Moreno Valley, California

An attorney for the Commission on Teacher Credentialing said those whose credentials are revoked by the commission can apply for reinstatement a year after the revocation.

June 10, 2008 - The state Commission on Teacher Credentialing last week revoked Gerald Arterberry's teaching certification documents. Arterberry was the substitute teacher in the Moreno Valley Unified School District whose 22-year-old brother impersonated him in a classroom for three days at a middle school.

Issac Arterberry was arrested at Landmark Middle School on Jan. 26, 2007, and later was convicted of a misdemeanor for impersonating another person and sentenced to 20 days in jail.
Gerald Arterberry was not arrested or charged with any crime.

Substitute teachers in the district must now show photo ID when reporting for work.

Muskogee, OKLAHOMA

Nov 30, 2007 - — Larry Couch, the Marble City School District’s superintendent for more than 27 years, lost his teacher’s and administrator’s license.

The state Board of Education voted to revoke Couch's Oklahoma teaching and administrator certificate. Couch is accused of embezzling $100,000 from the southeastern school district of approximately 160 students — the majority of whom are Cherokee Indian.
Full Name: Larry Duane Couch AKA Duane Couch

Nov 29 - From The Sequoyah County Times: Couch is willing to submit his resignation and pay restitution, but only if the board can help him secure a plea agreement in district court. Couch's attorney wrote the school board.

"If the Marble City School Board of Education is willing to accept Larry Couch's outright resignation without any conditions or stipulations, accept an immediate $100,000 lump sum payment and request the district attorney to place Mr. Couch on a deferred sentence without further monetary obligation or penalty, I think Mr. Couch would be willing to immediately tender his resignation and pay restitution in the amount of $100,000," [Fourth] Scoufos wrote in the letter.

Since the charge was filed against Couch in August, the state auditor's office has uncovered over $500,000 in questionable expenditures at the school in an audit that goes back to 1999, auditor officials said recently.

CREDENTIALS REVOKED Dec 3 - The state Board of Education voted on Thursday to revoke the administrator and teacher certificates of longtime superintendent Larry Duane Couch. The revocation was not in response to the the criminal charges against him.

RESIGNATION April 10, 2008 - Couch sent a letter of resignation to the school board.

In January, the state Board of Education revoked Couch’s teacher’s and administrator’s licenses. Couch is appealing that action in Sequoyah County District Court. A spokesperson for the state Department of Education said Wednesday that the appeal is still pending and the Department of Education attorneys had not heard otherwise.The Marble City School Board did not terminate Couch because of the appeal, members said earlier this year.

An interim superintendent was appointed in December.

CHARGED May 22 - Couch was charged in Federal court with three felonies, including embezzlement of government funds and making and subscribing a false tax return. Couch also has agreed to plead guilty to state embezzlement charges. He is set to waive a federal grand jury indictment

Finley, NORTH DAKOTA

TRIAL DATE SET: Jan 4, 2007 - A trial date has been set for Jonathan Champagne, charged with sexual assault and corruption or solicitation of a minor. He's accused of having sex with a 17-year-old female student.

Champagne's trial is set for February 21st. From KFYR 550AM: "Champagne was hired as a math teacher at a high school in Crookston (Minnesota) but he was fired last month because of the pending charges."

GUILTY PLEA AND SENTENCE: Mar 28 - Champagne pleaded guilty to corruption of a minor. Under the plea agreement, he was sentenced to five years in prison with all but 60 days suspended. Two other counts of corruption of a minor, one count of sexual assault and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor were dropped.

LICENSE REVOKED: May 10 - The Education Standards and Practices Board voted unanimously to revoke the license of Jonathan Champagne. Assistant Attorney General Bill Peterson says state law mandates the revocation.

IOWA

Feb 2, 2007 - Educational examiners have scheduled a hearing for a former football coach acquitted of charges of having sex with a student.

Other actions include
- A Van Meter teacher and coach twice accused of sexually abusing students will never teach in Iowa again. The examiners permanently revoked Philip David Padilla's license. Padilla, 40, taught social studies and coached boys' basketball. Police said Padilla had a consensual relationship with a female student. He resigned after he was charged in September with third-degree sexual assault, lascivious acts with a minor and sexual exploitation of a minor by a school employee. Padilla had earlier surrendered his license.
In 1993, Padilla was accused of having sex with a 15-year-old female student in Bethany, Mo., where he was a teacher and coach. He was acquitted on four counts of sexual assault. TT entry for Padilla.

- The examiners permanently revoked the teaching license of Marshalltown driver's education teacher Jeffrey Spencer, 44, who is charged with sexual exploitation, indecent contact with a child and lascivious conduct with a minor. TT - no online stories available.

- The examiners found probable cause for a hearing on the licenses of Annette Lynn Nichols, an Algona business teacher convicted of drug possession; and ... a North Scott math teacher and coach accused of fraud and falsifying his teaching license. TT - no online stories available for Nichols.

TT- Iowa Board of Examiners have minutes of their monthly meetings where disciplinary actions are determined online.

Cross Plains, TENNESSEE

CONVICTED: Jan 30, 2007 - Jennifer Turns, 25, an East Robertson High School teacher, was convicted of having sex with a 15-year-old student will not be allowed back in the classroom, the state board of education ruled.

The board unanimously voted to pull the teaching certificate of Jennifer Erin Turns, who in August 2006 pled guilty to three charges of statutory rape. She is serving a six-month sentence in the Robertson County Jail and will serve three years' probation following her release.

Turns, who was 25 when she was arrested, will never be able to volunteer, substitute or hold any position in a public school in Tennessee. Her revocation will also go into a national registry accessible by other states, said a spokesman for the board.

Full name: Jennifer Erin Turns

Brooksville, FLORIDA

Speaking of the cost of firing a principal.

ENDLESS LAWSUITS
Jan 10, 2007 - Fired in 2006 after an administrative judge found him guilty of misconduct and gross insubordination, Michael Ranshaw, 37, has filed a lawsuit (again) against the school board. He is claiming racial discrimination and a lack of due process in his 2004 suspension and subsequent firing.

A similar federal suit was dismissed in July, after Ransaw's attorney had missed two deadlines to respond to defense motions.

Ransaw was suspended from his job in 2004 as Powell Middle School principal, after he had failed to acknowledge during job interviews that he'd been disciplined and demoted from a previous position in Broward County for pawning a district laptop computer.

He claimed not to have known the state Department of Education was considering disciplinary action against his certification when he applied to work in Hernando in 2001. He said his "schizophrenic" brother signed for a registered letter in 2001 notifying him of that state review, and he never saw it.

The suit said Ransaw still holds state certification as a principal and guidance counselor.

It's not exactly true. Last month the state Education Practices Commission stripped Ransaw of those licenses and barred him from ever again working as an educator in Florida. Ransaw, whose attorney missed that hearing due to a scheduling conflict, promised an appeal.

The district also is fighting a civil suit in which Ransaw claimed violations, including breach of contract, negligence, slander and libel, and infliction of emotional distress.

To date, the district has spent more than $142,000 defending itself against the former principal.