Ada, OKLAHOMA

Dallen will be 70 years old before he is eligible for parole.

October 22, 2008 - Jeff Dallen, 48, a Homer Elementary School music teacher was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of child molestation.

Police said Dallen has been a teacher at Stonewall and Roff schools in the past. Dallen’s wife, Vicki, is the lower elementary principal at Homer.Police expect charges to be filed in Pontotoc County District Court Wednesday.

An update to the story added this:

According to a court affidavit filed by Detective Kathi Johnston, the victim was taken to the Ada CARE Cottage after telling a relative about an alleged molestation. The victim told officials the incidents would happen at the school when the other students were watching a movie in the music room.

During an interview with Dallen, he admitted to “touching” the victim on several instances, according to the affidavit.“During the interview, Dallen stated there were two other victims that he had molested at the school,” Johnston said in the affidavit.

October 23 - Letter to parents at the district web site.
Thoughtful and considerate and a response you would want from your school.

October 24 - Police have confirmed the number of children accusing an elementary teacher of molestations has risen to seven or eight.

GUILTY PLEA & SENTENCING November 3 - Dallen pleaded guilty to 11 counts of lewd molestation. Officials said there are eight victims in the case. All are under the age of 12.Dallen waived all rights to a trial by jury and his right to appeal. Some of the victims’ family members wept as Dallen entered his pleas.

Judge Thomas Landrith sentenced Dallen to 50 years incarceration with 25 to be served in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. All other time will be suspended. Dallen will be 70 years old before he is eligible for parole.

Jones, OKLAHOMA

September 27, 2008 - Police arrested Reza Pourdavood, 53, a Langston University professor and Acting Chair of the Mathematics Department, and his wife, Leah Pourdavood, 40, a teacher at Jones Elementary School, on sex abuse charges.

Reza Pourdavood is named in seven complaints of sexual abuse of a child. His wife faces one complaint of enabling sexual child abuse.

Edmond police were notified about the possible abuse of a teenager after the victim went to her high school counselor, according to a police report. The victim told police the abuse had been going on for at least seven years.
Full Name: Reza Ross Pourdavood
----------------
REMINDER that the location is always for the school. In this case, the elementary school where the wife works.

Enid, OKLAHOMA

Parole will be protested.

September 7, 2008 - District Attorney Cathy Stocker said her office intends to protest all but one of the 20 inmates with convictions in her district seeking clemency from the state’s Pardon and Parole Board this month. One was a teacher sentenced in 1997.

Patrick O’Donnell, a former Enid elementary school teacher, received a total sentence of 47 years in January 1997, for the molestation and rape of a girl that lasted 14 years and began when the girl was 5.

O’Donnell was found guilty of three counts of lewd molestation, two counts of rape by instrumentation and one count of attempted rape for the rape of the girl. O’Donnell also was found guilty of molesting his victim’s friend.

Stocker said if paroled, O’Donnell would then serve a 15-year consecutive sentence and another consecutive three-year sentence.

Ringling, OKLAHOMA

August 11, 2008 - Ringling High School teacher
Robin Dillon, was arrested for public intoxication, resisting arrest and assaulting an officer.

Carter County District Attorney Craig Ladd says he is still waiting to hear from more witnesses in the case to see what they know about what happened before and after the incident.

KTEN reported that Ringling police and parents told the reporter that at the end of the school year, in May, there was a party at her house with alcohol and fighting. The police chief says they couldn't press charges on Dillon because the teenagers didn't want to be singled out for going to police. Parents were upset that nothing was done by the school board since they first voiced their concerns last year.

Muskogee, OKLAHOMA

LAWSUIT -
Judge refuses to dismiss lawsuit.

August 8, 2008 - A civil rights lawsuit alleges that the Hilldale Public Schools system was negligent in supervising a former band teacher who raped a student. The 14-year-old girl’s parents filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Muskogee.

