Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Laugh of the Day
It's just a thought, but maybe Elizabeth Logan should consider an insanity defense.
Las Vegas, NEVADA
At a preliminary hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to go to trial, the defense witness may have been the best prosecution witness.
Oct 31, 2007 - Mamie Hubbard-Washington, 64, is a special education teacher at Doris Reed Elementary School. She was arrested, accused of abusing several autistic children.
The sole defense witness today was the former** assistant principal who testified he did not see any physical or verbal abuse. The prosecution quickly established that he spent five to thirty minutes in the room.
Prosecutor Vicky Monroe inquired, "So, you were in there five to thirty minutes but for the other five-and-a-half hours of the day you didn't know personally what was going on in the classroom, did you?"Cheung also helped to hire the teacher and also says
Former Assistant Principal Randy Cheung paused and then replied, "I don't know personally."
he personally investigated at least two complaints by teacher's aides who testified previously that they witnessed the abuse first-hand. But Cheung says he found the complaints to be invalid even after parents took their concerns over his head to Clark County School District officials.He elaborated,
"Parents will do that all the time. They will call the region office or superintendent because they have a concern and they want something to be," Cheung continued.** No explanation of why he is "former" assistant principal. The aides testified previously.
Vicky Monroe inquired, "They want something to be done about it? Is that what you were about to say?"
Randy Cheung replied, "No, no, no. That's not... now you're leading!"
Both the defense and prosecution rested their cases Wednesday.
Jan 31, 2008 - Hubbard-Washington will be going to trial this summer. In the meantime, Clark County School District has now been named in a civil lawsuit alleging that administrators failed to remove an abusive teacher even after the abuse was officially reported by those who witnessed it first-hand in the classroom.
Bradenton, FLORIDA
ARRESTED: Jan 18, 2007 -
James Goodbrad, 25, a first-grade teacher at McNeal Elementary School teacher was arrested on a lewd-and-lascivious-molestation charge.
He is alleged to have molested a 15-year-old boy when the boy stayed the night at Goodbrad's home. Goodbrad resigned.
GUILTY PLEA: Sept 15 - Goodbrad pleaded guilty to lewd or lascivious molestation. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 31
Left: Latest picture of Goodbrad
SENTENCED Oct 31 - Goodbrad was sentenced to year in jail - not prison - and five years of sex-offender probation. He complete must also complete 50 hours of community service.
Prosecutor Cynthia Evers recommended to the judge that Goodbrad spend 51 months in prison.
Goodbrad, according to testimony during the hearing, was sexually abused when he was younger.TT - It's pretty much a given that anyone who would think any community would benefit from the services of a convicted sex offender would also decide to depart from a prison sentence.
[Circuit Judge Janette] Dunnigan said she departed from a prison sentence for reasons including a doctor's testimony that Goodbrad was at a low risk to reoffend, and because he showed immediate remorse for the Jan. 15 molestation at his Bradenton home.
Also, Dunnigan said, Goodbrad had "no record of act of suspicious manner" towards anyone else.
Are other offenders meant to fake remorse convincingly so they, too, can be spared a prison sentence? If that's the message in the sentencing, it's a poor one.
Say what?
Oct 31, 2007 -
Maybe he was misquoted, but authoring a study on the effectiveness of a "redesigned” teacher-preparation program surely should have prepared the author better than to say,
“That ain’t true in this state. We pay bounties to get people,” Noell said.
- in defending the new program against a charge that it is designed to eliminate experienced teachers.
Honolulu, HAWAII
Oct 31, 2007 - Marc Fossorier, 43, a highly regarded University of Hawaii professor, was arrested, accused of trying to seduce what he thought was a 15-year-old Pearl City High School student. His online chats were with a police officer.
He pleaded not guilty to the charge of first-degree electronic enticement of a child.
"I was trying to help the girl," Fossorier told KHNL television while the police escorted him to a cellblock. "I was trying to meet her and say that what she was doing was wrong."He told the fake 15-year-old that he was 35.
Oberlin, OHIO
Oct 31, 2007 - Patrick Knoble, 36, a vocational teacher at Wellington High School, was found guilty of making threats against a school board member and the school superintendent.
He took the stand in his own defense, which, apparently, wasn't a good idea.
His attorney argued that Knoble was just venting and he had a Constitutional right to make the statements. But [Oberlin Municipal Judge Thomas]Januzzi said that the 9th District Court of Appeals has recognized that the protection of speech does not protect all speech, or “there would be no valid menacing statute at all.”
“The statements made (by Knoble) were not protected free speech,” Januzzi ruled.
Knoble's teaching license was revoked in March. He still faces trial in December on two counts each of theft and theft in office in connection with charges he failed to account for up to $5,000 he oversaw as adviser to the Wellington High School Future Farmers of America.
MRSA
Staph Infections in schools. Crisis or awareness? These are only a few of the 100s of stories online in the last week.
Sacramento (CA)schools Oct 31, 2007
Warnings alarm parents. "This is not Ebola virus."
Maryland schools Oct 18, 2007
Study says Baltimore has the nation's highest MRSA infection rate. MRSA is a type of staph infection that's penicillin resistant.
Arizona Oct 31, 2007
Resistant 'super bug' found in 2 Chandler schools. "very treatable when detected early."
Nassau and Suffolk Counties (NY) Oct 31, 2007
A 12-year-old Brooklyn boy and a 17-year-old Virginia high school student died this month after contracting MRSA infections.
Tennessee Nov 1, 2007
Date is one found on the Letter to parents of elementary school about two possible cases.
Columbia, Georgia Oct 30, 2007
Eleven pupils and students in nine Columbia County schools have confirmed cases of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. CDC advises they can attend school if infections are covered.
Davenport, Illinois Oct 30, 2007
Two cases.
Manchester, NJ Oct 30, 2007
Athletes have the highest risk. Precautions.
A figure widely quoted in many stories is from the Centers for Disease Control is that more than 18,000 people died of MRSA infections in 2005. By comparison, there were 16,000 people who died of AIDS in the same year.
HOWEVER, the CDC figure is for those who died during hospital stays and 85% of all invasive MRSA infections were associated with healthcare. About 14% of all the infections occurred in persons without obvious exposures to healthcare.
The CDC has an information page about Community-Associated MRSA. Community-associated cases were less than 12% in 2003, although the figure varies by geographic region and population.
It's education, basic sanitation, early treatment and awareness.
Educational Adequacy
Oct 31, 2007 - A New Blog on Educational Adequacy was found at Columbia Teacher's college.
You can make your own judgement about the Campaign for Educational Equity, but the fact that they are a group that seeks to have funding established through the courts via litigation, bypassing budget and spending oversight of the legislative process, is reason to question them closely.
"Education equity" like all "equity" issues in race, multiculturalism and gender are not aimed at equality but the pre-determined outcome desired by a single group in a society where we have already decided that the rule of law enacted by our elected representatives suits us just fine.
Because, ultimately, laws can be challenged by citizens. The judicial imperiums that activists want serves to bypass our role in that, too. In fact, that's why they do it.
Because they are the "smart" people.
Inept
It's Guam but dealing with bureaucratic ineptness is the same.
Oct 31, 2007 - Terry Jo Huber, 36, an English teacher at John F. Kennedy High School was arrested by police for allegedly selling the drug 'ice' in a hotel parking lot.
Stunningly, Huber was allowed to return to the classroom just days after his arrest. Guam Public School System (GPSS) Spokesman Gerry Cruz says that Huber was placed back in the classroom because the crime he was charged with was not violent in nature.
Parents were concerned and contacted the news service.
The news that Huber was teaching again reached GPSS Superintendent Luis Reyes, who stated on Newstalk K57’s "The Patti Arroyo Show," that effective immediately, Huber will be transferred to the central office.
Nov 28 - A John F. Kennedy High School teacher previously arrested on drug charges is back in the classroom. Guam Public School System spokesperson Gerry Cruz confirmed that Terry Jo Huber is back at work after an investigation on his case was completed.
Cruz declined to comment, however, on whether Huber offered to enter a drug rehabilitation program. But, he added, adverse action is possible pending the results of Huber’s criminal case
Kingston, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Sentenced to 7 1/2 years to 15 years in prison.
INDICTED May 9, 2007 - Kenneth Lang, 60, a D.J. Bakie Elementary School teacher, was indicted last October on three counts of rape of a child for allegedly coercing a boy into sexual acts more than 20 years ago.
Lang faces 15 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault. He is accused of molesting the boy several times in Hampton between June and September 1986, according to indictments made public yesterday.
Lang faces charges in two states. He pleaded not guilty to the Massachusetts charges. He has been suspended since last fall. The molestations began when the boy was 7 and Lang met the boy through family friends.
GUILTY PLEA & SENTENCING Oct 31 - Lang pleaded guilty to six counts of felonious sexual assault and two counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault for molesting a boy from 1983 to 1986. He was was sentenced to 7 1/2 to 15 years in prison, of which the judge guaranteed he would serve at least the minimum.
As part of the plea agreement reached with the state, and approved by [Rockingham Superior Court Tina] Nadeau yesterday, Lang gave up his right to ask for a sentence review or a sentence reduction after serving two-thirds of his time.The judge praised the the victim for having "remarkable inner strength" and coming forward.
Chapel Hill, NORTH CAROLINA
Apr 20, 2007 - Travis Thompson, 39, arrested and fired by the school board for allegedly taking advantage of a 13-year-old girl.
Thompson is charged with taking indecent liberties with a child and indecent exposure. The incident took place at McDougle Middle School where Thompson is a special education teacher's assistant.. The girl’s parents notified school officials last Friday.
The teen told officers the incident happened in February while Thompson was working as a substitute teacher.Last month, Thompson was hired full-time to work as a teacher’s assistant in the exceptional education program.
GUILTY PLEA AND SENTENCING Oct 31 - Thompson pleaded guilty to one count of indecent exposure to a minor. He was sentenced to two years' probation, ordered to pay a $200 fine and ordered to submit to a mental health assessment. He also must register as a sex offender.
After his arrest, Thompson went on WTVD Channel 11 news and admitted acting inappropriately. He said the girl had given him a lap dance, which she vehemently denies.
Travis Lee Thompson, 40, of Efland was watching the girl, who had been punished with in-school suspension at McDougle Middle School in Carrboro in February. When they were alone, Thompson made sexual conversation, which made the girl uncomfortable, said Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Perez.Thompson said he deeply regretted his lapse in judgement.
At one point, the girl noticed Thompson standing near a file cabinet exposed.
"She looked over at him, saw it, told him he should put it away and left," Perez told Superior Court Judge Michael Morgan..
Eugene, OREGON
Jury verdict: Guilty of 15 counts of sexual abuse of two students.
Sentenced: to 2 years in prison, 5 years probation, and registration as a sex offender for life.
ARRESTED: Mar 16 - Curtis Buell, 25, a Churchill High School teacher, was arrested Friday on charges of sexual abuse.
A grand jury indicted Buell on 17 counts of sexual ab
use. Police spokeswoman Melinda Kletzok confirms that Buell is a former Churchill teacher and the police have been investigating him since last October.
Mar 20 - KPIC investigated and found his MySpace page before it was taken down.
Then, with a quick Internet search, we were able to find Buell's my space page just before it was taken down.While it may seem crazy and unreal for a teacher to describe himself as influential and sexy on the my space page where he communicated with students, here Curtis Buell writes directly to them, saying "hey kids Uncle Curti back again."Detective Ted Williams with the Eugene Police Department tells us, "victims were forced one way or another to do something they didn't want to do."
In addition, KPIC says There is a lot of information police won't share because it could compromise the case. But they tell us there could be other victims at Churchill as well as at North Eugene High and Madison Middle School where Buell was a student-teacher.
TRIAL: August 15 - Buell's trial has started. The prosecutor said Buell placed more than 1,000 phone calls to one of the victims and "several hundred" to the other at all hours of the late evening and early morning.
The case came to light after one of the victims told her boyfriend a few details, which led him to tell his parents, who then called police and school officials. Both of the girls initially denied Buell had touched them inappropriately.
DELIBERATIONS: August 22 - The jury is deliberating. During the course of his five-day trial in Lane County Circuit Court, two counts were dropped and a first-degree count that carried a mandatory six-year, three-month prison term was reduced to a lesser charge.
GUILTY VERDICT: August 22 - The jury found Curtis Neal Buell guilty on 15 counts of sexual abuse of two 17 year old female students That's 11 counts of sex abuse in the third degree and four counts of sex abuse in the second degree.
He will have to register as a sex offender. He will be sentenced October 17.
SENTENCED Oct 31 - Buell was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by five years supervised probation and must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Frenchtown, NEW JERSEY
Oct 30, 2007 - The Delaware Valley Regional High School District Superintendent resigned amid financial misconduct allegations, and the board passed information to the prosecutor's office. He was suspended with pay Sept 11.
By resigning, he avoided the possibility of having tenure charges filed against him by the school board. He remains eligible for his pension, which would amount to an estimated $38,919 per year.
He came to Delaware Valley in 1994 from the Moonachie school district, where he was also business administrator. He was charged with theft and official misconduct stemming from his work in that Bergen County district. He was tried there in 1997 and acquitted.
Wyckoff, NEW JERSEY
Oct 30, 2007 - The Feds have indicted Glenn O'Neill, a Wyckoff school director of facilities, with two counts of mail fraud in connection with an alleged scheme to overcharge the district to get a contractor to install window curtains at his home. The FBI wired the contractor.
Interestingly, O'Neill is said not to be the subject of the investigation that led to his arrest.
The judge ordered O'Neill to surrender a shotgun and .38-caliber handgun to police within 24 hours.
Press Releases from the U.S. Attorney's office in New Jersey are a never ending source of information about elected officials in that state. You can find press releases from all their offices at the Contact Information page.
Memphis, TENNESSEE
Oct 30, 2007 - FEDERAL PROBE School board members testified in front of a grand jury in the federal probe into Memphis City Schools. Federal investigators are questioning a $50 million school building contract for which a Shelby County Commissioner was paid consulting fees to help a construction firm win the contract to build three new city schools.
AUDIT There is also an internal investigation into Memphis schools cafeterias where 343 tons of food - $600,000 worth of food was thrown away. And it cost them $9,000 to do it. And there were multi-million dollar losses. A preliminary audit shows James Jordan, spent more than $83,000 for new furniture and Direct TV for himself and other employees. Jordan and his staff work in a building that was just built and furnished in 2003.
Jordan also spent another $86,000 for out of town trips and professional development.
And the audit shows purchase orders were kept under $10,000 to circumvent state law that requires a fair bidding process. Jordan resigned under pressure Oct 11.
School Board Commissioner Rev. Kenneth Whalum wants to know why Jordan's superiors weren't aware of the problems.
"One of them is now the superintendent in Boston and the other just announced he's leaving for Boston," he said. "So where does the buck stop and who is responsible?"
That explains the Boston Globe interest in the probe.
Quick look at the preliminary audit found at WREG 3.
Preliminary Audit found at WREG 3.
Hawley, MINNESOTA
Oct 30, 2007 - Gregory Nelson, 44, a high school wrestling coach, was sentenced to 90 days in jail for sending lewd text messages to a female high school student and discussing inappropriate topics with her.
Nelson earlier pleaded guilty to one count of misconduct of a public official and one count of making obscene or harassing phone calls. Other charges were dismissed as part of a plea bargain.
Nelson told the judge what he did was "stupid and irreponsible."
“It was more than stupid and irresponsible, it was criminal,” [Judge Galen] Vaa replied, adding the court found the behavior outlined in court papers “extremely concerning.”
Full Name: Gregory Scott Nelson
Ocean City, NEW JERSEY
GUILTY PLEA Oct 30, 2007 - Thomas 'Truck' Harris, 52, admitted that he molested a young boy in 1991 when he was the boy's baseball coach. He pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual contact, a third-degree crime, involving a 13-year-old boy. He will be sentenced Nov 16.
JURY VERDICT: On June 13, an Atlantic County jury found Harris guilty of sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal sexual contact in connection with the abuse of another victim. Harris befriended the 12-year-old victim and his family through their church affiliation. He was sentenced to 18 years for those charges.
Harris was found to be a repetitive and compulsive offender by evaluators at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center at Avenel, which treats sex offenders.Superior Court Judge Michael A. Donio called Harris a "manipulative, cunning, deceptive con-man extraordinaire who is a classic child predator."
Assistant Prosecutor Marian Ragusa said Monday that Interpol, the international policing organization based in Belgium, is also investigating Harris in connection with child abuse cases in the Phillippines.
SENTENCED - Sentenced to 18 years in prison. No early release. He will serve 85% of his sentence. Source: New Jersey Superior Court Conviction Records found at the Daily Journal Link
Holland, MICHIGAN
Oct 30, 2007 - Kevin Wolters, 36, a boys soccer coach at Holland Calvary Schools, was sentenced to 270 days in jail for using a computer to accost a child for immoral purposes and using a computer to disseminate sexually explicit material to a minor.
He was caught in an Internet sting by the Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Wolters earlier was sentenced to a jail term in the Detroit area for contact with the Macomb task force. He admitted he was hooked on "Internet sex," and thought he was soliciting sex from two 14-year-old girls to whom he sent sexually explicit images of himself.
He was also placed on five years' probation and must register as a sex offender.
Lehigh Acres, FLORIDA
ALL CHARGES DROPPED and RECORD EXPUNGED.
Oct 30, 2007 - Charges dropped and record expunged for Florida teacher.
Sex charges have been dropped and the arrest has been expunged against a Lehigh Acres teacher.TT - He is unnamed because we never previously reported the arrest.
[The 24-year-old teacher] had been arrested November 9, 2006 and charged with lewd and lascivious molestation. He had been accused of sexual assault of a female student under 16 according to a Lee County Sheriff's office report.
The State Attorney's office reduced the charge to misdemeanor battery in January, according to court records. The misdemeanor charge has since been dropped. too.
The State Attorney's office ordered the Lee County Sheriff's Department to expunge all information concerning the arrest or criminal history record against [the teacher].
Raleigh, NORTH CAROLINA
Oct 30, 2007 - In an unusual move, school authorities released the confidential personnel file of a teacher.
Earlier this year the teacher was disciplined for inviting a controversial speaker to his Social Studies class at Enloe. Monday he asked the school board to clear his employment record that's been blemished because of this incident.It's the first time the district has released personnel records on a teacher in 20 years.
He's also fighting for his old Social Studies job at Enloe, to receive back pay and to have a 12-page reprimand by superintendent removed from his personnel file. Instead the school board released his personnel file.
