Atlanta, GA – A former fifth-grade teacher was busted for helping her students cheat to get better grades. When asked why she would offer illegal assistance to her students, she said she did it because her students are “dumb as hell.”

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, fifth-grade math teacher Shayla Smith was accused of giving her students the answers to the test that they were taking at the time. She was supposed to be supervising them during the test, but apparently rattled off the answers instead. Smith was busted by Schajuan Jones, who taught a fourth-grade class across the hall. Jones overheard Smith talking to another teacher about the test and reported her.

“The words were, ‘I had to give your kids, or your students, the answers because they’re dumb as hell,’” said Jones of the conversation between Smith and the unidentified third teacher.

Further hurting Smith’s chances at keeping her job was a former student, who accused Smith of cheating. The student, now in the eighth grade, said that Smith offered her answers to a math test in 2010, reports CBS Atlanta.

The tribunal at the Atlanta Public Schools headquarters deliberated for just one hour on Monday before charging Smith with willful neglect and immorality. She was subsequently fired.

Smith maintains her innocence, and called Jones’s trustworthiness into question at the tribunal, blurting out “She’s a liar,” during her testimony. Jones admitted that she did not immediately report Smith’s “dumb as hell” comment.

Still, tests proctored by Smith allegedly show a suspiciously high volume of erasure marks, being called a “practically impossible frequency of changes from wrong to right [answers].”

Smith’s case was part of a larger investigation that implicated approximately 180 public school teachers in the city. Investigations into the cheating scandal are ongoing.

Atlanta Teacher Busted For Helping Students Cheat, ‘Because They’re Dumb As Hell’ is a post from: The Inquisitr