DETROIT – As the calendar turns to September, a Detroit Public Schools scandal will draw to a close when a principal caught in the school supplies investigation faces sentencing.
But at least one principal has a lot of backers offering character references in the hope of avoiding prison time.
A stack of papers -- 78 pages long -- lists family, friends, colleagues, churchgoers and pastors who are all willing to say they don't think Ronnie Alexander should go to prison. Among them is Cynthia Baker, a now former Spain Elementary School parent who said the letter says it all.
"It was essentially a death for students, a father, a grandfather, a favorite uncle that they could no longer see," Baker said. "It was a major difference."
She spent many hours at Spain Elementary School in the spring, her youngest daughter's last year, after Alexander's departure. She echoed the message found in the letter to the judge in Alexander's case from the self-titled "Spain School Parental Association."
In it, members said though he pleaded guilty to program bribery, he should not go to prison.
"I really, truly believe the money he received, he put it back into his students," Baker said. "It wasn't something he kept. It wasn't something he used for personal gain."
That's what Alexander said in court, but the feds say otherwise.
Court documents show he used some of the $23,000 in stolen money at restaurants, Foot Locker and Nordstrom and paid for auto repairs, a carpet and a table for Alexander's church.
Baker said Spain Elementary children are not better off without him because of the culture he instilled.
"Trying to show them, along with learning there's a better way of living," Baker said. "You don't have to resort to crime. You don't have to resort to drugs and fighting. You can do something you know that will keep you out of harm's way and keep you out of jail."