In the personnel files released Wednesday morning Superintendent Del Burns wrote Escamilla's students, "did little or no work in the class, did not have assigned textbooks, did not have homework and rarely read from the textbook."The board released the files to defend their actions in transferring the teacher to another school. The move was strongly opposed by the teacher and supporters. The teacher says attorneys on both sides agreed not to release the file. The school board denies this.
The report goes on to say Escamilla was "unable to produce grades for most of your classes at mid-term."
Burns added in the report that several incidents "suggest a pattern of ridiculing students whose beliefs or backgrounds differ," from Escamilla's. At that point in the report Burns suggested transferring Escamilla to Mary Phillips High School, "Despite serious doubts about your [Escamilla] fitness to teach in the Wake County Schools."
His principal's review is filled with unsatisfactory remarks saying he lacks structure, gave students little to no work and they often watched films, including a sex education movie in world history class. He says he was teaching about AIDS in Africa.
The teacher is thinking about suing for slander.
Background story of controversy is titled, "E-mail thanks enemy of Islam" Sub: "The teacher seemed to bless evangelism."
Also see site supporting Escamilla and timeline and links to many documents, including his 2006 evaluation and 2007 evaluations. They are especially worthy of comparing. The fact that the school board released only the part of his file that included their criticism of him since the "controversy" seem particularly unfair. In response, Escamilla has released documents to the newspaper and online showing his awards, including certification from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards. He also appeared in the 2005 edition of “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.” .
TT - It makes you wonder if he had slandered Christianity, campaigned for gay rights for third graders, called for the downfall of the American government, had sex with every female in the classroom, if his personnel records would have been released. One suspects they would not have been.
The union disagreed with the release of portions of the teacher's personnel records.
The controversal speaker? A local Christian Egyptian who spoke out against Islamic violence.
Gig Harbor, WASHINGTON
Oct 30, 2007 - Scott M. Bender, a school bus driver for the Peninsula School District, was arrested and booked for investigation of two counts of first-degree child molestation.
According to a statement of probable cause, the investigation began last week when the girl's mother contact a teacher at the school and said her daughter told her that she had been touched inappropriately by Bender.The girl is four-years-old.
The child told a police investigator that alleged abuse occurred on the bus after she was picked up at her bus stop on October 9. When interviewed by Pierce County sheriff's detectives, the documents say Bender initially denied all of the allegations but later admitted to exposing himself to the girl.
Oct 31 - Bender pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors contend he touched the girl inappropriately and had her touch him, according to charging documents.
Bender told detectives he exposed himself to the child to show her the difference between boys and girls but denies there was any touching involved, the charging documents state.
Dothan, Alabama
Trust Us With Your Children
August 23, 2007 - A 47-year-old Rehobeth Middle School teacher was suspended for three days for after being arrested on a charge related to a pistol found in his vehicle on school property.
Alabama has some of the weakest gun laws in the nation and does not restrict adults from carrying concealed firearms onto school grounds. However, the federal Gun-Free Schools Act bars individuals from keeping firearms in their vehicles on school property unless the weapon is kept unloaded and locked away.
A school resource officer spotted the weapon through an open window in Martin's vehicle. The vehicle was unlocked. The gun was loaded.
SENTENCED Oct 30 - The teacher pleaded guilty to bringing a gun on school grounds. He told a judge he had used the .45 caliber pistol during a weekend outing in Florida and forgot to remove the weapon from his vehicle. He was sentenced to a 10 day suspended sentence. He will keep his job.
Fordyce, ARKANSAS
Oct 30, 2007 - A parole hearing for a third-grade teacher sentenced to ten years for sexual assault of an eight-year-old girl was unsuccessful for Brian Floss, 44. The board denied him parole.
The family of the girl testified at the hearing.
He was initially charged with rape, but he struck a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to sexual assault.It is the second time they have had to testify to keep him behind bars. He has served five years.
Then, after receiving a lesser sentence, the former Wallace Elementary teacher now claims he's not guilty.
(Richard Watts, Victim's Attorney) “Now what he's trying to do is be released, saying that he has been rehabilitated. But he can't have it both ways. He's got to admit that he was lying. He got to admit that he sexually abused this child.”
. . . Victim's Mother) “Brian Floss was a third-grade teacher in Fordyce School District. He messed with these little girls day-in and day-out inside his classroom, during class hours. And to me, he's a very dangerous man.”
Monday, October 29, 2007
Little Rock, ARKANSAS
Oct 29, 2007 - Little Rock Police arrested a bus driver as she was waiting for a bus to load to take students home. Another bus driver noticed her acting funny and notified a teacher and the police were called. She was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.
Cabot hired Clark this past August. She has two previous DWIs, but this is information the school couldn't get at when she was hired.It won't stop the district from hiring others whose criminal history isn't known.
[Cabot Superintendent Dr. Tony Thurman] says her criminal background check that he submitted in August still hasn't come back from the backlogged state police.
Being strapped for drivers, Thurman says even after this incident, he still won't be able to wait for background check results before hiring.An assistant principal drove the bus back to the school. Reportedly, state police are moving to an electronic background check system where school districts can have information back within one to two days.
Thurman says, "It usually takes a couple weeks to one month to get the background check back, but needing employees and especially bus drivers in every district, we have to hire them and then submit their criminal background check and hope we get it back as soon as possible."
TT - Sounds odd because the DMV in most states can get DWI information to a patrol car in what seems like 20 seconds at a routine traffic stop. They can't do the same for a bus driver for a school district?
Perspective
Just so you can compare the absurd sentencing in the story directly below, there is this six month sentence in Ithaca, New York.
Oct 29, 2007 -
The former Cornell student convicted of felony animal abuse will spend six months in jail for his crime. Since Alexander Atkind is already serving six months in Tioga County jail for drug charges, his time behind bars has doubled.He was facing up to two years.
Alexander Atkind, 23, arrived at court Tuesday already wearing a jail-issued suit. Last month, Atkind pleaded guilty to aggravated cruelty to animals. He admitted to pouring bleach on a dog named Princess and beating her with cord back in March.
Princess spent several weeks at the Cornell Animal Hospital and at the SPCA, where she was treated for deep lacerations and chemical burns.
"This is a huge win for the animals. I think this went from what was originally a misdemeanor to a felony conviction and I think that's great," said Tompkins County SPCA Director Abigail Smith.
TT - He could have had sex with an 11-year-old and gotten the same sentence and less criticism.
Queens, NEW YORK
Do you get the feeling that without sex offender registration laws these people would be hardly inconvenienced for their crimes?
May 18, 2007 - Lois Enden, 55, a school aide at P.S. 196, was arrested and charged with the statutory rape of an 11-year-old boy more than seven years ago. She is being held, pending arraignment on five counts of second-degree rape and two counts of second-degree sodomy. If convicted, she faces up to seven years in prison.
It is alleged that she had sexual intercourse with him at both of their homes at various times between 1999 and June 2000, when he graduated from fifth grade and left the school. The district attorney said that an investigation began approximately four weeks ago when the victim, now 19, met the Enden by chance and told a friend what had allegedly occurred while he was a student at P.S. 196 . The friend, in turn, convinced the victim to report the incident to police.
1010WINS: Because of a law passed in 1996, there is no statute of limitations in this case, only a five-year limit of prosecution from the date of disclosure of the incident, not from the date of occurrence.
May 19 - New York Post reports that as part of the police investigation, the victim wore a wire recorded Enden apologizing for her actions. She told the teen she "regretted it all these years," and that she was abused herself by her sixth-grade teacher, and perhaps was "mirroring" that experience, according to Assistant District Attorney Ken Applebaum.
GUILTY PLEA July 23 - Enden pleaded guilty to second-degree rape. She will be sentenced August 20. The likely sentence is six months in jail and five years probation.
SENTENCED Oct 29 - Enden was sentenced to six months in jail - not prison - for raping an 11-year-old boy. She was also sentenced to ten years of probation and must register as a sex offender.
At the time of her arrest Enden was married and the mother of two adult children.
"The abuse continued until he finished fifth grade and left the school." Charming.
Wilmington, DELAWARE
Sentenced Praised by judge.
June 13, 2007 - Barry M. Young, 53, president and treasurer of the Delaware State Education Association** (teachers union), pleaded guilty to two counts of making a false statement related to an outstanding $163,000 student loan.
Prosecutors charged that Young lied to investigators and gave misleading statements on federal forms to conceal his income in an effort to apparently obtain better repayment terms on his outstanding debt.
**News article describes him as treasurer and president of "Christiana teacher's union." The Delaware State Education ASsociation describes him as Ex-DSEA.
(And, yes, the age is correct.)
June 14 - The News Journal:
The original loan from the 1980s was for about $86,000, according to Battaglia. But the debt, due to interest and penalties grew to about $300,000 by 1996, according to attorneys.He'll be sentenced in September.
According to court papers, Young misidentified himself as "David Garvin" to federal agents and denied that Barry Young was employed as a teacher. Prosecutors charged Young also failed to note he was a teacher on federal documents and had a joint income with his wife of more than $141,600.
SENTENCED Oct 29 - From the News Journal (Delaware)
Federal prosecutors pressed for incarceration, citing Barry M. Young’s repeated lies to federal regulators, and then to investigators, about an outstanding $158,500 student loan debt. But District Judge Gregory M. Sleet said a review of Young’s long teaching career, service to the union and letters from his past colleagues and students showed this was an “aberration.”“TT - Three guesses as to who appointed this judge. Time's up.
You are a person of integrity and character,” Sleet told Young.
The judge said he disagreed sharply with the evaluation of prosecutors that jail time was appropriate in the case and handed down a sentence that was not only below federal sentencing guidelines, which called for six to 12 months in prison, but also below the five years of probation that Young’s attorney requested.
Sleet said he agreed with Young’s attorney Victor F. Battaglia Sr. that Young already paid a heavy price for his crimes, which had nothing to do with his union position. Since the charges against Young were announced, Sleet noted Young has been publicly humiliated and dismissed from his positions with the union and his job as a teacher in the Christina School District.
Battaglia said his client is seeking to appeal his termination and a union decision not to support Young in that effort.The judge chastised Young for his behavior, saying he had only himself to blame. Sleet also lamented the fact that, as a result of Young’s actions, the school system may have lost an experienced African-American male teacher, or as Sleet put it, “people … who look like you and me,” who are needed to help guide young men to make the right decisions in life. Both Sleet and Young are black.
Spring, TEXAS
Oct 29, 2007 - Alison Mosbeck, 34*, a history teacher at Dueitt Middle School, was arrested Friday and charged with having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student.
She faces one count of inappropriate relationship between teacher and student and three counts of felony sexual assault.
From Click2Houston:
A probable cause affidavit showed that a friend's mother saw a text message that the teacher sent to the eighth-grader, allegedly asking him if he knew where she could get some marijuana.and
Court documents said that Mosbeck started a sexual relationship with the boy in November 2006, when Mosbeck took the boy to Pioneer Days, a festival in Humble.From the Houston Chronicle: Mosbek resigned. She's been on paid administrative leave since the district received the complaint the week of Oct. 8. Her next court date is scheduled for Nov. 29.
"The defendant was taking the complainant home from Pioneer Days and while in the car, the defendant performed a sex act on the complainant," the court document said.
The affidavit also said, "Mosbeck performed another sex act on the teenager in the cell phone lot on Lee Road near Intercontinental Airport."
She also allegedly drove the boy to two motels where they had sex as recently as March 18, officials said.
Mosbeck, a mother of two children.
[In Texas, it is illegal for a teacher to have a sexual relationship with a student even if the student is of the age of consent.]
*age also listed as 32 or 33 in some stories.
Photo from Harris County Sheriff's Office.
Mandeville, LOUISIANA
Today's lesson for sixth graders. Usually, it is either PTA presidents or treasurers.
Oct 29, 2007 - Gabriel C. Hood, 28, a sixth grade teacher at Tchefuncte Middle School, was arrested for allegedly stealing money from a student community service group.
The sixth-grade teacher was in charge of the school's Builder's Club, which conducts and sometimes raises money for community service projects and charities, said school district spokeswoman Linda Roan.Hood, who was booked on two counts of felony theft and one count of misdemeanor theft, resigned.
Police said Hood collected money from club members and during fundraisers for needy families, but kept most of the money -- over $1,000 -- for himself and bought a $400 camera with the club's money.
Jan 10, 2008 - Hood was arraigned on reduced charges. He is charged with two counts of unauthorized use of a movable, a misdemeanor charge that carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison and a $500 fine. Hood pleaded innocent to the charges.
He resigned Sept 27.
GUILTY PLEA AND SENTENCING March 10 - Hood pleaded guilty to two counts of unauthorized use of a movable and was ordered to pay a $300 fine, plus court costs, and serve a year of probation. He must pay restitution. It is a misdeameanor.
Teacher Misconduct
Oct 28, 2007 - Another Associated Press story, "Abuse accusations don't keep teachers from classrooms" tells its own story.
Dropout Rates
Oct 29, 2007 - The Las Vegas Sun on proposals to modify the No Child Left Behind Act to reduce dropout rates in schools. The story was written by an Associated Press education writer.
FACT: "Dropout Factory,*" a high school where no more than 60 percent of the students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year. That description fits more than one in 10 high schools across America. [* The term was coined in a John Hopkins University study commissioned by the Associated Press.]
FACT: The highest concentration of dropout factories is in large cities or high-poverty rural areas in the South and Southwest. Most have high proportions of minority students.
FACT: Utah, which has low poverty rates and fewer minorities than most states, is the only state without a dropout factory. Florida and South Carolina have the highest percentages.
According to the writer, House and Senate proposals to renew the 5-year-old No Child law would give high schools more federal money and put more pressure on them to improve on graduation performance, and the Bush administration supports that idea.
The issue of Dropout Rates is the new mantra in education that will warrant new expenditures, although there is absolutely no correlation between money spent on education and academic achievement. (New Jersey schools and Washington, DC schools come to mind.]
However, there is something to be said for the desirability of tracking students and standardizing on the methods of reporting dropout rates. This is something states should have, and could have, instituted years ago if they so desired. It should not require federal funding.
The AP story does not link to a source for the dropout rates in their story. We found this source. (Be sure to view the figures as numerical as well.) At School Matters.com we found an explanation of what graduation rates mean, which will give you some idea of the confusion involved in the calculations of both dropout rates and graduation rates.
Previous TT coverage of Dropout Rates Here Here
San Jose, CALIFORNIA
It's only taxpayers' money. But they have a LOT of it.
Oct 29, 2007 - The San Jose Mercury News has a 2,130-word story on the resignation of the Santa Clara County Office of Education Superintendent.
The board's final settlement with the former superintendent gives her about $485,000 in severance pay and allows her to work on board assignments. But no project has materialized. The board won't be actively looking for anyone to offer one, either. She resigned before the "retirement" agreement they were negotiating could be settled.
The county office of education has a $277 million budget.
[TT - The article doesn't state if the $485,000 was money that was owed to her from her contract that would be paid whether she stayed or not, or whether it was a contractual obligation from termination. Or some other payout. In any case, it's high drama in Silicon Valley.]
School of Secrets
Oct 29, 2007 - A Canadian filmmaker who can sympathize with the victims of Tom Ellison, the recently-sentenced teacher who lead Quest, an outdoor experience program, at Vancouver High School, has made a documentary to record the testimony of his victims.
The film is called, "School of Secrets."
Many of the women in the film still have a hard time coping the confusion of what happened decades earlier.Wood knows because she, too, had a sexual relationship with a teacher when she was young.
The recollection of the teenage excitement and adrenaline they felt during their first sexual experience with the "dreamy" teacher is now combined with the grown-up knowledge that what Ellison was doing was wrong."
These women have struggled, that's for sure," [filmaker Melanie] Wood said. "They went into it, maybe at the beginning not quite knowing what they were getting into but they certainly didn't say no at the time. So they feel like it was partly their fault. I think that's been damaging for them."
As a teenage girl, you think you're in control of your life, but in this case it's a question of power and authority, and that line shouldn't have been crossed. It really wasn't their decision to make, but they felt it was.
The film will air on CBC Newsworld this week. Interview with Wood.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Investigating in New York State
Oct 18, 2007 - The Press & Sun-Bulletin, "Student sex abuse by teachers is growing problem" has this about investigations in New York state.
New York investigates cases under Part 83 of state Education Law. The law requires school districts to report to the state any action by a certified educator that raises a reasonable question about that person's moral character, [Jonathan Burman, a spokesman for the state Education Department] said.The number of moral conduct accusations against teachers, administrators and aides in New York has doubled in five years, according to state Education Department reports.
Following a report, the state Office of School Personnel Review and Accountability does an investigation that can lead to a range of penalties, including revocation of a teaching certificate, Burman said. To handle the misconduct cases, the department has six investigators and three attorneys. An average case costs local taxpayers nearly $129,000 and takes 520 days to complete.
At the same time, an individual school district can file separate charges against a teacher under 3020-a, the state's mechanism for disciplining tenured teachers. The charges can lead to a range of punishments, including termination of employment.
Disgusting
Trust the New York Times-owned Boston Globe to champion the wife of Maine's Attorney General for her support of Portland's proposed policy to supply birth control and abortions to 11-year-olds.
Oct 28, 2007 - Even while district attorney Stephanie Anderson is warning the school health clinics that that they were illegally failing to report underage sex, the Boston Globe profiled Amanda Rowe and her outspoken support for the program. Their source was a glowing article in the Portland Press Herald.
TT - In an age where readers were allowed input into newspapers, when facts were eagerly explored, topics debated, and ethics and morality were guidelines and active quests for most people, the school attorney, not the flamboyant activist, would have been profiled as a champion of decency.
Rowe and her husband have four children.
These are the middle schools in Portland, Maine. Not one is academically decent. They can provide sex education, condoms, abortions and birth control to every student if they want, but it isn't going to help students learn to read or find joy in education. It won't help students achieve self-sufficiency in this world, for themselves or their future families.
King Middle School ** the school for which the policy is proposed
66% white 19% black 11% Asian
Rates a 6
473 students
Lincoln Middle School
75% white 12% Asian 9% black 3% Hispanic
Rates a 5
513 students
Lyman Moore Middle School
88% white 5% black 5% Asian 1% Hispanic
Rates a 5
591 students
West School
83% white 8% black 4% Hispanic 4% Amer Indian
Unrated
49 students
Some 41% of the students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch program in the entire school district. In King Middle School, the figure is 61%.
