"I'm not responsible for the teacher"

Principal tells APS tribunal she isn't ‘responsible' for teachers | ajc.com
Principal Selena Dukes Walton testified Monday that she remains "very qualified" to oversee her elementary school because she had been unaware of the massive cheating by teachers on a test to determine how well they were educating students.
..."I am not responsible for something I did not know about," she said. "I'm not responsible for the teacher."

Wait. She should keep her job because she didn't know what was going on? That, I have to say, is new. Even Beverly Hall didn't go that far, preferring to stick to her assertion that it hasn't been proven cheating even happened.

Two other tribunals were scheduled for Tuesday but have been canceled. Lera Middlebrooks, a proctor at Perkerson Elementary School, was accused of cheating by a teacher there. Middlebrooks resigned, school district spokesman Keith Bromery said.

Well, then, somebody got his notes scrambled. According to that infamous Bowers-Wilson report to the governor, Middlebrooks was a Testing Coordinator (not merely a proctor, but a person to whom proctors would have reported) at Dunbar, not Perkerson. I suppose it doesn't matter so long as the APS tribunal keeps their notes straight. It's documented here, which is why it stuck in my mind. (Look for Middlebrooks' name in the Dunbar section, and prepare to be appalled.)

And oh, goody, this article features a scorecard-like update. Keep those coming!

UPDATE: See also Are principals accountable for the cheating on their watch? Should they be fired? | Get Schooled [AJC]

I'm back to my first response to the Hall / Bart Simpson defense of "I didn't do it, nobody saw me, you can't prove anything", which the addition of "I'm not responsible for knowing about it" just intensifies: You're either guilty or incompetent. "Knew, or should have known." Either way, you don't belong in that very cushy principal's chair.