Hilldale was denied a dismissal of the case by U.S. District Judge James H. Payne. He ruled the district was aware of complaints against Giacomo, disbelieved a reporting student and even threatened the student with suspension. That student was then denied a transfer into the district, Payne wrote in his refusal to dismiss the case.

BACKGROUND Band instructor Danny Bryan Giacomo pleaded guilty in March to six counts of second-degree rape against the 14-year-old student. Giacomo also pleaded guilty to 10 other sexual-related felony acts against the 14-year-old and/or another Hilldale juvenile. He was sentenced to six years in prison and 29 years of probation.

He told the sentencing judge that the Hilldale Superintendent D.B. Merrill and former Assistant High School Principal knew of his behavior toward one of the students. In an affidavit, he said the two refused to allow a student who complained about the situation to return to Hilldale as a transfer student.

Both girls left Hilldale, one to be home schooled and the other to another school district.

An opinion and order in the case filed July 25 states when asked why he molested the 14-year-old, Giacomo testified: “I just felt I had the power — I could do it if I wanted to.”

TT entry for Giacomo.

Tulsa, OKLAHOMA

Arrested hours before her funeral.

June 27, 2008 - John Kastner, 50, an English teacher at Webster High School, told authorities that intruders killed his wife early Wednesday morning. He was arrested hours before her funeral.

Lori Kastner, 44, was a former attorney for the Oklahoma Supreme Court. She was shot several times in the head. Kastner was shot in the hand in what he said was a struggle with the intruder.

John Kastner told police Wednesday that the intruder apparently was looking for an acquaintance of his 19-year-old daughter, who was not home at the time. Two other children, age 9 and 15, were in the home at the time of the shooting.

John Kastner recently voluntarily resigned as the school's co-athletic director, a district spokeswoman said Wednesday, but other coaches would not comment about why he resigned.

June 27 - Homicide probe 'intensive' (Tulsa World)
June 27 - Husband arrested hours before murdered wife's funeral (KJHR2)
June 27 - Wife's slaying was part of a cover-up, police say (The Oklahoman)

A high school teacher allegedly shot his sleeping wife twice in the head to cover up his lies and delusions involving claims that he was a member of the Israeli Special Forces and had access to millions from a phony charitable corporation associated with the Israeli military, according to an arrest affidavit filed today.
. . .
The court affidavit says she quit her job last month to go to work for John Kastner’s fictional nonprofit organization.

Kastner told police he woke up about 4 a.m. Wednesday to find an intruder holding his gun, which he said he had left on a table next to a plastic bag containing $5,000. Police discovered he bought the gun 8 days before she was shot, and that he “test fired” the weapon at 3 a.m. the previous day, to see whether any neighbors heard the shot and reported it.

PLANNED INSANITY DEFENSE? June 28 - Suspect made big promises (Tulsa World)
He had pledged to fund several causes, including an endowment fund, at Webster High School. Recently he had offered lots of cash, including one in May as he "brazenly announced at Webster's annual athletic banquet a pledge to award football coach Jim Harper $100,000 if he wins at least five football games in the fall. " There was also a promised donation of $80,000 to $90,000 from Kastner for new football equipment and a promise of $75,000 to $100,000 to pay for driver's education.

Kastner left a voice mail message for a Tulsa World education reporter on Monday, saying he wanted to report instances of "cheating" on student attendance and graduation rates, as well as "illegal athletes" on sports teams.

June 28 - 'Pyramid of lies' alleged
He told his family he was a member of the Israeli special forces. He had access to millions of dollars from an Israeli charitable organization and a private plane chartered by the group. He told police the murderer had taken a bag containing $5,000 from the dining room table, as well as the family's passports, a gold ring and a watch that was in the bag. He also kept a journal.

PRELIMINARY HEARING SCHEDULED - July 28 - A preliminary hearing is scheduled for August 25.

Principal recounts odd behavior of Tulsa colleague

Tulsa, OKLAHOMA

2007: Sentenced to four years' probation for possession of child pornography, he was not required to register as a sex offender.

2008: Arrested this week for setting up a video camera in an air vent above a boys' bathroom stall at the school.