What is becoming abundantly clear about such policies is that they are, at heart, eugenics disguised as a caring social policy. It's all right for Rowe and her husband to have four children, but clearly other people should limit their reproduction. That is the point of birth control for children. Teach them NOT to have children. Teach them early how to terminate children as casually as you take out the garbage.
And then count on those same children to drop out before high school because, academically, they haven't been prepared for anything else. Look at the graduation rates for this district (from Standard & Poor's Schoolmatters.com)
In a state where the general population is 95% white, it is very, very hard not to conclude that those in power would like to keep it that way.
Background
See the following for background on the school policy. Link Link
In the 1890s when public schools were formed, the overriding goal was to take uneducated immigrant populations, assimilate them, teach them values that would make them middle class, give them academic skills that would be a ladder for social mobility, and teach them respect for others and themselves.
Schools taught students how to think for themselves, how to speak in public, formulate ideas of their own. Schools equipped students for a future of their own choosing that didn't include overpriced, mediocre colleges hyped by supermarket magazines, a non-education that burdens them with a school loan debt for years and the only skill they learn is how to pass mediocrity onto others via the classroom.
Teaching an 11-year-old how to take birth control pills, seek an abortion at school without parents being any the wiser, encouraging adult males to prey on young girls without the inconvenience of that nasty pregnancy, all with government approval, is disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.
Cliffside Park, NEW JERSEY
Kudos to the teacher who notified school authorities.
Oct 28, 2007 - Robert Ingenito, 27, a Cliffside Park High School English teacher, was arrested, accused of having a seven-month-long sexual relationship with a 17-year-old female student.
Police where notified when another teacher told a school official about the relationship. The school official contacted police.
Romagnino said the teacher who alerted the district to Ingenito's relationship made the right decision.Ingenito will be arraigned on Nov 1.
"I think it was professional on her part, that when she suspected something, she came to the administration and spoke out about it," he said. "Maybe moral and professional."
Ingenito has a blogspot webpage. (The last entry was in 2005.)
Oct 30 - Ingenito has been released on $200,000 bail and suspended with pay pending the outcome of his case. He'll be arraigned later this week.
NOT GUILTY PLEA Nov 2 - Ingenito pleaded not guilty. The headline at the story says, "Cliffside Park teacher pleads guilty" but the story says otherwise.
The age of consent in New Jersey is 16, but there are prohibitions on teacher-student relationships that carry criminal charges if violated.Ingenito has been suspended with pay.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Headlines
HEADLINE
From CBS. It's more eye catching than
Sub: For Expoitative Sex with 16-year-old for two years
However, CBS is a contender for next years award, along with this one.
WAIVERS
Oct 27, 2007 - The Oklahoman conducted an investigation into day care centers and the people who were given waivers to be in them.
The waivers were issued by the state Department of Human Services. You won't believe the people they consider safe to be around children.
We just bet, however, that most people are not aware that state education agencies grant waivers to allow those with criminal records to teach.
It was a Rant of the Day in July. And we have found such waivers in several states, usually in the Board of Education meeting minutes.
See at TT - Arkansas Education Link (with links to three more meetings with waivers.)
But for sheer stupidity, there is the Oregon Senate Education and General Government that passed a bill out of that committee to allow schools to hire teachers who have been convicted of misdemeanor prostitution in the past. TT - Link
It isn't about forgiveness. It's about the protection of children and the gamble that states take with the safety of children not their own.
Friday, October 26, 2007
St. Paul, MINNESOTA
We'll get around to investigating this guy some time.
Oct 26, 2007 - Miguel Angel Sanchez, 29, a contract school bus driver for St. Paul school district, was charged with molesting an 18-year-old special education student on a bus. [He has been charged with two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct.]
Two younger girls reported that he also touched them inappropriately, but he wasn't charged in those cases.
A 9-year-old girl reported she was the only student left on the bus when the driver asked her on March 27 whether she wanted to go to McDonald's. She said, "no." When the driver dropped her off, he touched the girl on the buttocks. The girl reported the incident April 13.St. Paul police haven't been able to find Sanchez and there is a warrant out for his arrest.
A 10-year-old girl reported a school bus driver touched her on the buttocks on Dec. 4, according to police.
Both girls also picked Sanchez from a photo lineup.
On April 13, the district asked Monarch to no longer allow Sanchez to drive for them, said Howie Padilla, a St. Paul Public Schools spokesman.
There had been a previous complaint against Sanchez that was investigated, but didn't result in disciplinary action, Padilla said.
Anyone with information about Miguel Sanchez's whereabouts is asked to call St. Paul police at 651-291-1111.
Kalamazoo, MICHIGAN
They lost the marijuana plants and the grow lights and their jobs. They might lose their home for their felony convictions. But losing their teacher's licenses is not guaranteed. Go figure.
Oct 26, 2007 - Two teachers, Brett Johnson, 34, and Keri Johnson, 34, were sentenced Monday to probation after pleading guilty in August to manufacturing marijuana. After an anonymous tip, police found a marijuana growing operation in their basement.
Both Gull Lake High School teachers reisigned in August. Brett Johnson had been an English teacher at the school for 11 years. Keri Johnson spent 10 years at Gull Lake as a Spanish instructor. As the reporter wrote,
Now the Johnsons have lost their jobs at Gull Lake High School; they have a felony drug record, and they're at risk of losing their teacher's certifications and their home.**TT - That it's not a given that they will lose their certification after a felony conviction is sad as heck.
** As for their home, Kalamazoo County has filed a civil suit to seize the house under a state law that allows for the forfeiture of property used for drug operations. The civil case is still pending.
New Milford, CONNECTICUT
ARRESTED Nov 10, 2006 -
Richard Cea, 27, New Milford High School math teacher has been arrested and charged with multiple counts of second-degree sexual assault and impairing the morals of children.
The local paper reports that "during classes Mr. Cea allegedly chatted with female students and showed them his tattoos, belly button piercing and how he shaved his legs."
Cea is accused of meeting with the teen and her friend at his apartment while his girlfriend was out, Fletcher said. Cea served the girls Smirnoff Ice Blackberry coolers and had sex with them.
PLEA DEAL: From the Republican American, August 14, 2007 -
A former New Milford High School geometry teacher accused of having sex with a student and changing the grade of another who sent him photographs of herself wearing skimpy underwear took a plea deal Tuesday.He will be sentenced October 26.
The agreement Richard Cea accepted in Bantam Superior Court calls for him to serve at least three years in prison.
Cea, 27, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor. He could receive up to six years in prison. [Missing at site] pleas came under the Alford Doctrine, meaning he did not agree with all of the facts in the case but figured a jury would find him guilty if it had gone to trial, where he could have received a stiffer penalty.
August 16 - Times New Media goes into greater detail on the case. The girls were 15-years-old.
SENTENCED Oct 26 - Cea was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. A discovery by the mother of a teenage girl triggered the investigation.
From a story on his arrest, the mother found a note about Cea in her daughter's bedroom.
"I can't believe I slept with Cea, EW! Lol But I was drunk and horny what can I do? Lol Still you can't say anthing cause you slept with him five times now EW! No it was weird to say the least!"One encounter had the three of them having sex.
Teacher Strike
Advocacy Journalism or laziness?
Oct 26, 2007 - In a story on the two-week old Seneca Valley teachers strike, the newspaper reporter quoted from one adult ("The demands of this union exceed what other professionals in this community can expect over the next five years.") and three students "who spoke in support of their teachers."
One student wants to give teachers a substantial raise. Another fully supports the teachers. A third appreciates his teachers, but said they need to get back to work.
TT - It is really tiresome to have newspapers skewer their stories by quoting from children who can't vote and don't pay taxes and can be counted upon to have no understanding of the issues. It's also cheap journalism because it's easy to find a school campus and idle students. It's even cheaper when the reporter doesn't tell you that the average teacher's salary in the Seneca Valley School District is nearly $55,000.
The average median income for residents in Harmony, Pennsylvania, is $44,622.
Why doesn't the reporter take the time to tell us what the tax rate is for residents in the school district? How much the school spends, not just on salary, but the health benefits, the paid time-off, the absentee rate? How many hours a day do teachers work, how many days a year? And compare all that to the taxpayer's salary, working hours, absentee policy at their workplace?
Newspapers don't do this because it takes time and it's far easier to talk to students.
In-service training
LEARNING CURVE
In the wake of recent allegations of teacher misconduct nationwide, the school district now offers a 45-minute in-service devoted entirely to student-teacher relationships.
Hatcher attended the session.
St. Paul, MINNESOTA
Three months in the Workhouse - not prison - for sex with a student and disobeying a no contact order. If he hadn't contacted the victim in defiance of the court, he would have gotten probation.
ARRESTED May 30, 2007 -
Joseph Tucker, 28, a Como Park High School music teacher, was arrested, suspected of criminal sexual conduct with a female student and suspicion of tampering with a witness. He has not been charged.
"It was not immediately clear if the student was in the teacher’s class, but a teacher being in a position of authority would make the relationship a crime." The newspaper describes it as "an affair."
Full Name: Joseph Arne Tucker
Pioneer Press reports that Tucker is married and has young children. Police found a letter from Tucker in the girl's purse "in which he describes performing very specific sex acts on her." Tucker said they went to his house and had oral sex two to three times a month. Other students notified the assistant principal.
GUILTY PLEA: August 3 - Tucker pleaded guilty to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. He will be sentenced in September, but it is expected to be a 90-day jail term. (The student was age 17.)
ARRESTED (Again): August 13 - Police arrested Tucker after the gir's father called police to tell them Tucker was at his home, despite being ordered no contact by the Judge. His plea agreement might be in jeopardy and county attorney's office plans to ask the court to keep Tucker locked up until his sentencing in September.
Pioneer Press reports that school district officials reported his activities to the Minnesota Department of Education's Educator Licensing Division. His license is no longer valid, according to the department's Web site.
Star-Tribune -
According to St. Paul police, the girl's father, investigating noise coming from the upstairs of the family's home, found Tucker and the girl, fully clothed, in her bedroom Sunday night.NEW BAIL: August 15 - A judge set bail at $10,000 today for the schoolteacher who didn't stay away from a teenage student he admitted sexually molesting. Tucker climbed a ladder to enter the girl's bedroom.
Tucker had scaled a ladder up to the bedroom window, according to an affidavit filed today in Ramsey County District Court.
SENTENCED Oct 26 - Tucker was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but the judge stayed the sentence, ordering him to serve 3 months in the "Workhouse." [We think that's a kind of jail.] Tucker will have to register as a sex offender.
[Ramsey County District Judge M. Michael] Monahan told Tucker: "Your actions not only had an impact on the complaining witness in this case but had a broader impact on your other students and on the school itself.Tucker choked back sobs and apologized. His attorney said Tucker had lost his teaching license and will never teach again.
"There's nothing like having a teacher appear on the front page of the newspaper to undermine the public's general confidence in the members of your former profession and the system they work.
Tucker was married with two children, ages 1 and 3.
DON'T MISS this story on the sentencing from the Pioneer Press.
Sibley, IOWA
Oct 26, 2007 - Joseph Bradfield, 45, an english teacher at Sibley-Ocheydan High School, was arrested on a warrant for carrying weapons on school property. See KMEG coverage. See Daily Globe coverage.
The warrant stems from an incident in September, where Bradfield was accused of having a loaded handgun in his vehicle while parked on school property.
Bradfield has been suspended.
KELO-TV expounds on the story. The gun was loaded and found in Bradfield's car. Authorities were tipped off by a student. The gun was in the passenger side of Joseph Bradfield's car in the parking lot. Bradfield had a concealed weapon permit that has since been revoked.
Garden City, NEW JERSEY
Oct 26, 2007 - Humberto Gonzalez, 23, a Garden City High School assistant wrestling coach, will undergo a mental health evaluation before being sentenced in December.
Gonzalez entered into a plea agreement Sept. 14 and was convicted of two counts of attempted aggravated indecent liberties with a child.TT - Because he had no prior criminal history, he gets a sexual "freebie?" How is that justice for the victim? "Excuse us, but you were his first victim so you don't count?" And no jail time for someone who is required by law to register as a sex offender and who will probably undergo sex offender treatment?
The plea agreement dismissed two counts of indecent solicitation of a child, two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, aggravated criminal sodomy and one count aggravated intimidation of a witness that stemmed from events in December 2006.
As part of the plea, Tamara Hicks, assistant Finney County attorney, and Luci Douglass, Gonzalez's attorney, recommended a sentence of five years probation because Gonzalez had no prior criminal history.
Not that registration as a sex offender in New Jersey means anything.
South Amboy, NEW JERSEY
May 8, 2007 - Kevin Burns, 24, a Cardinal McCarrick High School math teacher, has been charged with sexual assault and official misconduct for an inappropriate relationship with a student.
A family friend of the alleged victim had reported a possible inappropriate relationship to school authorities who contacted the prosecutor's office. The investigation began Friday. Burns turned himself in on Saturday.
He has been fired.
This is not the first sex case to hit the secondary school within the past year.GUILTY PLEA August 17 - Burns pleaded guilty to charges of sexual contact and official misconduct. He is scheduled to be sentenced October 26.
Teacher Anthony F. Spinato [25] of Middletown was sentenced to seven years in prison in November after admitting to sexually assaulting two students. Spinato met the students while working as a teacher at Cardinal McCarrick but the incidents occurred in Middletown, authorities said.
Also in November, gym teacher James Kazanjian [51] was suspended following charges that he downloaded videos showing a man raping a boy and other child-sex pornography. Kazanjian's current status was unknown Monday.
PLEA AGREEMENT August 18 - Home News Tribune: The plea agreement calls for a three-year prison term for Burns with no period of parole ineligibility. He will be a sex offender and will be registered under Megan's Law.
Under the plea agreement, the Prosecutor's Office will not oppose Burns' enrollment into an intensive supervision program, a form of strict parole that would free him from prison more quickly than if he were normally paroled.SENTENCED and APPEAL Oct 26 - Burns was sentenced to three years in prison, a sentence that was stayed by Superior Court Judge Frederick DeVesa pending an appeal.
Burns' attorney, Steven Altman of New Brunswick, argued before [Judge] DeVesa that the girl's request that Burns not be incarcerated should have been considered in his bid to have Burns sentenced to probation.
The girl and her father told the court in a letter that a prison term would only lead to more pain for the victim, [Burns' attorney Steven] Altman said.
Spinoto was sentenced to to seven years in prison after admitting to sexually assaulting two students who were both under age 16. TT - Link to Spinoto
No online updates for Kazanjian. TT - Link to Kazanjian
Teacher Misconduct Undercount
TT SCRUTINY
Oct 26, 2007 - From the Reporter-Times, "State had dozens of teacher sexual misconduct cases in five years."
The state recorded 30 sexual misconduct cases over five years, with 17 involving student victims, the AP review found. Nearly all resulted in criminal convictions.AND,
State law requires districts to notify the Department of Education if a teacher is fired for sexual misconduct, and prosecutors must alert the department when a teacher is convicted of such crimes.TT - Seventeen sexual misconduct with student cases in five years works out to be 3+ a year. However, we know of 10 alone since Oct 26, 2006 who have been sentenced for sexual misconduct with students. We have ten more who were arrested that we can't follow up on, and two cases (one of which is sex, the other theft) where the judge refused plea agreements where the teachers would have served no time.
But experts say not all cases are reported, and not all abusive teachers are caught.
State Rep. Jerry Torr, a Republican from Carmel, said Indiana law should require districts to report when teachers resign to avoid being fired or when they are arrested, instead of waiting for convictions on such crimes.
Jennifer Jacobi, 35, sentenced to 66 years
Brett Zagorac, 24, pleaded guilty to battery charges
Kevin Walsh, 28, three years probation and registration as sex offender
Amber Marshall, 25, sentenced 6 yrs probation for sexual misconduct with special needs students
Donald R. Julian, 67, sentenced 10-year suspended sentence and four years probation. Sexual misconduct
Scott Coffing, 33, sentenced to two years for seduction of a child
Jack Spencer, 56, sentenced to four years for molesting a student
Anthony J. DeMarco, 27, sentenced to 120 years (reduced on appeal to 60) molesting students
Jason G. Brooks, 32, sentenced to 10 years for sexual misconduct with a child
Schmeca White, 28, sentenced to 9 years for sexual misconduct with a minor, vicarious sexual gratification and battery.
Lela Warren, failing to report the complaints given pre-trial diversion (For failing to report Schmeca White.)
One of the reasons that the Associated Press figures are so low in Indiana and other states is that in many states teachers are allowed to resign before their conviction or guilty plea, making it unnecessary to report them or count them.
Others are given the opportunity to "voluntarily surrender" their license, making it unncessary to revoke a license for sexual misconduct. But most, we suspect, are allowed to resign, making reporting them unnecessary. For the rest, the clock runs out as their licenses are allowed to expire while they are in jail or prison.
It isn't just Indiana. It is every single state.
Port Angeles, WASHINGTON
Oct 26, 2007 - Linda Capo, 62, a special education teacher, is is appealing the district's decision to fire her in a three-day hearing.
The district isn't alleging sexual impropriety. The district's point was that there were a set of behaviors that crossed a line of professional boundaries. Those included sleepovers at his house and hers, allowing him to drive her car when he wasn't licensed, and "boundary invasion" behaviors with a student who is now 16, extremely poor professional judgment, and serious insubordination.
The school district became aware of Capo's interactions with the boy when she inquired in late 2006 about the legalities of transporting him in her car, said Mark Jacobson, director of business and operations for the district at the hearing. An investigation was begun in December, Reid said. In January the district ordered her to stay away from the boy, an order she ignored.
She has been on non-disciplinary administrative leave since January. She received a letter of probable cause for termination in August. A retired judge will make the determination next week.
Oct 31 - The hearing officer upheld the firing of Linda Capo.
The personnel hearing conducted last week by retired state Supreme Court Justice Faith Ireland found that Linda Capo could be fired for insubordination.Also see Peninsula Daily News coverage.
But, Ireland said Tuesday there was insufficient evidence of poor judgment on the teacher's part, and the district had no guidelines or training on the subject of student-teacher boundary invasion.
Arcadia, CALIFORNIA
ARRESTED: Oct 19, 2006 -
Philip Sutliff, 34, was arrested and charged with a number of sex crimes against a former student. The teacher was placed on unpaid leave. He is on $1.6m bond.
UPDATE: Jan 7, 2007 - The link above no longer works as the Pasadena Star-News notoriously removes stories. KCAL has the story.
UPDATE Apr 4 - A judge ordered Sutliff to stand trial on 32 felony charges stemming from his alleged involvement with a former student. The girl was under 18.
