission voted Thursday afternoon to sanction the first batch of educators it has investigated thus far. The commission suspended for two years the teaching certificates of eight Atlanta teachers and revoked the certificates of three administrators.
Attorney Gerald Griggs represents two of the Parks Middle School teachers who admitted they cheated on the 2009 CRCT, a standardized test.
"They felt pressure from the top," Griggs said. "It was a culture that was going on. They were implicated in making erasures and changing test scores. My two clients that were implicated had admitted it and were being cooperative with the authorities."
He said his clients hoped their cooperation would result in a lesser punishment than the two-year suspension they received.
Reporter Jennifer Mayerle asked, "What do you think the appropriate punishment would have been?"
"I think a suspension more in line of 6 months to a year would have been more in line with what happened to my clients," said Griggs.
It is likely the attorney general will reduce the sanctions for educators who cooperated with a state investigation into widespread cheating.
"I think, very importantly, their cooperation led to information and evidence that allowed and is going to allow cases to move forward against other individuals," said the commission's executive secretary Kelly Henson.
Nearly 180 Atlanta Public Schools employees were implicated in the state's sweeping investigation that found cheating in 44 of the district's 100 schools.
"No matter what your thoughts are on high-stake testing, nothing gives one the right to cheat," said Henson.
While 180 educators were named in the state report, the commission said it has now received approximately 200 complaints. Former School Superintendent Beverly Hall is among those the agency will investigate.
Griggs indicated that his clients are prepared to testify against some of their former colleagues.
"There is a grand jury investigation that's going on. And again, we, the teachers that did confess are being forthcoming with all investigators and plan to continue to be so," Griggs said.
Attorney Borquaye Thomas thinks his clients, a teacher and administrator at Parks, should be allowed back in the classroom.
"We still have a right to a hearing," said Thomas, referring to his clients' planned appeals before an administrative law judge.
The commission is expected to hear cases through January.
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