Let's split some hairs here: Do tell - APS official believes she’s a scapegoat

Tamara Cotman is accused of urging APS principals to send "go to hell" memos to officials investigating cheating. She said she passed out the forms to help principals vent their frustrations.

From the AJC:

The high-level Atlanta Public Schools official accused of telling principals to send “go to hell” memos to state investigators thinks she has become a scapegoat in a systemwide cheating scandal.

“Absolutely, I really do,” Tamara Cotman, who was reassigned last week from a job supervising about two dozen schools, told Channel 2 Action News in an interview aired Friday.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on the episode Feb. 13. Cotman declined several requests for interviews from the AJC and had made no statements on the matter until she spoke with the television station, nearly two weeks after the allegation became public knowledge.

“I think the school system has been totally disingenuous with Ms. Cotman,” her lawyer, George Lawson, told the television station. “I think that they have run for the woods.”

Cotman said she met with state investigators for eight hours Thursday. In the interview, she sought to put a fine point on her actions in the Nov. 17 meeting with principals.

She said she did pass out blank “go to hell” sheets — but did not speak disparagingly of state investigators.

She said she was right to encourage principals to vent their frustrations — but did not single out the investigators for condemnation.