He faces charges of oral copulation, sodomy, digital penetration and sexual intercourse with a person under 18 and sending sexual matter. He will be arraigned on Apr 19.
He is free on his own recognizance.
Full Name: Philip Morgan Sutliff
The prosecutor is Phil Wojdak.
UPDATE Apr 19 - Sutliff was taken into custody Thursday afternoon "in front of his weeping wife after pleading not guilty to multiple charges of sex crimes against a former student."
After his first arraignment, a judge had released Sutliff on his own recognizance on the condition that he not leave the condominium where he lives with his wife, another Arcadia High School teacher, and the couple's 4-year-old son. He has been monitored electronically since then.
Today, Sutliff pleaded not guilty at his second arraignment, and Pasadena Superior Court Judge Teri Schwartz revoked his release and ordered he be held on $500,000 bail.
The alleged victim testified that she and Sutliff had a brief consensual fling while she was 16 and he was 21 in 1993. At the time, the victim was coaching cheerleaders at Live Oak Park in Temple City while Sutliff worked in the nearby recreation center.
She said she and Sutliff had a physical relationship on two occasions in which he touched her sexually. However, the two were caught together soon after the second incident, and the girl was forced to end the relationship.
A pretrial hearing is scheduled for May 15. The trial is tentatively set for June 8.
UPDATE May 21 - Absolutely strange Chinese translation of Sutliff's woes.
UPDATE May 30 - From San Gabriel Valley Tribune:
Sutliff appeared in court Thursday wearing a blue jumpsuit and glasses, his head nearly shaved bald. He exchanged strained smiles with his wife, also an Arcadia High teacher, who was in the courtroom.A trial date has been scheduled for July 23.
The couple has a 4-year-old son together.
The trial will begin Wednesday, Jul 25.
UPDATE July 26 - Instead of the opening of a trial, prosecutors offered Sutliff a plea deal that would mean 12 years and eight months in state prison in exchange for a guilty plea. After several conferences, the judge ordered Sutliff to return to court Monday for a hearing.
There is sparse information and little curiosity in local newspapers about the case. Today's paper, however, included this,
According to Arcadia police investigators, the molestation came to light when employees at Arcadia High notified an on-campus school resource officer about Sutliff's supposed relationship with the student, which allegedly occurred at the beginning of the 2006-07 school year.TT - The local papers - the Pasadena Star-News and the San Gabriel Valley Tribune are owned by Media News Group.
Search warrants served at the defendant's home led to the recovery of evidence that resulted in the filing of criminal charges, police have said.
There is a commonality among the newspapers in the chain, whether it is the Oakland Tribune or the Denver Post or the Los Angeles Daily News, that diligence in oversight of education (or local politicians) isn't a big priority.
July 30 - Sutliff was at a hearing today. Another hearing is scheduled for Friday at which time Sutliff can decide either to accept the plea agreement or go to trial.
Authorities say an inappropriate physical relationship between Sutliff and a female student began when she was 16 years old and continued for two and a half years until she graduated in 2006.GUILTY PLEA: August 3 - Sutliff pleaded guilty to 17 sex-related felony charges, including sexual intercourse with a person under 18, oral copulation of a person under 18, sodomy of a person under 18, penetration with a foreign object of a person under 18, and sending harmful matter over the internet to seduce a minor
According to KNBC - tv, Sutliff is expected to be sentenced to 12 years 8 months in prison on Sept. 27.
"Our offer in this case is so high because of the severe breach of trust involved in preying on students he was supposed to be protecting and also because of the hundreds of pages of instant messages show a pattern of manipulation and grooming of her," the prosecutor said.From the Whittier Daily News:
The charges stem from a relationship Sutliff had with one of his students at the high school from 2004 to 2005. A friend of the girl's family found out about it and notified school officials, who in turn told police, Wojdak said.
Sutliff is alleged to have committed similar crimes with another 16-year- old female while working in Parkson Recreation several years ago, but the charges do not reflect those, Wojdak said.
TT - See profile of the prosecutor. He is Phil Wojdak."Some people have been surprised that we wouldn't go lower than 12 years and eight months, but for a teacher to prey on students he is supposed to protect from predators is a terrible breach of trust," [Wojdak] said.
Wojdak said it makes no difference that the relationship between Sutliff and his then-student was consensual.
"The law doesn't recognize consent as a defense because that 16-year-old girl needs protection from him," he explained. "Her consent doesn't matter."
August 9 - Pasadena Independent coverage of the plea.
SENTENCED Oct 26, 2007 - Sutliff was sentenced to 12 years and eight months in state prison today for sex crimes against a one-time student.
Pasadena Superior Court Judge Dorothy L. Shubin also accepted about 25 letters from current and former students and colleagues of Sutliff's, as well as from his family members, with positive messages about Sutliff as a person and as a teacher."He discredited his family, his profession and all those who believed in him," said the father of the victim.
From the North Country Times on the sentencing.
The girl's father told the judge that Sutliff left love notes in his daughter's desk at school.TT - Pitiful when you get more information from an Escondido, California paper than you do a from a local paper.
"The father said (Sutliff) told the girl to destroy all their conversations and momentos and he would deny it to the end," Wojdak said.
Sutliff is expected to serve about half of his sentence before being eligible for release, the prosecutor said.
Prattville, ALABAMA
Remember when teachers used to be those upstanding, boring people in the community? 
Oct 26, 2007 - Monica Marshall, 49, a Prattville Junior High School teacher, has been arrested on charges of misdemeanor possession of marijuana.
She was stopped after a police officer noticed her drinking a beer while driving.
She was at the intersection and the investigator saw her turn up a bottle of beer and take a drink," Johnson said. The investigator was driving an unmarked vehicle.The school board accepted her resignation on Thursday at their regularly scheduled meeting. Marshall worked for the school system for 20 years.
After the investigator pulled her over, he noticed what appeared to be marijuana residue on the front of her shirt, and noticed a strong smell of burning marijuana coming from the vehicle, the incident report said.
The officer asked for and received permission to search the car, where the report said he found a smoldering marijuana cigarette and a plastic baggie containing what he suspected to be marijuana.
New York, New York
Oct 26, 2007 - Umesh Ramjattan, 22, an English teacher in M.S, 137 in the Ozone Park section of Queens, was arrested for sending sexually explicit emails to three of his 12-year-old female students.
He has been charged with disseminating indecent material to minors and endangering the welfare of a child. He got their addresses by offering to answer questions about their homework assignments. He sent them series of improper emails to female students, including one that contained a picture of him and his girlfriend having sex.
He's been reassigned.
Urbana, ILLINOIS
In yet another case where school administrators gave the benefit of the doubt to a teacher who was later arrested, Jon Andrew White got special treatment denied his victims.
Oct 26, 2007 - In testimony at an evidentiary hearing, parents of one girl testified,
that they first spoke with Thomas Paine principal Janice Bradley the night of November 2nd, 2006, but the child wasn't interviewed by a district administrator until November 7th.He was never taken out of the classroom. The victim remained in his classroom for two months until he was arrested. No parent was notified of the accusations. White was previously investigated and suspended in Nov 2004, in another school and "forced" to resign and move on to another county.
A spokesman for the Urbana School District had no comment as to why the girl wasn't interviewed earlier. White was never taken off the job before he was arrested in January of this year.
He is accused of molesting nine students in Urbana.
TT - Link to White (Where another case is eerily similar.)
Tampa, FLORIDA
"She wasn't the only one seeing what was going on."
Oct 26, 2007 - A student who reported a teacher's inappropriate behavior with a male student twice to school administrators was suspended when the district dismissed the accusation as rumor.
The girl's mother is understandably angry.The Hillsborough County School District said the sex scandal centered on Middleton High School teacher Christina Butler all started as a nasty rumor.
One of the girls allegedly involved in spreading the rumor was suspended from class. The district said the suspension was not a form of punishment. However, now that the rumors have been confirmed as true, the family of the student is asking the district some difficult questions.
At a press conference in Tampa Thursday night, county commissioner Kevin White raised questions about why Butler was not properly investigated.
"Over the past few weeks, our trust in figures of authority has been put to the test, and it has failed miserably," White said.
It was not until Butler's arrest this week that the school acknowledged that an investigation had been held.TT - The teacher was Christina Butler. Her arrest was entirely accidental when police stopped boys who were riding in her car.
Kendricks' mother, Thelma Reeves said she is doubtful any investigation ever took place.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
So, how come students know these things but other teachers at the school, who are mandated reporters by law, who are required, by law, to report such conduct, never seem to know anything?
And how come those teachers are never investigated and given lie detector tests?
TT - Link to Butler
Gallatin, TENNESSEE
Whenever you see a mug shot, you wonder how hurtful it must be to the family of the accused. And for the victim's family, the victimization in the courts and public opinion is just beginning. 
Oct 26, 2007 -
Holly Anna Hatcher, 25, a Gallatin High School social studies teacher, was arrested, accused of a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student. She is charged with six counts of statutory rape by an authority figure.
The Metro Police Department’s investigation began Thursday after information was received from the Gallatin Police Department.
Metro Police Press Release on arrest. (Dated Oct 26, 2007)
[TT - Don't bother reading the Neanderthal comments at the story. The Tennessean must have the lowest I.Q. readers in the state.]
Nov 16 - The case against Hatcher in Sumner County has been continued until until Nov. 28. She is scheduled for a Davidson County court appearance next week on charges related to sexual encounters that took place in her Donelson home.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
One sentencing, two guilty pleas, one guilty verdict, seven arrests and one trial and one arraignment. And an Outrage of the Day. And that's one day.
Outrage of the Day
Few cases illustrate so perfectly the selfish exploitation of a child than that of Lauren Cosgrove, 28, accused of sexual assault of a 13-year-old boy.
She was arrested Wednesday for trying to contact the victim. From the initial arrest story in July, there was this from the newspaper:
According to the court records, the boy’s siblings told their parents they had seen him and his teacher go into his bedroom and shut the door numerous times. The boy admitted to the detective that he had sexual relations with her, the documents stated.“TT - What a burden to put on a child.
He told his parents he and Lauren have plans to be together when he reaches the age of 18,” according to the document. “[The victim] said he was worried what the consequences for Lauren would be. He said he knew she was wrong for what she had done but [he] said he was also at fault. He said Lauren had told him she was afraid she would lose her children if anyone found out about their relationship.”
The latest arrest was a result of her contacting another student, a friend of the victim, asking him to arrange to speak to the 13-year-old so she could tell him what to say to make things better for her in court.
The fact that they let this woman out of jail on bail does not say much for judges or prosecutors in Denton, Texas. (By comparison, see how prosecutors dealt with Christopher Dumaine today.) And as we noted at her arrest, it's becoming obvious that teachers need pyschological testing before hiring and being given access to children.
Link to Cosgrove entry.
Bumped.
Edcouch, TEXAS
Oct 21, 2007 - Manuel “Manny” Hernandez, 29, an Edcouch-Elsa school board member, was arrested on domestic violence charges and faces felony counts of assault and burglary stemming from a violent fight with an ex-girlfriend at her Monte Alto home Saturday.
The woman, whose name authorities have not released, sustained several bruises to her head and face, according to Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputies. She was treated and released from Knapp Medical Center in Weslaco the same day.Hernandez, a former Elsa municipal judge, will likely retain his spot on the board of trustees while district officials assess his situation, the superintendent said. However, a final decision may not come until the resolution of his case in state district court.
Investigators believe an argument erupted between Hernandez and the woman after he crawled through her kitchen window around 10 a.m. Saturday. During the fight, the school board member purportedly hit her several times with his fists. The couple have a child together but have been separated for two and a half years, according to Hidalgo County Justice of the Peace Bobby Contreras.
School board members can only be removed for incompetence, official misconduct, intoxication or conviction on felony charges, according to the state education code.
From the Edcouch-Elsa Independent School District website,
The mission of Edcouch-Elsa ISD is to produce responsible graduates who can compete confidently in a dynamic global society by providing an individualized, nurturing educational foundation that draws strength from our community's spiritual roots and rich cultural heritage as we face the challenge of the new millennium.Board of Trustees web page.
Mission, TEXAS
Oct 24, 2007 - Christopher Motes, 42, assistant band director at Mission High School, was arraigned on a charge possessing a controlled substance after officers found 1.8 grams of cocaine in his home.
Mission police say they found drugs in Motes’ home, near the intersection of 3 1/2 Mile Line and Schuerbach Road, while they were searching for another man.The school district placed Motes on paid leave.
They executed a search warrant for Arturo Vargas at the property, according to Mission police spokesman Lt. Martin Garza. Both homes on the property fell under the search warrant’s authority, Garza said. Vargas owns the two homes, one of which Motes rents.
Police say they found a Mission schools identification card and the cocaine in plain sight, leading them to contact Motes at Mission High School. Garza said Motes confessed to possessing the cocaine.
During Motes’ arraignment, Alamia requested his client be released on a personal recognizance bond. The judge, however, denied the request because Motes is on probation in connection with a misdemeanor forgery charge more than four years ago in McAllen.
Full Name: Christopher John Motes
Charleston, WEST VIRGINIA
Oct 24, 2007 - Casey Casto, 22, a computer technician employed by the Kanawha County Board of Education, was arrested and charged with sexual assault for having sex with a 15-year-old female Capital High School student.
Besides being charged with third-degree sexual assault, Casto is charged with third-degree sexual abuse by a parent, guardian, custodian or person in a position of trust to a child.
The technicial met the girl at Capital at the beginning of the school year. The girl’s mother reported the incidents to the school board, said Sgt. Aaron James, assistant chief of detectives for Charleston police.
TT - No background check would have prevented this. But certainly fingerprinting contract employees and requiring them to sign an acknowledgement of laws against sex with minors and the law against sexual abuse by a figure of authority would help.
What would help even more is if the sexual abuse by a figure of authority meant an additional one to two years in prison.
Oklahoma City, OKLAHOMA
Oct 24, 2007 - Transportation director Richard Dale Thomas, 33, and Superintendent Shannon Lee Goodsell, 38, have both been charged in connection with two assaults on students that were allegedly motivated by the students' race.
Thomas was accused of the assaults while Goodsell is accused of obstructing an officer, which means he tried to get a sheriff's deputy, who works as a campus resource officer, to stop the investigation against Thomas.
The school district is the Crooked Oak School district in Oklahoma City.
See School Administrator Charged In Hate Crime
See Ex-Okay principal faces obstruction of justice charge
TT - Hate crime laws are so emotionally charged that they obscure reality. They also confer the ability to read minds on the accuser and the prosecution. Covering up any crime by a school authority, however, is certainly a factual case that could, and should, be determined in a court of law.
Omaha, NEBRASKA
She brought heroin to the school with her.
August 30, 2007 - Krista Crosby, 34, a third-grade teacher at Florence Elementary School was arrested on drug charges. She was booked for possession of heroin, marijuana and associated pararphenlia.
An employee of the school found a bag containing possible narcotics. School officials determined the bag belonged to a teacher. A small amount of marijuana and paraphernalia were also found on Crosby, according to Omaha police
Crosby has been with Omaha Public Schools for nine years, the last three years at Florence. She was fired.
TWO other teachers (both women) were arrested and convicted on drug charges in 2005 - both for methamphetamine. (Actually it was three.)
ARRESTED August 31 - Crosby was arrested in July on traffic-related charges and posted bond to get out of jail. A parent in the class expressed surprise.
Gilkerson said she explained to her children what heroin is. About the whole situation, Gilkerson told them, "It's a horrible thing that happened. Unfortunately it's part of life. Things will get better."TT - Yeah. I know I would just dearly love to explain it to a third grader.
GUILTY PLEA Oct 25 - Crosby pleaded guilty to bringing heroin into her classroom.
she apologized to her third graders and their moms and dads: "I want to apologize to all the people I hurt in this process. I'm sorry. I love the support I'm receiving. A lot of support."Krista's first stop after her guilty plea...the judge ordered her to watch 13 people graduate from drug court today. If she graduates from drug court, her felony conviction will be dismissed.
Krista said she hopes to get into drug court to continue getting help, to "become a better person."
TT - It is a little difficult not to wonder if the "support" she loves is really the attention she craves because it makes her a victim of addiction, not a drug addict. Excuse me, but when you bring marijuana into a third-grade classroom, you don't deserve anyone's sympathy.
Woodland, CALIFORNIA
From the Daily Democrat, Woodland, California, comes an update on two local cases, neither one of which was previously reported at this blog.
Oct 24, 2007 - David Quesenberry a former Senior English teacher at Woodland High School, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of sexual battery in 2006 after he allegedly threw a quarter down a female student's shirt and offered to get it back out.
Quesenberry also faced additional allegations of sexual misconduct with other students during the 2005-2006 school year.
Quesenberry pleaded no-contest to the charges on Sept. 27 and has been placed on probation, according to court records.
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Pioneer High School woman's basketball coach Anne Ichord was arrested and charged with unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor student during the 2005-2006 school year.
Ichord presently faces six felony counts of sexual misconduct after she allegedly seduced a male student of hers at Pioneer high School.
According to the complaint, Ichord engaged in numerous sexual acts with him before being arrested by authorities in June of 2006.
Ichord's trial is set for March in 2008 after having been continued several times by the attorneys in the case.
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TT - The article also stated that it took delays of months and sometimes years before the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing took action. We know. They sometimes place a HOLD on credentials at their web site, but rarely move beyond that point. We check. Often.
Correction (thanks to poster) Woodland; not Woodland Hills.
Floyd County, INDIANA
Sentenced to 66 years for child molestation. Child pornography charges pending.
Oct 24, 2007 - Jennifer Jacobi, 35, a substitute teacher for the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp., was sentenced to serve 76 years in prison, with 10 years suspended, on child-molesting charges. She still faces a federal hearing on the allegations.
The conviction against Jacobi was for her performing oral sex upon and fondling a child under age 14, said Harrison Deputy Prosecutor Michelle MarQuand.The child was not connected with Jacobi’s former substitute teaching.
Jacobi had a long-term relationship with a known pedophile incarcerated in Maine and procured a child for him during his visit to Harrison County, MarQuand said. The man, Richard Prado, later committed suicide.
Jacobi was charged this summer with 10 federal counts of producing ch
ild pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. Those charges involved children under age 12. A plea agreement on those charges is pending in Federal court. **(see Nov 11) A copy of that plea agreement says that Jacobi agrees to plead guilty to two of the federal child pornography producing charges and be sentenced to 35 years in prison, to run concurrently with her Harrison County sentence. She also would receive credit for time served since February 2006, and not be levied the standard $250,000 fine.No court date given for the Federal case.