ARRESTED July 7, 2007 -
William Lee Hunter Jr, 41, a teacher at Springdale Elementary School, was arrested for accessing child pornography at a library.

In a court document, a Tulsa police detective asserts that Hunter, while logged on to a library computer, "accessed child pornography and downloaded two child pornography videos to the hard drive."

A police affidavit states that a security guard noted suspicious behavior by Hunter at the library Monday and "watched his activity from a covert position."

The guard saw Hunter view child pornography videos and called the police, who approached Hunter when he was still at a computer station, the affidavit says.

Hunter submitted his resignation at the conclusion of this school year.

PLEA and SENTENCING Sept 6 - Hunter pleaded guilty to a felony count of possessing child pornography in accordance with a plea agreement that requires 4 years of supervised probation but no prison time. He was sentenced to four years' probation. He was fined $500, and a $250 victims compensation assessment and court costs.

He will NOT have to register as a sex offender, but with the felony conviction, he will not be able to teach again.

Child Pornography and Teachers
TT - List guilty but not yet sentenced for child pornography.
TT - List sentenced for child pornography.

ARRESTED June 14 - Hunter has been arrested for setting up a video camera in an air vent above a boys' bathroom stall at the school. He was charged Thursday in Tulsa County District Court with being a peeping tom with photographic or electronic equipment, a felony.

According to a police affidavit, a Springdale teacher found a videotape left in a Sony camcorder belonging to the school on April 2. When she discovered the contents of the tape, school officials notified the police. Hunter is seen on the tape wearing a TPS identification badge.

LAWSUIT July 1 - Hunter is accused in a civil case of inappropriate behavior with a boy in his foster care. No criminal charges have been filed, but a lawsuit was filed last week against the Department of Human Services on behalf of a boy who, according to the suit, had been placed in Hunter's home. The suit alleges that DHS failed to investigate Hunter's background adequately and failed to supervise him properly and that that Hunter "repeatedly and inappropriately touched the child, watched the child as he bathed, medicated the child with sleeping pills, and obtained a library card in the child's name and used it to view pornography at the Tulsa Public Library."

Hunter is not named in the lawsuit.

PRELIMINARY HEARING June 19, 2008 - A judge ruled that there was sufficient evidence to try Hunter on a felony "peeping Tom" charge. At the hearing, the 62 minutes long tape was played. Hunter has been in the Tulsa Jail since June 17. No trial date given.

Guthrie, OKLAHOMA

Two of the girls said they had a sexual relationship with him. The third said he sent her text messages. The mother of one girl received a text message intended for her daughter.

June 13, 2008 - James Gilbertson, 27, a Guthrie High School teacher, was arrested and charged with three counts of forcible oral sodomy, three counts of sexual batter, and five counts of instrumentation.

Police allege Gilbertson had contact with three female students on four different occasions beginning in December 2007. Police began an investigation two weeks ago when the school district superintendent went to the police after a mother of one of the girls received a text message intended for her daughter.

Two of the girls police contacted by police said they had a sexual relationship with Gilbertson. One girl said Gilbertson sent her several text messages despite her objection when he touched her leg in class one time. Gilbertson sent one of the girls a nude picture of himself. He is no longer employed by the district.

Full Name: James Sterling Gilbertson
Guthrie Public Schools
Logan County

Teacher Misconduct

June 2, 2008 - Headline: 11 school employees faced student-sex charges in past year

During the 2007-08 school year, at least 11 Oklahoma school employees, many of them teachers and coaches, were charged, sentenced or ordered to stand trial for inappropriate sexual conduct with students.

Training programs on the topic seem inadequate.

Robert Franklin, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for Sand Springs Public Schools, said the subject of teacher-student relationships is broached during new teacher orientation at his district.

"With our new faculty we talk about boundaries. We remind people that ... it may not be a good idea to take that young girl home, even if she doesn't have a ride," Franklin said. "We don't dwell on that, we don't talk about it much, but we do say that on every orientation to new teachers. Then, we typically move on."

