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Tag: Cobb County

  • ‘28 years to see justice:’ DNA evidence leads to conviction in Cobb rape case

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    A man was convicted of multiple charges, including rape and kidnapping, nearly three decades after the crime occurred in Kennesaw, thanks to DNA evidence.

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    The Cobb County District Attorney’s Office announced earlier this week Jerry Lee Pruitt, was sentenced to two life sentences plus 20 years.

    The conviction stems from an incident on October 23, 1997, when a then-27-year-old woman was assaulted in her apartment.

    The incident happened as the victim was leaving her apartment. The DA said, when she opened the door, she was met by an unknown man who threw a threw a jacket over her head, pushed her back into her apartment and assaulted her in the bedroom. He then made the victim clean herself, shower, and placed some of her clothing in the washing machine and then left. After police was notified, the victim was taken to Kennestone Hospital for a sexual assault kit exam.

    Despite initial investigations, the case went cold due to limitations in forensic technology at the time.

    In 2018, the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative led to the retesting of the victim’s sexual assault kit, which revealed a male DNA profile. A subsequent CODIS hit in 2020 identified Pruitt as the suspect.

    “This trial marked the first case ever tried in Cobb County through SAKI (Sexual Assault Kit Initiative),” said District Attorney Sonya F. Allen. “Justice was delayed in this case but delivered. It shows that time will not shield predators from accountability.”

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    During the trial, three previous victims from different states testified. This included one woman from Cobb County, one woman from Alabama and another woman from Tennessee.

    The DA said the similarities in their cases ‘were eerily similar,’ despit being unable to identify Pruitt.

    The jury also heard from the victim involved in the 1997 incident and several GBI chemists who confirmed the DNA match.

    His sentence which will run consecutively to a sentence he is already serving for another sexual assault in Alabama.

    “Waiting 28 years to see justice has been surreal. I’m beyond thankful for this verdict and ready to turn the page of this chapter in my life. I carry the voices of so many who have not been heard, and I stand for them,” said the Cobb victim.

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  • Teacher Loses Appeal To Get Job Back After Being Fired For Reading A Book To Her Class

    Teacher Loses Appeal To Get Job Back After Being Fired For Reading A Book To Her Class

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    The Cobb County School Board in Georgia voted 4-3 on Thursday evening to officially terminate a fifth-grade teacher who was suspended for reading a book about gender identity to her students last school year.

    Katie Rinderle, a fifth-grade teacher at Due West Elementary School in Marietta was fired in June after reading a book to her class. Even though Rinderle had purchased “My Shadow Is Purple” by Scott Stuart at a school book fair, a parent complaint spurred a monthslong investigation that determined reading the book violated Georgia’s “divisive concepts” law. Rinderle had excellent performance reviews, according to her lawyer, but the school administrators terminated her regardless.

    The law, signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2022, prohibits educators from teaching about “divisive concepts,” including that the United States is fundamentally racist. (It does, however, have a special carveout that allows educators to respond “in an objective manner and without endorsement to questions regarding specific divisive concepts raised by students.”) The law does not mention discussions or instructions related to gender.

    As soon as it was enacted, educators complained that the law was vague and would be difficult to follow.

    Rinderle’s firing and subsequent hearing are among the latest flashpoints in a sprawling culture war. Across the country, conservative activists and elected officials have set their sights on what books are allowed in classrooms and libraries.

    Conservative parents have smeared teachers as abusers or accused them of indoctrinating their children for introducing their kids to books about gender identity or racial justice. In turn, GOP legislators have passed laws that restrict what teachers can say in the classroom and which books may be used for instruction, all under the guise of protecting children. In practice, these policies, which are often vaguely worded, have forced teachers to censor themselves and for books to be banned.

    Rinderle has maintained that she didn’t break any laws by reading the book and that the school had not explained which part of the “divisive concepts” law she had violated. Georgia law requires school districts to set a date for a hearing after termination of a teacher.

    Last week, a three-person tribunal held a two-day hearing in order to make a non-binding recommendation on whether Rinderle’s termination should be upheld. At the time of termination, Rinderle was charged with insubordination and willful neglect of duties, and “other good and sufficient cause.”

    At the hearing, Rinderle maintained that the book was appropriate for her class. “This was about inclusivity, balance, acceptance and being true to yourself,” she said.

    Cissi Kale, the principal of Due West, said Rinderle’s defense of the book meant she could not be an effective teacher. “I think it would be very hard to coach her going forward on this issue because she hasn’t acknowledged that the book was controversial. So, I can’t be sure that she wouldn’t read another book of the same nature,” she said.

    The district’s assistant superintendent, Gretchen Walton, echoed Kale.

    “We are concerned she chose to put a book about gender identity in a class of 10- and 11-year-olds,” Walton said.

    A parent spoke in support of Rinderle, saying she wants her daughter to read diverse books like “My Shadow Is Purple.”

    On Monday, the tribunal had ruled that Rinderle did not violate insubordination rules and should be able to keep her job. They did, however, contend that she violated the district’s policies on books allowed in the classroom and by not allowing parents to opt out of the lesson.