If released, Jacobi would be required not to possess any kind of nude images, erotica or pornography. In addition, she would be under supervised release for the remainder of her life and not be allowed unsupervised contact with any minor children, including relatives, without her probation officer’s consent.
Jacobi is married and the mother of two children.
Department of Justice Press Release on her indictment. (Dated August 8, 2007)
Also see the Courier-Journal (KY) story on her sentencing.
Jacobi admitted that she twice molested a girl during a two-year period beginning in 2004, when the victim was 8. She also made arrangements by computer for a man from Maine to molest the girl.TT - It is rare for women to collect or produce pornography, but it isn't uncommon for pedophiles to seek employment with access to children.
Oct 25 - WHAS Ch 11 reporter Renee Murphy interviewed Jacobi. The two children she molested and allowed Richard Prado to molest were relatives of Jacobi.
When asked if she saw herself as a sex offender she replied, “Honestly, no.”PLEA ACCEPTED ** Nov 11 - Jacobi signed a plea agreement in October stipulating that she committed two of the child pornography producing charges against her, and agreed to accept a sentence of 35 years in prison. U.S. District Judge John D. Tinder accepted her guilty plea in court Thursday and set a sentencing date for Dec. 20.
This is in addition to the 66 year sentence handed out in October in state court.
School Reform without the, ah, Reform
Wresting concessions from the politicos who would have given away the farm anyway. (And have.)
Oct 24, 2007 - Diane Ravitch, writing an opinion piece in the New York Daily News, opines:
The deal gives "merit pay" to schools, rather than individuals.The teachers union just outsmarted the Smartest Guys in Education.
Pushed to the wall to accept some sort of merit pay, United Federation of Teachers leader Randi Weingarten persuaded Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to strike a deal with the union for a schoolwide bonus plan, which is definitely not merit pay.
But the real deal for the union was retirement.
From now on, teachers, paraprofessionals and all other in-service members of the union will be able to retire at age 55 after 25 years of service (future hires will have to work 27 years, not 25, to collect). Currently, most members are not able to collect their full pension until they are 62. This change was one of the union's top priorities.TT - Calling Bloomberg and Klein the Smartest Guys in Education surely must have been facetious. Still, it can be no surprise that Bloomberg caved.
He spoke at the National Urban League conference in St. Louis in July. Link At that time, he told them that reform wouldn't be easy. Quoting from his speech (the full text of which can be found at the link.)
But to inject some sanity into the process of firing bad teachers. And to pay bonuses to highly effective teachers, we need buy-in from the unions. That Hasn’t been easy in New York – or anywhere else. And I’ll be honest: I’m not sure we’re going to get there without support from the federal government.Paying New York teachers 43% across the board as he did without extracting a single concession on their part doesn't seem very smart, does it? Well, it does if the LAST thing you are interested in is reform.
We also questioned speaking about Education Reform in St. Louis, a city where the entire school system was taken over by the state due to poor performance and questionable ethics. Link
New Orleans, LOUISIANA
Oct 24, 2007 - A teacher in New Orleans who was fired after one week after parents objected to her adult-oriented artwork on her website, lost a lawsuit backed by the ACLU. She claimed the firing was in violation of her first amendment right of free speech.
In dismissing the case, the judge ruled on a technicality: Weathers sued former Superintendent James Easton and Craig only in their official capacities, not in their individual capacities.
Attorneys for the Lafayette Parish School Board countered Weathers was dismissed not because of her art but because she "exhibited poor professional judgment" in telling students about her Web site, even if she mentioned the site only to warn students not to visit it.
Background Checks - NOT
Speaking of Alabama, this article about background checks in Alabama resonates with untruth.
Oct 23, 2007 - From the Times Daily article, "Alabama legislature requires teacher background checks"
Besides doing personnel interviews, Stejskal said he always checks an applicant's references."TT - We don't doubt that they call, but to says that principals are honest about teachers who have left their employment is blatantly untrue in Alabama and elsewhere. It's one of the continuing problems in education.
Principals are going to be honest about a teacher, so I call places where the teachers have been before or where they have substituted," Stejskal said."Background checks can't tell you everything, so you have to make calls," Moss added.
As for background checks in Alabama, they are required except when they're not convenient. Sept 7, 2007 entry on those hired on an temporary emergency basis, a common practice that allows hundreds of teachers into the classroom for months without having cleared a background check.
Then there is a teacher whose criminal past was accepted by the state, that is, until he was arrested for immoral conduct with a student. July 20, 2007 entry. Georgia school officials gave him an excellent rating despite being charged with roughing up a student in Georgia.
Huntsville, ALABAMA
Oct 13, 2007 - Cleavon Eason, 36, assistant principal at Lee High School, was arrested on allegations of sodomy and sexual abuse.
Investigators aren't discussing the specifics of this case at this time, only saying a student brought forth allegations on Monday. Eason has been the Assistant Principal at Lee High School for about ten years.
Oct 22 - A senior at Lee High School asks, 'How can this really be happening?'
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
ABCs of Betrayal series gains attention
Oct 23, 2007 -
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Lawmakers are grilling state education officials about a pattern of recently publicized teacher misconduct in Ohio public schools.An AP article in The Akron Beacon Journal also credits the Columbus Dispatch series for legislative movement to look into the problems in Ohio. Also see Education Week article.
Special hearings Tuesday and Wednesday were called by House Speaker Jon Husted after The Columbus Dispatch reported on widespread problems, including abuse of children, assault and theft.
The newspaper said it found problem teachers are still able to move to jobs in other districts, despite a new state law aimed at stopping that practice.
The lawmakers are to hear from the Ohio Department of Education, members of the state school board, teachers unions and the Buckeye Association of School Administrators.
TT - If you missed the Columbus Dispatch series called "ABCs of Betrayal" here are the links.
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
The series is the culmination of a 10-month investigation.
The state will also launch an online database on Nov 1 in response to the Columbus Dispatch series.
Beaufort, SOUTH CAROLINA
Cheboygan, MICHIGAN
Found NOT GUILTY on four of the five charges.
May 24, 2007 -
Deana Luedtke, 31, a substitute, who worked briefly Cornerstone Christian School more than four years ago was arraigned in connection with seven charges of criminal sexual conduct involving a 13-year-old boy.
"She came in as a substitute teacher for one week," principal Susan Agee told the Cheboygan Daily Tribune. "I'm told that she asked the student to baby-sit, and that's apparently how the relationship started."
From The Cheboygan Tribune: “She came in as a substitute teacher for one week,” verified Susan Agee, who began her first year as principal in 2006. “I'm told that she asked the student to baby-sit, and that's apparently how the relationship started.”
A preliminary examination is scheduled for June 6.
Full Name: Deana Louise Luedtke
TT - City and state are always the location of the school. Luedtke now lives in Coral Gables, FLORIDA.
ENHANCED CHARGES June 7 - A judge allowed enhanced charges increasing the prosecution's complaint to three charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two charges of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. A Fall trial is likely.
NOT GUILTY VERDICT Oct 23 - Found not guilty of four charges. Jury could not decide on fifth.
RETRIAL IN THE SPRING Nov 27 - A retrial date will be scheduled in April or May on the charge the jury could not agree on. It is charges of criminal sexual conduct in the third degree and fourth degree that Cheboygan County Prosecutor Mickey Castagne said she will pursue in the re-trial.
Although the jury was unanimous with acquittals on four of the five charges, the jury was hung on the most serious allegation - of sexual penetration - guilty by a vote of 11-1, according to Luedtke's original defense attorney, Mitchell Nelson of Novi, Mich. A conviction on that charge alone would have sent Luedtke to prison.
Brunswick, MAINE
Oct 23, 2007 -
A 21-year-old Brunswick High School graduate with 18 criminal convictions in the past two years, including five theft charges, is trying to convince voters he's changed enough to represent them in an at-large seat on the town's School Board.TT - It's Maine. We give him a 50 - 50 chance.
Shameful
Oct 23, 2007 - Opinion from the Honolulu Star Bulletin on "Strip licenses from teachers caught molesting kids" includes, in passing, the reason why no, zero, zilch teachers in Hawaii have lost their teaching license since 2001.
The Legislature put the Standards Board in control of teacher license renewals every five years in 2002. The board's 13 members include the University of Hawaii's dean of education, the state Board of Education chairman and teachers and administrators appointed by the governor.TT - Due diligence, however, was extended to seven Hawaii teachers who lost their licenses since 2001, all because they had stopped paying licensing fees after resigning from their jobs.
The bigger problem than child molesters in schools in Hawaii is teachers selling drugs. They don't lose their licenses either.
South Carolina
Oct 23, 2007 -
Rep. Scott Talley has broadened a bill he introduced last year that stiffens penalties for adults who have been convicted of a criminal sexual offense while working or or volunteering in schools, day-care centers and churches.The bill calls for any of those people convicted of a criminal offense to be sentenced to an additional five years of active prison time that can't be suspended or reduced. The five years could not be suspended to probation, for instance.
TT - It was kinda depressing to visit Talley's campaign website and see links to his MySpace and Facebook pages. However, South Carolina has major problems with teacher misconduct.
Education Orders September 2007 One suspension for sexual misconduct allegations.
( Most Orders are due to debt collections and failure to pass ADEPT )
See previous orders
NEW JERSEY
Sept 6, 2007 - Eleven New Jersey officials were arrested in a corruption probe centered around bribes relating to contracts awarded by the Pleasantville school board in Atlantic County.
Charged are:
Samuel Rivera, the mayor of Passaic;
Assemblyman Mims Hackett, Jr., who is also the mayor of Orange;
Assemblyman Rev. Alfred E. Steele, who is also a Passaic County undersheriff (and the Assembly's deputy speaker;
Keith Reid, the chief of staff to Newark City Council President Mildred Crump.
All of them are Democrats.
The probe - dubbed "Operation Broken Boards" - also netted a current Passaic councilman, a former Passaic councilman and five current and former members of the Pleasantville Board of Education
The 11 officials are accused of accepting bribes in exchange for agreeing to steer public contracts to companies that offered insurance brokerage or roofing services to school districts and municipalities, according to criminal complaints unsealed with the arrests. LINK
Also arrested:
School Board President James Pressley
Board member Rafael Velez
Former Board members include:
Jayson Adams,
James McCormick
Maurice "Pete" Callaway, the brother of former Atlantic City Councilman Craig Callaway, who is currently in prison for taking bribes from an undercover FBI agent.
A 12th suspect, Louis Mister, was arrested and charged with accepting two $1,500 bribes on behalf of Callaway, authorities said.
The suspects from the Passaic City Council are:
Marcellus Jackson, a Democrat,
and former councilman Jonathon Soto, a Republican who lost reelection in May. He teaches social studies at a middle school in Passaic and is a member of the city's redevelopment agency.
Overview from the U.S. Department of Justice (Dated Sept 6, 2007) PDF
TT - Hoboken Now blog had a headline: Breaking News! No Hoboken Hoboken officials arrested!
See School Board Watch - Pleasantville School District
UPDATED
Oct 23 - The headline reads, "Mims pleads not guilty to bribe charges" in a cozy first-name basis story. "Mims" is former Democratic state assemblyman and current Orange Mayor Mims Hackett Jr. Hackett resigned from the assembly Sept 10.
Former Democratic Assemblyman Alfred E. Steele, pleaded guilty Friday to accepting $15,500 in bribes and will be sentenced in January.
New Rochelle, NEW YORK
GUILTY VERDICT Sept 10, 2007 -
James J. Nieto, 80, was found guilty by a jury of first-degree sexual assault of a victim under 13 and two counts of risk of injury to a minor.
Nieto is retired teacher from New Rochelle, N.Y. He rejected a plea agreement that would have meant 15 years in prison, suspended after eight years served and 10 years probation. The two girls were relatives.
NOTE: Location is where he taught.
SENTENCED Oct 23 - Nieto was sentenced to 30 years in prison for molesting two girls to whom he was related through marriage. Judge Stuart M. Schimelman said it was heartbreaking to see what Nieto had done to the two girls and that he should die in prison.
TT - We all do, but it's a little intemperate to say so.
Fruit Loops in Maine
Some criticisms of a Portland, Maine middle school's plan to provide birth control to 11 year-olds has resulted in a proposal from one committee member to raise the age to 14 (age of legal consent in Maine) for those who will be provided the pill or patches, and notify parents to allow them to block access to the school program.
One poster at the story observed,
I find myself reflecting on the story of birth control in our middle schools. Although the thought has crossed my mind that there are indeed some children out there who are engaging in sexual activity quite young, and those whose parents certainly would lack appropriate responses. Yes, I'm talking about those who would be abusive should they be approached by their children about such a topic. I can't help but wonder how we as a society can consider giving birth control to children as young as eleven years old.Another comment, "I hope this doesn't stop recall efforts in Portland." AND,
These are the same children who cannot drive, cannot drink, cannot smoke, cannot obtain medical care in an emergency room with a parents consent, nor can they even go to the movie theater to an R-rated movie and in some cases not even a PG-13 rated movie. Yet, we are considering giving them birth control devices, allowing abortions (a surgical procedure that can have detrimental side effects and ramifications) without a parents knowledge.
I recently found out that the age of consent in Maine is only 14 years of age. How, I have to ask can a child who cannot see an R-rated movie, consent to sexual activities? I have to wonder if we feel the need to shield a child from these themes in movies; can we hand them the devices to assist them in participating in these very activities? I also must wonder whether any consideration has been given to the children who will suffer allergic reactions from these, i.e. allergies to synthetic progesterone, latex, or even a reaction caused by the combination of birth control pills with another medication that a child is taking. What of introducing these chemicals into a young body just entering puberty?
Yes, I'm quite aware that some kids will engage in sexual activities, regardless of what is made available to them, regardless of parenting, however I am deeply disturbed that our schools would participate in making this an easier door to open.
It seems that in todays "indoctrination" centers for children, the primary purpose should be, "education", not being introduced to drugs, sex and bypassing the parents moral values.TT - Someone cynically noted that this proposal to limit the program was timed to reduce outrage before the November election. A true judge of the community will be how the community votes in November. People don't get the government they deserve, they get the government they tolerate.
Previous TT coverage here.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Smiths Station, ALABAMA
Oct 22, 2007 - A Smiths Station High School health teacher and coach resigned after being asked to to do so after allegations of inappropriate contact with a student. The investigation did not reveal any sexual activity and the coach is not facing charges at this time. He resigned Oct 15.
The teacher is being investigated by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. The alleged harassment was of a 15-year-old female student. The parents of the 15-year-old girl filed a harassment complaint.
Derry, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Gregory Smart's killer wants a sentence reduction.
Oct 22, 2007 - Billy Flynn, 33, wants a reduction in his sentence. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison for killing Gregory Smart, the husband of Pamela Smart, a media director at Winnacunnet High School.
Flynn was 15 when he killed 24-year-old Gregory Smart in 1990 with the help of two friends. He later told police he had been having an affair with Pamela Smart and she had persuaded him to murder her husband.
Even if Flynn does win a sentence reduction he would likely still have to convince a parole board to release him. Currently Flynn is not eligible for parole until 2018.Pamela Smart remains behind bars at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York, serving a life sentence for being an accomplice to first-degree. She was sentenced to prison without the possibility of parole.
In 2005, Judge McHugh granted a three-year sentence reduction to Vance Lattime, who drove the getaway car the night of Greg Smart's murder. Lattime, who had served 13 of his original 18-year sentence, was later granted parole. Another man, Raymond Fowler -- who was in the getaway car with Lattime -- was paroled in April 2005.
Pamela Smart has her own Wikipedia entry.
In 1996, Smart was severely beaten by two other inmates, resulting in a metal plate being placed in the left side of her face. In 2003, pictures of her scantily clad were published in the National Enquirer and she was subsequently placed in solitary confinement. She sued claiming this amounted to unfair treatment. Her lawsuit was dismissed.The CourtTV coverage is, as usual, extensive.
In 2006, she sued officials of Bedford Hills, claiming sexual harassment, and also sexual assault by a guard, who she also claimed coerced her into posing for the suggestive pictures published of her in 2003.
REQUEST DENIED Feb 12, 2008 - A judge denied an early release.
Judge Kenneth McHugh said Tuesday that the time Flynn served for the murder is not enough. He said that when Flynn has served 25 years in prison, he will become eligible for parole again.
Teacher Misconduct denied
There were lots of fine articles accompanying the Associated Press stories on teacher misconduct. This one is not in that category.
Oct 22, 2007 - From the Herald Bulletin (Anderson, INDIANA) " Teacher sex abuse cases ‘extremely rare’" is a shameful dismissal of the teacher misconduct problem. Teacher union officials are quoted extensively. And exclusively.
But at the same time, certain behaviors that years ago might’ve been considered affectionate could be perceived as a sexual advance. Muir expressed regret that a teacher simply hugging a student could be seen as abuse.Ludicrous. And even worse that a reporter would put his name on the article.
What we found in Indiana was that the only two people who challenged a town's sex registration restrictions on sex offenders in parks were both teachers. We found two judges who refused to accept plea bargains offered to two different teachers. One of the best quotes we ever saw by posters at a news site was at the story of a principal who was indicted for stealing $400,000 from book sales and student activities.
"Just because someone's education qualifies them for a postition doesn't mean they are morally fit for it. "And one of the most horrendous cases of abuse we ever encountered that was never reported by the school principal was in Indiana. Schmeca White entry.
The case was also the basis for a Rant of the Day. Then there was Mel Trowbridge. He had a sexual relationship with two students.
"Previously he had resigned from teaching third-grade at Bremen Elementary School in 1995 after students alleged he improperly touched them or they felt uncomfortable in his presence . The next year, Trowbridge was banned from substitute teaching at Triton School Corp. in Bourbon after some students and teachers were concerned that he was teaching again."Another winner is Timothy Wyllie. Brett Zagorac, previously arrested for two counts of battery in Indiana. In 2003 Zagorac, then 19, was found guilty of touching two students, but the conviction was overturned in 2005 was allowed to plead guilty to count of misdemeanor battery.
We found a teacher sentenced to probation after sending pornographic material to what he thought was a 15-year-old girl. His lawyer asked for leniency, pointing out there was no real victim and Walsh's two education degrees are now useless. A female teacher sentenced to probation for having sex with two learning disabled boys. the prosecution dropped four class B felony charges of sexual intercourse with a minor. A school principal you wouldn't believe.
There are dozens more. Just check out our Indiana entries. Indiana cases are notoriously difficult to follow up on because the media doesn't follow up.
Just don't tell us that teacher misconduct in Indiana is rare. It is not.