Tahlequah, OKLAHOMA

April 18, 2008 - Christopher Massey, 27, a Tahlequah High School teacher and coach, was charged Thursday morning with the felony offense. Prosecutors say he had sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old female student enrolled in the local school system.

He was expected to turn himself in on second-degree rape charges. The girl told police she had sexual intercourse with Massey on three occasions.

Massey is the second Tahlequah I-35 School District employee in a month to be charged with second-degree rape after an alleged sexual encounter with a female student.

Jermell Combs, 27, a maintenance employee, was charged with second-degree rape for having sex with a 16-year-old girl.T hat girl said she reported the incident because she feared she may have become Combs faces a May 5 court appearance.
Full Name: Jermell Montrice Combs

Geronimo, OKLAHOMA

Sentenced (sorta) to five years in prison, but will only serve 30 days, and those will be on weekends. Go figure.

April 7, 2008 - Regina McKay, 33, a Geronimo High School teacher, pleaded no contest to the second degree rape of a 17-year-old in 2006.

She was accused by one of her students of giving him cigarettes and alcohol to go to her home in Walters and have sex with her. The Cotton County DA says McKay received a sentence of five years in prison, but she will serve only 30 days, and those will be on weekends.

McKay will be on probation for two years and must pay a $1,000 fine in addition to court costs. She will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life**, and will be required to confirm her address every three months. McKay will be permitted to be with children only when there is adult supervision, however she will be allowed to attend her children's school functions.

** registration for life was included in video report at news site.

She will also have to surrender her Oklahoma teacher's license by this Friday. She also must attend professional counseling for the next year.

Vian, OKLAHOMA

Odd that they would recommend firing before a criminal investigation was complete.

March 25, 2008 - Vian School Superintendent Lawrence Barnes recommended on March 10 that two Vian High School teachers, be dismissed as teachers. Both teacher remain suspended with pay and benefits. Both teachers are female and are under criminal investigation for alleged inappropriate behavior with male students. The investigation is not complete.

A pre-termination hearing for one is scheduled for April 14. A pre-termination hearing for another teacher is scheduled for April 22.

Tahlequah, OKLAHOMA

Feb 22, 2008 - Wrongful termination lawsuit results in a judge ordering school district to pay approximately $20,000 in attorney fees.

The case was originally filed Aug. 9, 2004, and was briefly removed to federal court.

[Special District Judge David] Nelson tried the case in December 2004 and ordered Weston’s reinstatement. The school district appealed Nelson’s decision, and an appellate court sent the case back to Nelson to submit findings of fact and conclusions of law concerning his decision to reinstate Weston.

The appeals court reversed Nelson’s decision and sent the case back to the state court on Sept. 19, 2006. [Attorney Richard] O’Carroll entered the case Oct. 2, 2006, court records show. Weston’s request for a re-hearing before the appellate court was denied in December 2006.

Court records show the appellate court’s decision to reverse Nelson was vacated July 3, 2007, and Nelson’s decision was affirmed. The appellate court also granted an application by Weston for appellate attorney fees and ruled [Special District Judge David] Nelson was authorized to determine the amount of attorney fees to be awarded to Weston.

TT - The bottom line is that school districts can not fire a teacher for "instructional ineffectiveness and unsatisfactory teaching performance" without spending $200,000 or more and wasting three years, and even then, it becomes a legal football. The final irony is that the school district paid his salary for the three years, the legal fees for their own attorneys, and the costs of a replacement in the classroom, and now his legal fees.

If you want to know the convoluted legal process, the lawsuit is online.

The teacher may have been a perfectly fine employee but the decision to remove him from the classroom shouldn't be a political one that costs upwards of $250,000.

What taxpayers and parents should question is whether such legal protections should be provided for teachers and educators when there is no evidence that they are anymore professional than any other licensed professions that do not have similar protections. The only other employees who are similarly blessed are government employees, which ought to make most people ask, why is that? The temptation is to think it's because political patronage jobs resulted in such a low calibre of employee that the safeguards were there to prevent firing. Why educators should be a protected employee class is something that should be debated.