    “The district has never provided adequate guidance on how I am supposed to know what is and what is not allowed in the classroom based on these vague policies,” Rinderle said in a statement after the hearing. “Prioritizing behaviors and attitudes rooted in bigotry and discrimination does not benefit students and undermines the quality of education and the duty of educators.”

    But despite the tribunal’s recommendation, the school board still opted to fire Rinderle, sending a chilling message to teachers in Georgia.

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  • A Georgia Teacher Read A Book To Her Class — And Was Fired

    A Georgia Teacher Read A Book To Her Class — And Was Fired

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    One day in March, Katie Rinderle, a fifth-grade teacher in Cobb County, Georgia, read “My Shadow Is Purple” by Scott Stuart, which she had purchased at an in-school book fair, to her class. Now, she’s fighting to get her job back.

    In June, a monthslong investigation determined that she should be terminated from her position at Due West Elementary School because reading the book had violated a Georgia law which bans educators from teaching about so-called “divisive concepts” like systemic racism — but the school district hasn’t yet explained which part of the law Rinderle had broken.

    The book is about acceptance, being true to oneself and moving beyond the gender binary.

    “I really resonated with its message of acceptance of oneself and others, and every book I had in my classroom is one of acceptance,” Rinderle told CNN. “I knew that this book would fit perfectly in my classroom.”

    According to Rinderle, a parent complaint led to an investigation by the Cobb County School District of the 10-year veteran teacher, and the elementary school’s principal asked Rinderle to resign. When she declined, she was terminated.

    Last year, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed three educational laws that impacted what teachers can say and do in the classroom — and empowered parents to file complaints against educators they presumed to be in violation of these laws.

    “After these laws were passed, it created a ripple of fear among teachers,” Craig Goodmark, a Georgia-based attorney who is representing Rinderle, told HuffPost.

    Rinderle has been accused of violating the “divisive concepts” law, which prohibits teachers from discussing “divisive” issues such as saying that the United States is fundamentally racist. The law does not mention discussions or instruction on gender. (It does, however, carve out exceptions for teaching about racism in an academic context so long as educators are objective.) School districts are responsible for creating their own complaint processes.

    As soon as it was passed, Georgia educators criticized the law for being too vague and difficult to interpret.

    “It’s unclear if one particular parent would draw the line somewhere that the community at large would not draw the line,” Georgia Association of Educators President Lisa Morgan said last July. “How will principals and administrators handle that parent?”

    “This has really caused a chaotic impact in the classroom where teachers don’t know what they can and can’t teach.”

    – Craig Goodmark, a Georgia-based attorney representing Katie Rinderle

    In Cobb County, it seems as though a single parent complaint can lead to an investigation and eventual removal.

    Rinderle and her lawyer have both said that the school has not yet explained how reading “My Shadow Is Purple” was against the law. “When Katie was being investigated, she asked what part of the law she was violating,” Goodmark said. “And they couldn’t tell her.”

    When HuffPost asked the school district which part of the law Rinderle had broken, a spokesperson said that all the facts and policies would be reviewed at a hearing set for Aug. 3: “Without getting into specifics of the personnel investigation, the District is confident the hearing is appropriate considering the entirety of the teacher’s behavior and history. The District remains committed to strictly enforcing all Board policy, and the law.”

    The impact of the vague law goes beyond just Rinderle’s firing. “This has really caused a chaotic impact in the classroom where teachers don’t know what they can and can’t teach,” Goodmark said. “No one really understands how it’s supposed to be interpreted and it’s bad for Georgia students.”

    Education and civil rights groups have announced their plans to sue the state of Georgia over its “divisive concepts” law, which they’re calling a censorship law. Last November the Southern Poverty Law Center, National Education Association and Georgia Association of Educators sent a letter of intent to the state.

    “Efforts to expand our multicultural democracy through public education are being met with frantic efforts in Georgia to censor educators, ban books, and desperate measures to suppress teaching the truth about slavery and systemic racism,” Mike McGonigle, general counsel for the GAE, said in a statement.

    There are already similar lawsuits in Florida and Oklahoma, where Republican legislatures have passed similar laws that limit what educators can say in the classroom.

    Republicans nationwide have made a concerted effort to impose conservative beliefs onto public schools.

    From laws that limit what teachers can say about gender, sexuality, and race to policies that allow parents to control which books students are allowed to have access to, the GOP is seeking to remake public schools into a right-wing paradise. The impact of laws that censor teachers and remove books from libraries has been felt across the country.

    Goodmark said he will ask Cobb County to defend its termination of Rinderle at the hearing.

    “Our very first question is … defend what a divisive concept is and explain why ‘My Shadow Is Purple’ violates it,” Goodmark said.

    He says that she has a record of good performance reviews. “She was a leader in the Due West community, somebody who parents wanted to be in the classroom.”

    “She has a lot of support in our community,” he added. “We have a lot of parents who are against this. Katie is going to fight for her job.”

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