Lawrence, KANSAS
Story date Oct 17, 2007 -
The former president of Lawrence’s teachers union — convicted of embezzling nearly $100,000 in union dues — is accused of violating the terms of his probation.Video at site.
Wayne Kruse was placed on probation in October 2005 and ordered to repay the $95,384 he stole from Lawrence Education Association.
But according to an affidavit filed in Douglas County District Court, Kruse still owes nearly $89,000.
His two-year probationary period was set to expire this month. Now, he has been issued a notice to appear in court for the alleged violation.
A hearing has been set for Oct. 29.
Hattip to Education Intelligence Agency. Best single source of information on the education establishment.
Backgound checks are flawed
Oct 22, 2007 - From the Concord Monitor (NH)
(AP story) "Grade on teacher screening? 'It's a B'"
Some of the flaws in background checks:
• Criminal background checks that don't cover less serious but still worrisome crimes
• Incomplete criminal records
• Criminal and education records effectively sanitized through plea-bargains and other negotiations
• Privacy laws and fear of lawsuits that limit the disclosure of adverse information, not only by former employers, but by law enforcement
• Difficulty prosecuting teachers accused of sexual relationships with students over the age of consent.
Also, because not all states report into a federal criminal records database, background checks don't always turn up everything that is reportable.
FINDING: Revocation records can be misleading because teachers who surrender their credentials before their cases go to hearings can work out deals to limit what becomes public.
"When we make the agreement about what the revocation says, we do it in conjunction with their attorney," Fillion said.
The rest of the information is sealed so that labels like "inappropriate" and "unprofessional" conduct may cover a range of accusations and misdeeds - "all the way up to sex," she said. The state does not differentiate between credentials that are revoked and those that are surrendered.
Awareness
From The Record (North New Jersey)
Oct 22, 2007 - Staff writers at The Record have done a great job in reporting on arrests of North Jersey educators in "North Jersey teacher sex arrests up."
FINDING: Thirteen North Jersey educators have been arrested in the last five years. Eleven have pleaded guilty to various crimes, two are still awaiting trial.
FINDING: The typical victim is a student who may lack the confidence to report such a problem, or is hungry for approval and special attention.
FNDING: Experts say abuse remains widely underreported, with an estimated nine out of 10 incidents never revealed.
FINDING: Even when a teacher is arrested or convicted, the state office in charge of revoking teacher licenses doesn't always find out. County prosecutors and school districts usually notify the state Department of Education when teachers are convicted of a crime. But they are not legally obligated to do so.
FINDING: School districts are required to tell the licensing office only when an accused or convicted teacher retires or resigns.
FINDING: The charisma that makes for great teachers also may help predators "groom" children as prey, said Dr. Nancy Graffin, head of treatment services at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center at Avenel, a state facility for sex offenders.
"It's not unusual for someone who victimizes children to be particularly comfortable and adept at relating to children," she said. "It's part of the purposeful setting up of sex offending to gain the trust of children and their families."
FINDING: And so Graffin offers this reminder to parents: Children are more likely to be abused by someone they know than by a stranger.
"Parents need to be mindful of teachers showing an interest that's too good to be true," she said. "People need to not just give blanket approval to someone just because they have status as a teacher."
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Teacher Misconduct
State Rep. Jerry Torr, a Republican from Carmel, said Indiana law should require districts to report when teachers resign to avoid being fired or when they are arrested, instead of waiting for convictions on such crimes. - Found at the Indianapolis Star
“When a teacher sexually assaults a child, it not only affects the victim and his or her family, but it shocks the conscience of the entire community,'' said Dave Zellis, Bucks County's first assistant district attorney. - Found at Bucks County Courier Times
PENNSYLVANIA
132 educators in state disciplined for sexual misconduct in 5 years.
In the aftermath of the popular teacher's arrest, Heather, who turned 18 in September, was forced to endure her classmates' taunts and ostracism.Victimizing the victim.
She tried to continue her education at home, at a private school, and in a neighboring school district before she ultimately dropped out.
Three days after he was charged, Heather called him from a pay phone at the local pool. She asked him if he was mad, and he reassured her that he wasn't.'- Found at the Morning Call
'But he said to me, 'You know if you come out and tell everybody what happened, your life's going to be horrible and over because of what people are going to think of you,''' Heather said.
Pickets at school
When Heather entered eighth grade that fall, life at school quickly became a living hell.
Mansfield didn't return to school because he had been suspended, and a group of students and their parents picketed the school in protest, Heather said.''They had big signs saying 'Free Mansfield,' '' she said. ''I don't think it was so much the kids who were so bad, but they heard their parents talking about everything and judging me.''
INDIANA
The Indiana Department of Education doesn’t provide any information on its Web site regarding individual teacher discipline or performance evaluations.
Closed DoorsEven though school districts keep teacher discipline records, performance evaluations and classroom ISTEP+ reports, much of that information is not available for review by parents, or any other member of the public.
While nothing prohibits releasing such information, when requests were made by The Journal Gazette, all four Allen County school districts declined the requests.
If a police officer or firefighter is disciplined, it is handled in public by a merit board, but teacher discipline is handled behind closed doors, and the end result is almost always a resignation, allowing teachers to relocate to another district.DOE keeps track of discipline cases only in which criminal charges have been filed, spokesman Avon Waters said. It’s up to school districts to report such cases, but there are no penalties for districts that fail to report. - By Kelly Soderlund, The Journal Gazette
Teacher Misconduct - various states
Misconduct in California, Hawaii, Tennessee, North Dakota, Colorado and South Carolina are just a few of the online stories this weekend.
Oct 21, 2007 - San Jose Mercury News
(AP story) Teachers licenses can remain valid despite arrests or sex charges
FINDING: During a review of more than 300 cases of sexual misconduct by California educators from 2001 to 2005, The Associated Press found delays of months and sometimes years before the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing took action.
The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office recommended that some of the credentialing commission's authority be relinquished to other state education agencies. It called the commission's system "extremely complicated and nuanced, inefficient and riddled with redundancies, poorly integrated and largely unaccountable."
But the idea of eliminating an entire state agency failed to gain traction with education supporters.
TT - Most underreported state of all 50 states.
Oct 21, 2007 - The Bakersfield Californian
(Californian story) Kern County has its own sordid sex cases, too
Six teachers who sentenced for sex crimes against students.
Oct 21, 2007 - The Honolulu Advertiser
(AP story) Criminal teachers in Hawaii rarely lose licenses, study finds
FINDING: No teachers in Hawai'i have lost their licenses for disciplinary reasons since 2001 — not even those who were imprisoned for criminal offenses like child molestation and drug abuse. There's little to stop these teachers from getting jobs elsewhere.
TT - We have 4 teachers sentenced in the last year in Hawaii.
Oct 21, 2007 - The Jackson Sun
(AP story) Tenn. system sometimes misses teachers fired for sex misconduct
FINDING: Unlike Kentucky and Georgia that have professional standards agencies to investigate complaints of teacher misbehavior, Tennessee has only one person to handle misconduct complaints at the state level. Those investigations are assigned to state school board attorney Rich Haglund, along with his other duties.
Tennessee lawmakers have shown little enthusiasm for creating a new state agency, and the Tennessee Education Association's president said a new investigative agency is not needed. "Kind of a witch hunt is what we are concerned about," TEA President Earl Wiman said.
TT - We have 18 teachers in Tennessee sentenced in the last year.
Oct 21, 2007 - The Bismark Tribune
(AP story) N.D. teachers can lose license without sex conviction
FINDING: North Dakota teachers convicted of sex offenses automatically have their teaching licenses revoked, and a criminal conviction is not needed for state officials to permanently ban an educator from the profession. The automatic revocation was approved by the North Dakota Legislature in 1999.
TT - We have one teacher sentenced in the last year. His license was revoked within two months.
Oct 21, 2007 - Colorado Springs Gazette
(AP story) Gaps in Colorado database may let offenders slip by
FINDING: It can take a month to hear from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and an FBI check can take several months to a year, the Colorado Department of Education said. Clearance of FBI and CBI checks isn’t required for the department to issue a credential. Not all misconduct allegations are captured in criminal databases.
TT - We have 12 Colorado teachers sentenced in the last year alone and 2 guilty pleas where no sentencing information was found.
Oct 21, 2007 - The Charlotte Observer
(AP story) Teacher misdeeds punished
FINDING:
Throughout the Carolinas, sexual misconduct by teachers is widespread.Among the 99 S.C. teachers disciplined for some kind of sexual misconduct, the infractions range from viewing pornography while on the job to making sexually suggestive statements to adolescents they taught to molesting young children in their care.
Of the 123 teachers' licenses revoked, surrendered or denied in North Carolina between 2001 and 2006, 91 cases involved sexual misconduct, according to an Associated Press investigation.
In South Carolina during the same period, nearly one quarter of the 422 teachers disciplined for misbehavior were accused of sex-related misconduct, according to disciplinary records.
TT - We have 6 sentenced in the last year and 2 guilty without sentencing information. To their credit, South Carolina has their Orders of Disciplinary Action online.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Teacher Misconduct
The AP graphic for Sexual Misconduct series by the Associated Press. Link
TT View - It will take some time to analyze the various reports and news stories from the AP blitz about teacher misconduct, but one thing is glaringly obvious.
It is impossible to know from records from the 50 states how many teachers leave the profession annually because of teacher misconduct with students.
For those states who maintain teacher discipline records online, most have not revoked, sanctioned, suspended or even reprimanded teachers who have been convicted of sexual abuse of students.
It is a fact that is verified by articles found in the Columbus Dispatch and from the Small Newspaper Group in Illinois, the Detroit Free Press and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
At Teachers and Trash Education, we find that most teachers convicted of sex crimes are allowed to, or agree to, voluntarily surrender their teaching credentials or licenses. Some voluntarily surrenders are on the record as part of plea bargaining arrangements. We note those when we find them. The rest will serve time while their certificates are allowed to quietly expire.
In most cases, this is, we believe, a conscious decision by state education authorities in order to limit legal liabilities as well as limit their obligation to report revocations and suspensions to other states, and to NASDTEC ("National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification,) a Massachusetts non-profit that has, supposedly, been a clearinghouse where states can find out whether a teacher has been previously sanctioned. It hasn't exactly worked out that way.
From our blog post on a national registry.
Not every teacher discipline is reportable to NASDTEC. Most of those thousands of cases would never be reported to NASDTEC. Most cases in Florida aren't even consistently reported to the Florida Department of Education, which was one of the major findings of the newspaper investigation.And, here is the real sweetheart deal: many negotiated settlements include non-disclosure to the public. It's what any lawyer would want for his client. And many of the lawyers for accused teachers are supplied by their teachers' union.
What their own series points out and brutally documents is that school officials, school districts and state education authorities are not regularly, routinely, even half-heartedly disciplining teachers.
The newspaper reviewed more than 14,000 investigations and found 70% of the cases were dismissed after a review by untrained investigators. **
On the off chance that a case reaches the state level, the state closes 9 out of 10 cases by rubberstamping the settlement agreement deals hashed out between accused teachers and attorneys representing the education department.
The settlement agreement avoids an admission of guilt, and no one is the wiser. Short of outright revocation of a certificate, the teacher may be hired by another district.
** The Sarasota Herald-Tribune is no tiny newspaper with few resources. They're owned by the New York Times. Their series, "Broken Trust" was based on reviewing 14,000 records.
So, take the 2500 teachers in four years figure with a grain of salt. This blog only documents a few teachers who are arrested, convicted and sentenced. We estimate we gather less than 1 to 2 percent of the number of cases that are in the legal system. This is because a large number happen in small towns with newspapers with no online edition, or ones simply uninterested in the topic. But the vast majority we calculate happens in urban areas where the newspapers have cozy arrangements with government at all levels.
This is illustrated best in Los Angeles where the single newspaper that covers half of California is the Los Angeles Times. The Los Angeles Unified School District has 707,626 students in 814 schools and we could only find stories of six teachers who were arrested or convicted for sexual misconduct in over a year of this blog.
It just isn't a concern. Worse, we suspect that the newspaper, like others, have political agendas that include favorable coverage for candidates and parties that are well supported by unions.
Laziness is also a factor. Many police departments across the country send press releases to local papers to notify them of arrests. Many papers simply reprint that press release and evince no further interest. In Louisiana, for instance, it is virtually impossible to follow up on cases. The newspapers only print what is handed to them and only report on sensational cases.
In many communities, newspapers aren't in the loop. Officially, anyway. Whenever we find a police department, sheriff's department, or other law enforcement agency's sole web site is found at the local government (city, county or otherwise) web site, it is almost guaranteed that no news stories that would reflect unfavorably on the community establishment - and that includes the education industry - will be found. The web site is an advertisement and is not designed to convey information. Community leaders want it that way. Business leaders want it that way. Real estate leaders certainly want it that way.
The one thing that we can be absolutely certain of is that teacher misconduct is not reported by the victim in many cases, not reported by the schools and school districts to the states, or the states to other states. And our newspapers have aided and abetted them for decades.
And it's a disgrace.
Teacher Misconduct
Oct 20, 2007 - Some of the saturation coverage of the AP series on teacher abuse.
From the Boston Globe:
(AP Story)
"Maine law bars details of why teachers decertified"
Teachers protected by 1913 law.
(AP Story)
"60 educators disciplined, more than a third for sexual misconduct"
From Newsday:
( AP Story)
"N.H. teacher screening system lets some abusers slip through"
Revocation records can be misleading because teachers who surrender their credentials before their cases go to hearings can work out deals to limit what becomes public.(AP Story)
"Parents can seek records of teachers in sex cases"
[IF you want to file a Freedom of Information request for New York state records, but they turn out, largely, to be legal settlements with little information.]
(AP Story)
"Records: Seduction, manipulation by teachers lead to affairs"
In all, 485 misconduct cases were reported over five years, most involving sexual misconduct.
By comparison, cases of sexual misconduct reported statewide against Catholic clergy, which caused outrage and calls for action in Albany, totaled 300 over 57 years. And in schools, it may be far worse than reported.
...
To handle the misconduct cases in New York, the state Education Department has six investigators and three attorneys to cover 235,000 certified teachers. An average case costs local taxpayers nearly $129,000 and takes 520 days to complete.
Teacher Misconduct
Oct 20, 2007 - Part of a three-day series on sexual misconduct by teachers in American schools by the Associated Press.
From Salt Lake City Tribune -
(Trib story)
"Utah ranks 16th in the nation for teachers losing licenses for sexual misconduct"
Utah Education Association general counsel Michael McCoy estimates about a third of allegations against teachers aren't true. McCoy said he has worked on such cases for more than 30 years.TT - Students do NOT lie about sexual misconduct. They might claim a teacher hit them or pushed them or some other physicial action, but not about sexual abuse. We have not found one documented case of student fabrication. An AP story in the series says, if anything, the crimes are vastly underreported.
"Students are big time into fabricating things to get back at a teacher," McCoy said. Sometimes students are trying to take vengeance and other times they are being abused but not by the teacher. Accusing a teacher, however, can be a cry for help, he said.
(AP story)
"Legal loopholes keep some teacher misconduct records secret"
TT - Sealing teacher records is more likely to be to protect the school, the district, or the state education agency than it is to protect the teacher's privacy.
( Trib story)
"Utah teachers charged with sex crimes"
(AP story)
"Count of educator sexual misconduct took months of reporting"
(AP story)
"'I don't trust anybody now': A family and a community crushed by a teacher's sexual abuse"
Though experts who deal with sexual abuse say victims tell the truth more often than not, the ordeal is often worsened when the community around them is drawn in, and people take sides."Immediately after news of Sperlik's arrest hit in January 2005, people began questioning the girls' motives: Why didn't they come forward sooner? Were they really telling the truth? "
Often, victims and their families face uncooperative administrators, disbelieving neighbors and an agonizing legal journey.
(AP story)
"Sexual misconduct plagues US schools: Study finds more than 2,500 teachers punished in 5 years"
There are 3 million public school teachers nationwide, most devoted to their work. Yet the number of abusive educators, nearly three for every school day, speaks to a much larger problem in a system that is stacked against victims.AND,
Most of the abuse never gets reported. Those cases reported often end with no action. Cases investigated sometimes can't be proven, and many abusers have several victims.
The AP discovered efforts to stop individual offenders but, overall, a deeply entrenched resistance toward recognizing and fighting abuse. It starts in school hallways, where fellow teachers look away or feel powerless to help.[TT - More likely they fear disparing potential campaign contributors and workers.]
School administrators make behind-the-scenes deals to avoid lawsuits and other trouble. And in state capitals and Congress, lawmakers shy from tough state punishments or any cohesive national policy for fear of disparaging a vital profession.
"Another problem: Because teachers are often allowed to resign without losing their credentials, many never show up on the list."
(AP story)
"Abuse accusations don't keep teachers from classrooms"
Five pages of complaints cite "sexual or inappropriate behavior" and "immoral conduct."Oct 19 (AP Story)
But rather than report him to the state, the district accepted his resignation and paid him a severance worth more than $16,000. Officials agreed not to tell future employers the real reason why Crowley left.
"Patchwork laws, inattention have allowed teacher sexual misconduct to flourish"
TT - The story that they missed is the one that is most tragic.
The 2003 conviction of Arielle Beck, 28, has been overturned by the Utah Supreme Court as they upheld Utah Court of Appeals decision that jurors may have been "influenced" by questioning by the judge.Our post on the story.
Beck was convicted of sexual abuse of Kelly Sowell, then 14. The girl committed suicide by hanging herself two years later. Her brother committed suicide two months after that.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Aston, PENNSYLVANIA
Oct 18, 2007 - A grand jury investigation resulted in the arrest of former school-board president, Keith Crego, 37, and the former superintendent, Leslye Abrutyn, 58, on a combined 22 felony charges and 21 misdemeanors.
Corruption isn't the only charge.Crego, who resigned last year amid a sex scandal involving another board member, was hauled into district court yesterday in handcuffs, wearing flip-flops and shorts.
He is charged with secretly establishing Quick Start Preschools, a child-care program affiliated with the district, taking $39,000 in kickbacks from the company and forcing Abrutyn to buy into the company with a $10,000 payment in the parking lot of Pennell Elementary School.Authorities say Crego set up the company in 2005 as a silent partner by delivering a shoebox full of $20,000 in cash to a woman seeking a teaching position in the district. The preschool program quickly became popular among parents - and profitable.