The absurd lengths that a school district must go to in order to fire an employee guarantees that no teacher will be fired for incompetence or even failure to show up for work. And it's your tax dollars. And your children.

Ada, OKLAHOMA

If they wait long enough, the school year will be over.

Feb 21, 2008 - When a 4.0 student spoke out about a teacher who bought alcohol for students to celebrate a mock trial debate, he had to take the complaint to a school board meeting. Complaining to school administrators was useless. The school superintendent can't decide who is telling the truth, apparently.

“To this point in the investigations and the conversations that I’ve had with people on both sides of the issue, I’m getting two totally different scenarios which makes it difficult,” Superintendent Harrison says.

Once the superintendent began asking questions, Daniel says the teacher started approaching him at school, asking him to keep quiet about the whole thing. He says those confrontations are what prompted him to speak out.

“We didn’t bring this up. We didn’t want to be involved in this. We didn’t want to have to go speak before the school board. We simply wanted her to stop harassing us and leave us alone, and let the school do their investigation on their own,” the student said.

A previous story alleges the teacher supplied valium to a student on a flight to Italy where she was a chaperone. That she was intoxicated during most of the trip. She began confronting the boy at school and then calling the boy at night on his cell phone. That's when he decided to go to the school board.

The teacher has been under investigation since November. Another student tipped off the school about the drinking. The school maintains the trip was not school-related. No arrests have been made. The teacher is Kathy Lowry.

FOLLOW UP March 17 - Lowry has filed a civil lawsuit alleging slander and libel against the student and his mother.

Also named in the court papers are Sharon Dean, who is also a school employee, and someone else named Christy Dean.
It is unclear exactly how those people fit into all of this, or why Jane Cooper-- the other student who spoke out at the school board meeting -- is not mentioned.

The school board investigation is STILL not complete.

REPORT March 27 - Conclusion by Ada School Board attorney (who does not know how to spell teacher's aide): I do not find sufficient evidence that would support the school administration taking any action against Ms. Lowry based on the allegations made against her at the February 11, 2008 Board of Education meeting.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Resentenced to -- same sentence.

Feb 8, 2008 - Mark D. Rice, 50, an ASTEC Charter Middle School teacher, was sentenced to 21-year, 10-months in December 2002 after pleading guilty to four child-pornography felonies, that of producing and possessing child pornography.

Because of changes in sentencing guidelines, his sentence was revisited. Rice argued in a 2-day hearing in August that he should receive a lighter sentence. The court, however, imposed the same sentence.

Press Release from U.S. Attorneys Office on re-sentencing.
----------------------------------------
Background can be found in his appeal that was denied.
Feb 26, 2004 No. 02-6401
He previously worked in Mississippi.

Corruption

The more you followed the links, the worse the story got.

Jan 19, 2008 - The Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector Jim Jeff McMahan and his wife, Lori McMahan, a second grade teacher, were both indicted by a federal grand jury on nine felony counts of conspiracy, fraud and racketeering.

The indictment alleges "straw donor" contributions as well as a scheme for the McMahans to receive bribes and gratuities in exchange for favorable treatment from a co-conspirator in the abstracting industry, which at the time was regulated by the auditor’s office, and another co-conspirator who was an employee of the auditor’s office. .

It is alleged that the defendants received bribes and gratuities in exchange for favorable treatment by Jim McMahan in his official capacity. It is also alleged that during McMahan's campaign for Oklahoma State Auditor, JEFF McMAHAN, LORI McMAHAN and others on McMAHAN’s behalf, received cash, other items of value, supplies and straw contributions which far exceeded the legal limits of allowed contributions. The indictment alleges that McMahan and his wife accepted gifts and gratuities from Steven Phipps, through entities owned by Phipps with former state Sen. Gene Stipe.

