1) It wasn't a "some" children, it was hundreds. It wasn't "fluffing", it was done to extract bigger bonuses they were not entitled to. Theft is a criminal of

1) It wasn't a "some" children, it was hundreds. It wasn't "fluffing", it was done to extract bigger bonuses they were not entitled to. Theft is a criminal offense. 2) They had a teachers union to protect them; they could not be summarily fired without due process. And if you don't see "I'll do anything to pay the rent", even if that was the case here, as "not an ethics issue", I suggest you learn something about ethics. 3) There are, what, a dozen distinct school districts in the metro Atlanta area. So, yet another specious argument. I get that some people want to paint this as a "poor put upon teachers at the mercy of evil administrator". It's an even more compelling narrative for the defense now that the head evil administrator is dead and can't be called into court. But what the trail showed was this was a bunch of teachers who got together as a group and said "We'll get a bigger bonus if we fake these test scores. If that hurts kids so be it and management has our backs".