We noticed

NEWS BRIEFS

Divorce granted
A judge has granted a divorce to Eric McLean, the husband of teacher Erin McLean. Eric shot and killed the student who was sexually involved with his wife. As for the children, Erin McClean fled with them late last year and is reported to be moving from state to state with the children and a young man she met over the Internet. The court appointed an attorney for the children and they will be searching for the children.

From our entry: After her husband killed the 18-year-old boy, she moved to Nashville, obtained a job using her maiden name and was fired when she had improper contact with another student.

Insane?
The attorney for James Love filed a motion in federal court asking for a psychiatric examination of his client to determine if Love is competent to stand trial. The Illinois substitute teacher and Baptist Minister is accused of drugging, then molesting four boys and facing charges of production of child pornography for photographing the two boys. His work with youth was cited when he received Bloomington's 2006 Doctor Martin Luther King Junior Award. News story TT entry

Headlines you won't see in the U.S.
When a teacher in the U.K. was arrested for having sex with a pupil and owning videos of children being raped, the headline was Pervert teacher jailed. Graham Smith, who retired from Onslow St Audrey's School in Hatfield last year, attacked the girl in an equipment cupboard, his car and while on a school trip. The victim, now in her 30s, kept the abuse secret for nearly 17 years. When she finally told police, detectives discovered Smith was also under investigation for downloading more than 10,000 images and videos of child pornography.

Libel laws in the U.K. are draconian. U.S. papers do not work under any such restrictions. Their problem is that they don't care enough to make a judgement. Even after the defendant has been found guilty, many newspapers continue to refer the victim as the "alleged victim." A guilty verdict or a guilty plea would, you would think, pretty much eliminate any doubt in everyone except a lawyer who is looking forward to appealing the verdict.

Downsize at your own risk
A teacher has sued the Plano school district for allegedly laying her off without a chance to appeal the decision, court records show. She alleges that the school district "squashed" her attempts to get a due process hearing after they cut her job as director for information management systems in a downsizing effort in February 2007. They derailed her appeal to keep her accusation of "blatant cronyism" in promotion decisions from public disclosure. Oh and her constitutional rights were violated.

Teacher-created Facebook and MySpace Profiles
In Missouri, a committee at the Missouri House of Representatives has [as part of a broader bill to bar anyone who had committed second- or third-degree sexual misconduct from being hired as a teacher] proposed a bill that would ban teachers from communicating with students via web pages that are private, including Facebook and MySpace. Essentially, any Web site that parents could also see would be OK for students and teachers to use. Anything inaccessible to third parties would be a no-no. [The intent is to allow parents to monitor pages maintained by teachers. Look who is opposed.]