Oklahoma State Senator Gene Stipes was sentenced in 2004 for perjury, conspiracy to obstruct a Federal Election Commission investigation, and conspiracy to violate the Federal Election Campaign Act. The charges stem from Stipes' role in Walter L. Roberts’s 1998 campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. Stipes was the fourth person to enter a guilty plea and to be sentenced based on charges arising from Roberts’s 1998 congressional campaign. Oklahoma James E. Lane was also sentenced, along with Stipe’s personal secretary. (Lane was the former Majority Leader of the Okahoma Senate.) Roberts also pleaded guilty.

WHY IT MATTERS
The state auditor is in charge of the audits of local and state agencies and entities and school districts. McMahan's website says that in his first four years in office, he and his staff have found 200 million dollars in fraud, abuse and waste of tax money of local governments and school districts, among other things.

McMahans indictments found here:
United States Attorneys Office, Eastern District of Oklahoma Press Release (dated Jan 18, 2008)

McMahans Will Face Nine Felony Counts In Abstract ‘Scheme'
The indictment also alleges that Lori and Jeff McMahan attended the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2002 with money provided by Phipps.

TRIAL June 11, 2008 - Lori McMahan took the witness stand and testified that she that she committed crimes to help him get elected. She said he never knew that until the day the FBI searched their house five years later. She doesn't feel bribed. She also admitted taking $3,000 from Phipps in July 2004 to pay the McMahans' expenses to the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Also Tuesday, political consultant Pat Hall, who ran the auditor's 2002 and 2006 campaigns, said he was sickened to learn in March 2007 that Lori McMahan had accepted jewelry from Phipps.

Hall said Lori McMahan made the admission during a "damage control" meeting to determine how to "spin" newspaper inquiries about the auditor's trips allegedly funded by Phipps.

Hall is a defense witness.

The McMahans are accused of accepting more than $157,000 in illegal donations, two all-expenses-paid trips to New Orleans, more than $2,000 in jewelry, and a trip to Boston for the 2004 Democratic National Convention, all bankrolled by Phipps.

Ada, OKLAHOMA

One parent said, "It disgusts me to think that we put our children in the trust of teachers, preachers... They molest them. They try to buy drugs from them... They sell them drugs... I'm just really disgusted to hear this."

Jan 18, 2008 - Konawha Don Ade, 31, a special education Teacher at Willard Grade Center, (an elementary school) was arrested trying to buy cocaine from the Ada undercover narcotics unit. She faces numerous other drug charges, as well.

She also works an employee of the Pontotoc County Co-op Preschool Program.

Spavinaw, OKLAHOMA

Jan 14, 2008 - Dustin Mauldin, 25, a coach with Spavinaw Public Schools, was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of lewd molestation with a 13-year-old girl on his softball and basketball teams.

Mauldin allowed the girl to touch his penis on the outside of his clothing on at least two occasions.

Mauldin was charged in March 2007. School officials discovered the allegations and informed police. He resigned after the allegations surfaced.

The judge sentenced Mauldin to two years on both counts, to run concurrently. After being released from prison, Mauldin will begin serving eight years of probation and will have to register as a sex offender.

Bixby, OKLAHOMA

Police search underway.

Dec 8, 2007 - Michael S. Carson, 35, a a Bixby High School substitute teacher, was charged with seven misdemeanor counts of displaying harmful material to minors.

A school resource officers said the incident is alleged to have occurred Nov. 30 in a math class. "He began talking to some of the boys and began showing them some pornographic material he had on the phone that included some animated cartoonlike pornography as well as some obscene pictures." One student complained.

"Some of the kids, when we talked to them, were just concerned that they would be in trouble for looking, and some were embarrassed to tell their parents. The kids were a little confused, I think," he said.

Khrh reports that police have an arrest warrant for Carson been unable to locate him at two known addresses.

From Fox 23: Carson has been fired. They also discovered that to be a substitute teacher in Bixby all you need is a high school diploma and one day of training at the school. He had a background check.

The boys were 14 to 15 years old, according to KOTV.

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