Crego, 37, faces a long list of other charges. They include forgery, failing to disclose his financial stake in Quick Start, soliciting a $1,000 bribe from the district's former director of auxiliary services, bilking Penn-Delco's fundraising operation of $9,500, and possessing anabolic steroids and Ecstasy with intent to distribute.As for the former school superintendent.
Abrutyn, 58, of Bala Cynwyd, who abandoned her post in July without notice, appeared in court wearing dark sunglasses, black capris and pink Top-Siders. She was released on her own recognizance and declined to comment outside the courtroom.The Penn-Delco School District is in southeastern Pennsylvania.
She is charged with having a "hidden ownership" in Quick Start and tampering with evidence, including falsifying her statements of financial interests.
TT - This blogger, wearing blue pajamas and fuzzy red slippers that have faded to pink and her TT earrings, refers you to this article: See "Rise and Fall of Keith Crego", dated July 28, 2007.
Jan 18, 2008 - Crego was re-arrested for witness intimidation, retaliation, stalking and harassment of Christina Fink, described as "a Marple Newtown School District teacher who had provided detectives with information used to file criminal charges against Crego." Superintendent Abrutyn pleaded no contest last month and agreed to testify against Crego. See TT link on the arrest.
Fink and Crego were "romatically involved" before they filed filed protection-from-abuse orders against each other. As the Philadelphia Daily News reports, "the bad publicity brought on by the breakup cost Crego his posts as school-board president and vice chairman of the Aston Republican Party."
The judge revoked his bail and ordered Crego returned to Delaware County prison.
Watching the Watchers
Oct 19, 2007 - "State Looks to Tighten Teacher Licensing System" in Virginia.
The Virginia Board of Education plans to propose legislation in the upcoming General Assembly session to tighten the background check and disciplinary process, which likely will include more state scrutiny of local school divisions' procedures, board President Mark E. Emblidge said. The board aims to come up with specific measures in the fall, he said.
TT - THE PROBLEM IS the Virginia Board of Education. They failed to revoke the license of a teacher who was:
A) SCHOOL #1 - accused in 2001 of writing sexually inappropriate letters to an underage female student. After a complaint was filed, he moved to another school for the 2002-2003 school year.
B) SCHOOL #2 - He was suspended at the new school after the discovery of founded sexual abuse complaints involving three female minors before he was hired and one child abuse complaint while he was employed.
The school superintendent at that school wrote to the state, "Based on the documented facts, I feel that the safety of children in the Commonwealth is in jeopardy should Mr. Allee be allowed to continue to teach."
C) The teacher was convicted in Bedford County of forging a signature on his background check to conceal the Lynchburg complaint. He received two years probation for the felony.
D) SCHOOL #3 - Before he was suspended in May 2003, he was hired in a third county for the 2003-2004 school year where he was charged with sexually abusing two female middle-school students.
E) The state Department of Education did not revoke his license until October 2003.
And these are the people proposing a solution to the problem??
Sex Offender Record for Michael Wayne Allee is available at the Virginia State Police Sex Offender Registry.
Buckeye, ARIZONA
Can you believe 9 months in jail - not prison - for sex, starting when the girl was 13??
August 21, 2007 -
Joshua Jacobsen, 31, a physical education teacher in the Liberty Elementary School District, pleaded guilty to one count of sexual abuse and one count of luring a minor for sexual exploitation.
He was arrested last year, accused of abusing one of his students beginning when she was just 13.
With the deal, Jacobsen faces six months in jail or up to three months in state prison. He'll also likely be sentenced to lifetime probation.
Full Name: Joshua Joel Jacobsen
Sentencing is scheduled for October 19.
SENTENCED Oct 19 - Jacobsen was sentenced to nine months in jail - not prison. He will have to register as a sex offender. According to KPHO ch 5, he will also be subject to lifetime probation.
TT - Santimoniously, and self-serving to the last, "At the end of the day, I want to learn from my mistakes and move forward," Jacobsen said.
We just bet you do.
Austin, INDIANA
Judge rejects plea bargain.
Oct 19, 2007 - John Watts, 28, a Southwestern girls' coach and physical education teacher, will be going to trial. A judge rejected the plea bargain that would have spared him jail.
The plea agreement would have allowed Watts to plead guilty to one count of sexual misconduct with a minor, a felony, and receive a sentence of six years in prison with all suspended, be placed on probation for six years and serve one year of home confinement. The plea agreement also stated that Watts would be required to seek a therapist approved by the Scott County Probation Department within 60 days, surrender his teaching license to the Indiana Department of Education and register 23 counts of sexual misconduct with a minoras a sex offender as required by Indiana law.Watts had been charged with 23 counts of sexual misconduct with a minor.
In transcripts of a taped interview between Watts and [Indiana State Police Detective Dave] Mitchell that took place at Watts' church shortly after his arrest, Watts admitted to having sexual encounters between 2002 and 2004 with the then-14-year-old girl at various locations.
When Mitchell asked if there were any other minors Watts came into contact with, he admitted to having several sexual encounters with a minor he coached on the Austin High School track team, also between 2002 and 2004. [Watts was a volunteer coach there.]Washington County Circuit Judge Frank Newkirk Jr., set a pretrial hearing for 1 p.m. Thursday at the Scott County Courthouse.
Watts also told Mitchell that while he was a student at Indiana University he dated a 14-year-old girl for four years with the consent of her parents and said "they (parents) had no problem with it." He asked Mitchell to keep this minor he dated out of the investigation because "she is just a really great girl."
Watts' trial is scheduled to begin Dec. 10.
Special Play Plan
It's burdensome to teach a whole 5 hours a day. Iowa court agrees they need more pay.
Oct 19, 2007 -
The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled that school districts must bargain a special pay plan for teachers who work a full load of classes.TT - Those union contribution dollars at work.
Today's ruling overturns decisions by an Iowa Public Employment Relations Board and a Polk County judge. They both decided the issue was not a mandatory part of collective bargaining.
The issue stems from a pay plan proposed to the district by the Waterloo Education Association. The union proposed a plan in which elementary teachers who teach more than 300 minutes per day should receive more pay.
The plan also required secondary and middle school teachers assigned to teach six classes per day to get additional pay.
The Waterloo school district claimed that, under state law, it did not have to negotiate the pay plan.The employment relations board and a district judge agreed, but the Supreme Court concluded the issue falls under definitions in the law that make it a mandatory bargaining issue.
Van Nuys, CALIFORNIA
Oct 19, 2007 - Meredeth Vincent, 40, a teacher of a private home schooling group, was arrested on suspicion of having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old boy.
The District Attorney's office has filed 14 charges against her.
Full Name: Meredeth Johnson Vincent
Anyone with information was asked to contact Van Nuys Area Sexual Assault Unit at 818-374-0090. After hours and on weekends, callers can use the 24-hour detective information desk number at 1-877-LAW-FULL (529-3855).
Los Angeles Police Department Press Release. (Dated Oct 19, 2007)
Photo LAPD.
NOT GUILTY PLEA Oct 29 - Vincent pleaded not guilty. Vincent is due back in Van Nuys Superior Court on Dec. 19, when a date is scheduled to be set for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to require her to stand trial.
Magna, UTAH
Three years probation, a $1,000 fine and sex offender treatment. Why not just give her a Teacher of the Year Who Violates a Student Achievement award?
ARRESTED :July 10, 2007 - Christy Brown, 33, was arrested after police found her in a parked car along with a male juvenile.
The suspect admits to having sex over 40 times with the 17-year-old. (He was 16 when the incidents began.)
The juvenile admitted to having 40 "incidents of sex" with Brown. She was the boy's high school English teacher, according to a jail booking report. Brown told police she first had sex with the boy this past April 8 and continued until the time she was arrested.Full Name: Christy Anne Brown
GUILTY PLEA: August 29 - Brown pleaded guilty as charged to three counts of forcible sexual abuse, all second-degree felonies. She will be sentenced October 19.
SENTENCED Oct 19 - She was sentenced to 36 months probation, a $1,000 fine and sex-offender treatment. She will be allowed to complete her sentence in Texas, where she now lives.
Elizabeth, WEST VIRGINIA
Oct 19, 2007 - Danny Hoover, Jr., 36, principal of Wirt County Middle School was arrested for bringing firearms onto school grounds.
He was charged with two counts of unlawfully and feloniously possessing deadly weapons on educational facilities.
He is alleged to have taken the weapons to school, then left the school, and returned with one firearm.
[No reason why or explanation of how authorities knew was given.]
Oct 19 - Charleston Daily Mail:
James Danny Hoover, Jr., 36, of Parkersburg brought two firearms to Wirt County Middle School property Oct. 8, according to a criminal complaint filed in Wirt County's magistrate court.
On the same day there was a hunting accident in Wirt County.
Chris Griffin, 18, of Mineral Wells, was shot. The bullet went through his earlobe and entered his jaw, said Lt. Tim Coleman, hunter education coordinator for West Virginia. Griffin, a senior at Parkersburg South High School and volunteer with the Washington Bottom Fire Department, was flown by helicopter to Ruby Memorial Hospital.
"Tom McCloy was the apparent shooter. I know he (Hoover) was involved in some way, but I don't know how," Coleman said.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Hidden Violations
Oct 18, 2007 - ‘‘Hidden Violations" is a new series by Scott Reeder, that documents how Illinois doesn't deal with teacher misconduct.
His award-winning 2005 series, "The Hidden Cost of Tenure", is a must read for parents and taxpayers because it confirms what most of us feared about the effects of tenure. "Hidden Violations" reveals the casualness that Illinois education authorities take toward teachers who misbehave. They don't even have investigators that followup on complaints. Of the 50 states, only Virginia revokes or suspends fewer teaching certificates than Illinois.
Amazingly, Reeder found, "None of the tenured teachers fired in the last decade have also lost their teaching certificate and certification officials are not notified when a school district disciplines an educator."
FINDING: Eighty-four percent of Illinois' school districts have never given any tenured teacher a bad job evaluation during an 11-year period.
Small Newspaper Group filed open records requests with 50 state education departments and built a national database of revocations and suspensions of teacher licenses during its "Hidden Violations" investigation.
What they found isn't unique to Illinois. What's unique is that they chose to investigate it and report on what they found.
Appleton, WISCONSIN
Jan 8, 2007 - David Janssen, 55, a middle school gym teacher and varsity girls' basketball coach, will stand trial on sexual assault charges involving two former students.
A judge has scheduled a single trial on Jun 11 for the two cases against Janssen. A trial was scheduled to start Jan. 22 on two counts of sexual assault of a student by school staff and sexual assault of a child stemming from alleged assaults of a girl from 1996 to 2000 when she was in high school.
He had also faced a March 12 trial before Judge John Des Jardins on charges of repeated sexual assault of a child and sexual assault of a child under the age of 16. Those charges stem from alleged sexual contact had with a girl who was 13 and 14 years old at the time.
May 30 - At a motions hearing, Janssen's attorney argued that he needs access to the counseling records of the younger of the two alleged victims to mount an effective defense. The attorney said he had records for the first victim and therefore he would be entitled to the same records for the younger person.
He said the counseling records may reveal "what psychological disorder she may have and what issues there are in her family life."He also asked that the trial be postponed. He also wants a taped telephone conversation between Janssen and the victim supressed.
Maloney said the records might show she came from a dysfunctional family "and projected her problems onto the defendant."
He said the few materials he has so far indicate her family was receiving services from social service agencies.
The trial is scheduled to begin June 11.
June 2 - The judge granted access to the counseling records of one student. The trial has been postponed.
TRIAL DATE SCHEDULED July 21 - Trial has been scheduled for for Oct. 15.
Oct 13 - Janssen's trial will start Monday and is expected to last three or four days. Good review of the case from the Appleton Post-Crescent.
Oct 16 - Start of trial.
JURY VERDICT (Story dated) Oct 19 - The jury acquitted Janssen on all five charges.
Port Ste. Lucie, FLORIDA
A trail of misconduct allegations.
Oct 18, 2006 - "Florida Teacher Left Trail Of Misconduct Allegations"
A teacher was hired in Florida after fleeing allegations that he'd had an inappropriate relationship with a female student in Oklahoma and a sexual relationship with one in Georgia. The Oklahoma allegations were kept quiet and charges were dropped in the Georgia case, but, nevertheless, neither school district or school told the Florida school of the allegations. He was tried once - in 2001 - but the Georgia jury deadlocked and a mistrial was declared.
The teacher denies the allegations. In an ironic twist, the school superintendent in Georgia who failed to disclose his problems has since resigned as superintendent and her teaching license was been revoked, partly because she failed to report a sexual misconduct allegation against her daughter - a high school guidance counselor - on time.
TT - How did a background check fail to discover his trial in Georgia? And how could school administrators not wonder at how often he moved from one school district to another and one state to another?
No national registry will prevent this problem. School districts will not even report to their state agencies, let alone report their bad hiring decisions to a national registry. Besides, the same self-defined legalese that prevents them from revealing a teacher's past also protects the school district from lawsuits.
Lebanon, TENNESSEE
Oct 18, 2007 - Huana Jennings, 36, a Lebanon High School teacher, was arrested after a grand jury indicted him on a charge of sexual battery by an authority figure, a class C felony charge.
He is an assistant football coach and also teaches in-school suspension.
The improper contact is alleged to have taken place during the 2004-05 school year at campus, [Lebanon Police Chief Scott ] Bowen said. The student was a sophomore at the time, and she has since graduated, he said.The police investigation started in June after the Wilson County School District passed along information it received from a teacher at the high school, Bowen said.He has been suspended with pay.
North Charleston, SOUTH CAROLINA
Oct 18, 2007 - Janet Fackovec, 25, a special education teacher's assistant at Stall High School, was arrested and charged with contributing to the deliquency of a minor for having sex with a teenage student. Detectives arrived at the school to arrest her. (Picture at story.)
A police report gives few details on the student, other that to say he is the Department of Social Services’ custody in another part of the state.
She has been suspended with pay.
Oct 29 - From Live5News:
Reports now show that the Stall High School teacher's assistant accused of having sexual relations with a student may have had an inappropriate relationship with a Stall student before.[Or the teacher may have been investigated in January and then later, but the student may be the same. Hard to tell.]
AND,
Police reports are surfacing that say officers responded to Stall as far back as January of this year with concerns about the nature of a relationship between Fackovec and a student at the school.
High Point, NORTH CAROLINA
Oct 18, 2007 - Charles Hadley, 39, a Southwest Guilford High School teacher, was arrested and charged with soliciting sex from a teenage in an online chat room.
The investigation began in Buncombe County where detectives there suspected the teacher of having inappropriate conversations from his home computer in Guilford County this summer. Investigators stepped in, posing as a 15 year old.Hadley pleaded not guilty via jailhouse camera.
The judge reduced bond from $50,000 to $25,000. Next court date is Nov 27.
Bethlehem, PENNSYLVANIA
Sentenced to 2-4 years in prison and 5 years probation. 
ARRESTED: Feb 28, 2007 -
John Acerra, 50, Principal of Nitschmann Middle School, was arrested and charged with selling crystal methamphetamine out of his car and his school office.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, police received a tip that Acerra was selling and using crystal meth.ARRAIGNED: He was arraigned on charges of possession with intent to deliver, manufacture or create methamphetamine, two counts of delivery of a controlled or counterfeit substance and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia.
On Thursday, police set up surveillance outside Acerra's home at 832 Chestnut St. in Allentown. Later that evening they allegedly watched and recorded as Acerra sold meth to a man in the parking lot of Kmart, 1502 S. Fourth St.
Police allegedly recorded with a video camera a similar drug deal Saturday in the parking lot of CVS Pharmacy, 314 W. Emmaus Ave. Police then arrested Acerra yesterday when an informant allegedly bought more meth inside Acerra's office at Nitschmann at Eighth Avenue and Union Boulevard .
TT - Our archives show nearly 50 teachers or administrators arrested for drugs since we started the blog in October 2006. Click on label Drugs.
Pdf of criminal arrest complaint.
Mar 1 - New twist or a hacking of news site. Accera "found naked in his school office while watching gay pornography on Tuesday, according to sources. Sex toys were found nearby, the sources added."
Mar 2 - The teachers' union, apparently, complained about Accerra's sporatic attendance at school. Newspaper repeats the naked, watching pornography story. Acerra is being held in prison under $200,000 bail.
A preliminary is scheduled for Tuesday.
Mar 22 - Accera waived his right to a preliminary. He remains in jail in lieu of $200,000 bail. The school accepted his resignation effective Mar 6.
Mar 30 - The Morning Call is wondering why the school investigation of Accerra is dragging on. Then they supply the reason.
Haytmanek, who is leading the probe, blamed himself for the delay.Arraignment is May 3.
He said he inadvertently scared Nitschmann's teachers, secretaries and custodians into not cooperating. Union members thought he threatened them earlier this month when he said district employees had a duty to cooperate with investigators.'
'I didn't mean it in that way,'' Haytmanek said.
He said interviews with Nitschmann staff restarted after the district agreed to let union members bring their attorneys or union lawyers to the meetings. He said he simply wants to know if signs of addiction were missed and if so, what sort of policies and training the district can implement.
Update May 4 - Acerra gave up his right to a formal arraignment. He is scheduled to appear in court for a status conference June 25, according to Prosecutor Steven Luksa. At that time, his attorney, George A. Heitczman of Bethlehem, will announce whether his client is accepting a plea bargain or heading to trial.
Luksa said it is common for defendants to waive formal arraignments to give their attorneys time to develop a strategy. He said it also keeps the case from generating pretrial publicity.
Acerra remains in jail in lieu of a $200,000 bail.
COURT DATE SET: July 25 - The case is continued until Aug. 17 when Acerra may accept a plea deal or decide to go to trial.
GUILTY PLEA: Acerra pleaded guilty to two counts of felony delivery of methamphetamine and one count of felony possession with intent to deliver. He will be sentenced October 18.
SENTENCED Oct 18 - Acerra was sentenced to 2-4 years in prison on charges that he possessed and prepared to sell crystal methamphetamine from his school office. He also will be on probation for five years after that.
Because Acerra has no prior criminal record, each charge fell under a sentencing guideline of three to 12 months. However, a provision in the Pennsylvania crimes code allows prosecutors to seek a two-year minimum for drug sales within 1,000 feet of a school.He won't be eligible for release until Feb 2009.
Coudersport, PENNSYLVANIA
Headed for trial.
Oct 18, 2007 - A judge ruled at the conclusion of a preliminary hearing that the prosecution had presented sufficient evidence to hold Heather M. Spriggle, 38, of Ulysses, for trial on a felony count of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor count of simple assault and a summary charge of harassment.
