Welcome back to Black Coffee, Crime & Crochet! Iām your host, Jasmine CL Prince, and weāre kicking off the Scandal in the Schools series with an Atlanta two-for-one.
First up: Jerome Oberlton, the former Atlanta Public Schools Chief Information Officer who turned tech contracts into kickbacks. Then we dive into Dr. Beverly Hall, the one-time National Superintendent of the Year whose empire crumbled in the infamous Atlanta test-cheating scandal.
These stories intertwine technology, testing, and temptationāeach showing what happens when pressure meets opportunity in public education. Grab your iced coffee and your yarn, sis, because this oneās layered like a granny square and messy like a grade-school group project.
ā Iced Coffee of the Week: Peach Please Cold Foam Brew ā sweet, southern, and slightly suspicious.
š§¶ Crochet Project of the Week: WIP Updates
š Where to Find Me
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šļø Sources
- U.S. Department of Justice & Federal Indictment Archives on Jerome Oberlton (2013) ā Tech contract bribery case filings and sentencing records.
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution coverage on Beverly Hall and the APS Test Cheating Scandal (2009ā2015).
- New York Times ā āAtlanta Educators Convicted in School Cheating Scandalā (2015).
- Education Week and The Hechinger Report investigations into systemic pressures behind standardized testing.
- U.S. Attorneyās Office, Northern District of Georgia press releases (2013ā2015) regarding Oberltonās plea deal and Hallās co-defendants.
šļø Note from Jasmine: If you noticed a little mix-up last weekāyep, that was me. The Detroit Principalsā Kickback Scheme audio accidentally went up under this title. We fixed it! That Detroit episode is now Episode 2, and this Atlanta deep-dive is now Episode 1 of the series.
