"We are trying to protect the educator"

Why we couldn’t name names
[ajc] Back in July, when a 400-page state report on the Atlanta Public Schools’ cheating scandal was made public, we put the full text on the ajc.com website. The report was riveting and drew extraordinary online traffic.
It’s impossible to know what readers found most interesting in the report, which was prompted by years of reporting by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But I’d bet that one of the better-read parts was the “school summaries” section, which included shocking details and names of individual schools and teachers.
Given the specificity of that report, some readers were surprised this week when we did not name 11 educators initially sanctioned by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission.

"Surprised" wasn't exactly the word for my reaction. "Chagrined" or "appalled" or "resigned", maybe.

Here's the reasoning:

That’s because the sanctions are not final — educators can request a hearing and appeal at several levels — and so results could be changed or penalties reduced. The Georgia Professional Standards Commission’s policy of keeping details of a case confidential until action is final is set by state law and is the same for all cases, not just those related to the APS scandal.
“We are trying to protect the educator up until the due process and the commission’s action is final,” said John Grant, chief investigator for the Professional Standards Commission.

"We are trying to protect the educator." Well, of course you are. It's what you do. It's Job One. That's the process that the educator lobbyists and educator unions have fought so hard to get codified into state law. That's the "business as usual" of the education industry that I was frankly hoping this scandal would call into question.

Apparently not.

Look, it wasn't that long ago (only July?) that the state attorney general censured the governor, mayor and school board for violations of open meeting / public records laws when, er, Stern Words Were Exchanged behind closed doors regarding the openly fractious school board and the mayor's inability to successfully mediate.

I said it in August. The fix is really very simple.

1. Don't lie. Tell the truth. 
2. Hide nothing. Let the sun shine in.
3. Say exactly what you plan to do, then do it. (If it doesn't work, admit it right away and try something else.)
4. Dot every "i", cross every "t". 

There, see? Was that hard?