Spriggle a special education teacher by Seneca Highlands Intermediate Unit Nine. She was suspended. The student was was 13 and 14 years old during that time and had the mental ability of a typical 5-year-old. Aides told police they saw Spriggle abuse the special education student, including pinching him, bending his fingers backward and throwing him into a wooden shelf. She also abused him verbally.
Coach dismissed
Oct 18, 2007 - A Perry Hall High School coach said he was dismissed from his coaching position Oct. 4 after Baltimore County education officials learned of a 15-year-old "incident" that occurred when he was teaching in New Jersey.
He lost his New Jersey license because of the "incident" that never went to court after he agreed to give up his state teaching license. School authorities were alerted with an Associated Press reporter called seeking information about the revocation of teaching certificates.
According to an Associated Press story, [the coach] was accused of touching the breast of one female student and of kissing another female student twice. A third student accused [him] of asking her for sex -- but has since recanted.The former coach maintains he was denied his "due process" and that he wasn't teaching, but coaching, and that didn't require a teaching certificate.
If the charges had been expunged, however, the school system wouldn't be able to use the information for its background check, nor are applicants required to disclose such information, according to the county school system's Web site.The coach is retaining an attorney.
TT - Many cases don't go to court because a teacher gives up their teaching license. We don't know if that's the case here, but whenever a teacher "agrees to give up their teaching license" it suggests a quid pro quo arrangement that ought to alert parents and taxpayers that something isn't quite right.
In some cases where the victim or victims are very young, say 4 to 8 years old where trial would be a hardship and successful prosecution is not predictable, we can see bargaining with the teacher, when the only thing you can hope for is to get them out of the classroom. But the number of cases where educators "agree to give up their teaching license" in plea bargaining has become alarming.
Teacher misconduct not investigated
STORY OF THE DAY
How Illinois fails to take teacher misconduct seriously.
Oct 18, 2007 - Because the Illinois Department of Education has no investigators to follow up on misconduct complaints, they rely upon regional education superintendents to investigate. But there's a problem.
Continued here.
Teachers' Contracts
Comparing teachers' contracts in Maryland - at least the work days.
Oct 18, 2007 - The stats for each district are, first, the number of days a year that teachers must be in school and, second, the number of hours they must be in school each day.
The above was found at the Baltimore Sun Education Blog. Link below found there, too.
Negotiated Agreements for 24 Maryland school districts. From Maryland Negotiation Service, an affiliate of Public School Superintendents Association of Maryland.
Tiger, GEORGIA
Drug testing students in a Georgia school.
Oct 18, 2007 - In their second year of drug testing athletes, of the 450 random drug tests Rabun County High School administered during the 2006-07 year to student drivers, club members and athletes, only one came back positive.
Last year, Safety & Compliance Management Inc., of Rossville, conducted three tests for 150 students at a time. Of the 850 students enrolled at RCHS last school year, 426 students participate in extracurricular activities and are eligible for the random tests.
During testing, students, who are randomly selected and identified only by a number, produce urine samples. The samples are then tested on site for traces of five substances, including cocaine, amphetamines, methamphetamines, marijuana and opiates.
If a positive is detected, the sample is sent to a lab in Memphis, Tenn., for additional testing, according to Safety & Compliance owner Calvin Andrews.If a positive is again revealed, the information is forwarded to a certified toxicologist to determine if the student has a medical reason for the findings.
For example, some children suffering from attention deficit disorder could test positive for methamphetamine,
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Carbondale, ILLINOIS
Oct 17, 2007 - David Cameron, a teacher at Brehm Prep School, is still awaiting trial after his 2004 arrest. He is one of six men accused of taking part in a child porn ring operating out of a Mt. Vernon home.
A pretrial hearing in Williamson County has been scheduled for Feb 4.
A pretrial hearing in Jefferson County has been moved to Feb 20.
ABC's of Betrayal Part IV
BEST READING
Oct 17, 2007 - The Columbus Dispatch continues their excellent series called, The ABC's of Betrayal, on teacher abuse in Ohio.
See Felons keep right to teach
- The head of the state's Office of Professional Conduct said it would be rare and "an anomaly" until the reporters gave him a list of 20 educators who escaped detection by the Ohio Department of Education after being charged with or convicted of serious crimes against children.
See Some schools keep records private
-Private-school personnel records are shielded by law from the public -- even from the state Education Department, which licenses teachers, coaches and administrators at most of Ohio's private schools.
See Profiles of Disciplined Teachers
See The Hot Issue: Should the state have the same access to private school records about educators as those in public schools?
-Poll
See State Database of Disciplined Teachers
See Teacher discipline by district
See Legislature may step in
Teacher Misconduct Investigation
Oct 17, 2007 - ABC 13, Toledo, Ohio:
There is a new investigation in to [sic] reports disciplinary misconduct among teachers at public schools. The state investigation comes after a report by the Columbus Dispatch found educators working despite charges of child abuse, assault and theft. The report found that laws requiring schools to report teacher misconduct to the state. Many schools handle their problems in-house. Several problem teachers were quietly moved to new districts and continued teaching. The details of the state investigation are still pending.
Prior Lake, MINNESOTA
Second community meeting in a week for a former teacher who is now a registered sex offender. This one, in Minnesota.
Oct 17, 2007 - Robert Andrew Pannier, 40, will be the subject of a community notification meeting, required for Sexual Offenders who will be released into a community.
Pannier was arrested and jailed Feb. 26 for violating several conditions of his probation. He was ordered to serve the rest of his 1998 sentence for having sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old student while he was a teacher at Central High School in Norwood Young America.Level III offenders show traits of high public risk to re-offend, according to the Department of Corrections. See previous entry for Pannier.
Then in early 2007, Pannier violated two special conditions imposed on him upon release in: refraining from contact with minors and using the Internet for work purposes only. Pannier also violated general conditions of his release by failing to disclose to his agent the extent of volunteering and working in ministries and failing to follow his agent’s directive for contact with minors.
While Pannier was on supervised release from prison, he baptized a 14-year-old girl, had contact with a member of his ministry’s minor-aged daughters during home-group studies and had contact with a 13-year-old girl and a 9-year-old girl in his home, vehicle and public places, according to the Department of Corrections.
In Wisconsin, David Kaster will be released after eight years. TT - Link
Convicted, but still licensed
Oct 17, 2007 - From the Daily Herald, "How should we handle teachers accused but not convicted?" by John Patterson.
The first and, seemingly, only question was how does Illinois treat those who are convicted? Not by revoking their licenses.
Faced with similar circumstances, New Mexico officials decided last year to dramatically change their policies.TT - Despite efforts to reform the process in Illinois, there's absolutely no legislative movement.
They reversed their state's wait-and-see approach to disciplining teachers and now no longer require a guilty verdict before revoking a teacher's credentials. An arrest now is enough to warrant pulling an accused teacher's state license.
We had the same concerns back in March about teachers who were convicted but still hold valid Illinois teaching credentials.
These are the members of the Illinois House Elementary & Secondary Education Committee. Link
These are the members of the Illinois Senate Education Committee. Link
(Notice anything odd about the makeup of the Education Committees? Hint: Look at the numbers.)
Charlotte, NORTH CAROLINA
Sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Jan 1, 2007 - "How Jimmie Grubbs fooled us all" - The Herald looks back at how Jimmie Grubbs, 65, a teacher and mentor to children, a man The Herald lauded for his selflessness and his devotion to kids, was a sexual predator who preyed on boys for years. It a story of careful grooming of his victims. And a community.
Investigators say his history as a sexual predator goes back at least twenty years. Grubbs' wife told police that before she married Grubbs she was confronted by a young man who told her about an incident. She wrote it off as "jealousy." That was 40 years ago. (She is in the picture above with her husband. She has not been charged in any crimes.)
The newspaper notes:
There really aren’t any heroes in a tale as sordid as this, but law enforcement officials at all levels agree there’d be no case against Grubbs — and that he’d likely be back in a classroom somewhere — if six young boys hadn’t stepped up and done the unimaginable: testifying to the details of their encounters with Grubbs. Because of that, those young men are now The Herald’s 2006 Man of the Year.Grubbs was fired in 2005 because the trips were against school policy. This was before any allegations arose. He pleaded guilty. Grubbs will be sentenced "early next year."
GUILTY PLEA Grubbs pleaded guilty in September to federal charges for taking students to Columbia, S.C. and Myrtle Beach, S.C. and molesting them. [Found in article below.]
PLEA DATE SET Sept 10, 2007 - Grubbs was in court for a plea conference and the court date for his plea has now been set for Dec 31.
SENTENCED Oct 18 - Grubbs was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
LICENSE ACTION Oct 2006 - Auto-revoke Reason: Conv - 12 cts, fed’l court, sex with children. NC Board of Education
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Misconduct at the Highest Level
Oct 16, 2007 - If you care about education and wonder why reform is so illusive, read "Illinois does poor job of dealing with teacher misconduct" by Scott Reeder.
FINDING: You want to know why so few teachers have their certificates revoked? The state's two major teacher unions appoint two-thirds of the members of the certification board, under state law.
FINDING: No investigators are employed by the Illinois State Board of Education so reports of teacher misconduct are often not investigated or acted upon.
FINDING: None of the tenured teachers fired in the last decade have also lost their teaching certificate and certification officials are not notified when a school district disciplines an educator.
FINDING: Physicians are 43 times more likely than the state's teachers to have their license suspended or revoked. Lawyers are 25 times more likely than teacher to have their license suspended or revoked.
TT- I could go on, but read the whole thing. And the excellent series called The Hidden Cost of Tenure.
Park Forest, ILLINOIS
A teacher could appear nude in the cafeteria covered with mashed potatoes, have sex with four-year-olds in the gym and still be placed on paid leave, but 'racially insensitive' remarks will kill a career.
Oct 16, 2007 -
School officials in Park Forest have accepted the resignation of a tenured teacher who was accused by at least one parent of making inappropriate remarks to students.For -- be prepared -- "racially insensitive" remarks.
Richard Herz taught in Park Forest School District 163 for 14 years. The board voted 6-1 Monday night to accept Herz's brief letter of resignation. Board President Virginia Ford was the lone holdout, saying she would rather terminate Herz "for what he has been accused of."
TT - Doesn't it make you hope for the day when people who call themselves "educated" will act like they have half a brain?
Ashwaubenon, WISCONSIN
October 15, 2007 - Swim coach to be released from prison.
Ashwaubenon Public Safety officials have scheduled a sex offender notification meeting Thursday to discuss the pending release of a former high school girls’ swim team coach.
The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Ashwaubenon Public Safety Department, 2155 Holmgren Way.Officials expect that David Kaster, who is due to be paroled Oct. 23, will move into the 1100 block of Circle Drive.
Kaster, 47, was sentenced in November 2001 to nine years in prison after a jury convicted him of sexually assaulting three of his Ashwaubenon team members between March 1998 and April 2000.
Alamogordo, NEW MEXICO
Six months in prison, then work release.
Oct 16, 2007 - Duriel Martin, 29, Alamogordo High School coach who pleaded guilty to criminal sexual contact of a minor has been sentenced to a year in prison.
Martin entered the victim's room through an outside window at 3 a.m. in a "highly intoxicated state and forcibly touched the victim," according to the DA's office. Martin was a former friend of the victim's father. The victim was 17 years old at the time of both incidents. Martin was 28 at the time.
Martin pleaded guilty in July to one felony count of criminal sexual contact of a minor. The judge suspended six months of Martin's sentence, allowing Martin to participate in a work release program.
Martin will be required to register as a sex offender.
Port Clinton, OHIO
Oct 16, 2007 - Erin Baker, 25, a Port Clinton High School assistant girls basketball coach, was arrested and charged with having sexual contact with the a female student.
Prosecutors likely will present evidence against her to a grand jury next week.
Baker's arrest came after the girl told the school counselor earlier this month Baker had improper contact with her. The counselor immediately told a school-resource officer who investigated with Ottawa County Children's Services.
Baker had been an assistant coach at the school for four years.
INDICTED Oct 29 - Baker was indicted earlier this month on 55 charges of having sexual contact with a player during the past two years. The charges include 38 counts of sexual battery and 17 counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.
The girl, whose age was not listed in police reports, told a school official Oct. 10 that Baker had contact with her since she coached the girl in middle school, records show. School officials immediately reported the allegations to school resource officer Ralph Edmonds of Port Clinton police.Other coaches at the middle and high schools told Edmonds they noticed the pair were unusually close but did not see inappropriate behavior. One coach asked the girl about the relationship but the girl denied it. [TT - It doesn't mention whether any of the coaches at the middle or high schools reported the closeness to school authorities.]
The girl said Baker took a special interest in her at practices and eventually asked the girl for her Internet messaging screen name, according to Edmonds' report. She began messaging the girl, who said she was depressed and vulnerable at the time, the report shows.
Then Baker began buying her expensive gifts, such as basketball shoes, and taking her to dinner, the girl told Edmonds. Soon, Baker had the girl visit her apartment regularly, according to the report.
If the girl told Baker she was busy, Baker would become angry, the girl told Edmonds. The pair usually just watched TV at Baker's apartment, but one night Baker made sexual advances, the girl told Edmonds.
Pensacola, FLORIDA
August 29, 2007 - John McNair, 59, was arrested after the FBI says he called two women in Nashville threatening to molest his grandaughter if they hung up.
The FBI found 160,000 pornographic images on the former Pensacola teacher's computer, many of them pictures of children.
McNair taught science at Bellview Middle School for two months in 2004. He also volunteered at Jim Allen Elementary, where his fiancee works.
A judge called McNair a danger to the community and ordered him to stay locked up until his trial.
FIANCEE SUSPENDED: August 30 - Described as the fiancee of John McNair, Frances Hinely, 58, a technology coordiantor at Jim Allen Elementary School, was suspended with pay as the district investigates the extent of her knowledge in the events that led up to the arrest of her fiancee John McNair.
Police also located a nearly two-hour audio recording of McNair describing explicit sexual fantasies that involved children as young as two years old. Parts of the recording were played in court Tuesday.Oct 4 - Hinley has been reassigned to work at the J.E. Hall Center to help with data support. She has been on paid suspension since Aug 30. She has not been charged nor implicated in McNair's activities.
Hinely testified that she knew McNair had a cache of pornography on his computer and in his home, but had no clue that any of the images included children."I've seen the magazines and the pictures on the computer, but nothing underage" she testified Tuesday.
GUILTY PLEA Oct 16 - McNair pleaded guilty to a two count federal indictment charging him with making threatening interstate telephone calls and possession of child pornography.
Law enforcement located the cellular telephone McNair used to place the calls, and they also recovered a significant amount of child pornography in the home. Law enforcement recovered thousands of images of child pornography, and also noted dozens of Barbie dolls in various stages of undress even though McNair had no children in the home.The sentencing is scheduled for January 17, 2008.
May 22 - McNair will be sentenced May 29. The five month delay was while pscyhological testing was completed. Escambia County School District records show that McNair taught at Bellview Middle School from Aug. 2, 2004, to Nov. 1, 2004, then left because of an emotional breakdown. He later volunteered at Jim Allen Elementary School.
Las Cruces, NEW MEXICO
Oct 16, 2007 - Daron Scott, 50, a Santa Teresa High School teacher, was arrested at school, charged, along with his brother, with two counts of extreme cruelty to animals, a fourth-degree felony; two counts of animal cruelty, a misdemeanor; and one count each of conspiracy to commit extreme animal cruelty, a fourth-degree felony
The charges are in connection with an alleged dog fighting operation.
Nov 26 - Scott and his brother will face additional charges of animal cruelty. The charges filed today in magistrate court.
Nov 28 - At a press conference called by their attorney, he characterized the brothers as, "These are good men that are dog breeders."
"I started this as a way to spend some time with my little girl," Duryea Scott said of breeding dogs. "... I have never fought a dog before."Of the scarring, Cain contends that those dogs already had the marks when purchased by the Scotts, some of them bought as breed stock. Of heavy chains found around the necks of some dogs that investigators allege are used to strengthen the animals, [attorney Michael]Cain said the heavy chains were used so the dogs would not be stolen.
Daron Scott said he uses dog breeding to show kids an example of a positive hobby.
"And now we have this," Daron Scott said. "And for the love of something you try to present, that grounds you ... I use it in all my teachings, and now we're here."
Cain did not specifically address alleged e-mails seized from the Scotts that seem to indicate evidence of dog fighting. But he did say that his clients might have unwillingly received chain e-mails that might contain such information.TT - do not miss the photo at the news article.
Dec 12 - The Scott brothers have sued their employers, alleging racial discrimination. Daron Scott has filed his lawsuit (December 5th) in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces. He alleges he's been systematically harassed by the school principal because he's black.
Duryea Scott has filed his (September 24th) in U.S. District Court in El Paso. He is is an engineer at White Sands Missile Range. He alleges he's been denied a promotion because of his race.
TT - They're probably hoping for a guest appearance on Oprah Winfrey. And their attorneys can question them on the stand about their lawsuits and alleged discrimination.
INDICTED Feb 26, 2008 - Doña Ana County grand jury on Tuesday handed up charges of dog fighting, animal cruelty and conspiracy against twin brothers Daron and Duryea Scott. They were charged with 53 counts combined — 30 for Duryea, 23 for Daron.
We Care - This Much
More teacher strikes.
ILLINOIS
Oct 15, 2007 - (McHenry County, Illinois) About 140 teachers and staff in the Nippersink School District Two went on strike late Thursday, canceling classes Friday.
The district's 1,600 students stayed home from classes again today.
At issue: Pension plan contributions.
PENNSYLVANIA
Oct 15 - (Seneca Valley, Pennsylvania) Seneca Valley schoolteachers were set to begin picketing all of the district's nine schools this morning, in the start of the district's first teacher strike in 22 years. Seneca Valley schoolteachers were set to begin picketing all of the district's nine schools this morning, in the start of the district's first teacher strike in 22 years. Could last a month.
The PSEA represents teachers at 483 of the state's 501 districts. Teachers at the Lake-Lehman School District in Luzerne County are set to strike today, and teachers at Reynolds Area in Mercer County have been out for a week.
From The Tribune-Democrat (Oct 15)
Of nearly 140 teacher strikes that occurred nationally between 2000 and 2007, 60 percent took place in Pennsylvania, according to a report released in August by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. Pennsylvania is one of 13 states in which teacher strikes are legal, and the state in which walkouts are most common, the institute found.If you're wondering why, an organization called Stop Teacher Strikes Inc. has compiled a list of all 203 legislators on its Web site noting which were endorsed by or received campaign contributions from