A jury has rejected a teacher's claim that the Atlanta school district fired her because she disclosed evidence that helped uncover a districtwide cheating scandal.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a Fulton County jury decided that the non-renewal of Imogene Redwine’s contract with the district “was due to the employee’s performance and not retaliation.”
Redwine filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the school district in 2015. In it, she asserted that she was harassed and wrongfully terminated during the 2013-2014 school year after she reported cheating at Brown Middle School.
Redwine "was never retaliated against by the district for any role she may have played in response to the...cheating scandal.," the district said in a statement released Tuesday by spokesman Ian Smith. "The focus of the district remains on improving educational outcomes for students through high-quality teaching."
The cheating scandal, in which educators corrected student answers on standardized tests, resulted in the 2015 racketeering convictions of 11 teachers and administrators in the Atlanta district.
