San Jose, CALIFORNIA

She was drunk in the classroom, but they didn't arrest her and won't release her name.

September 1, 2008 - When a teacher at Schallenberger Elementary School arrived at school Friday morning, her colleagues became concerned that she was inebriated. Her fellow teachers notified school officials, who in turn called San Jose police.
The woman was given a test and registered about twice the legal limit of .08, according to police. She was not arrested. A school administrator drove her home.

TT - She's now on leave, no doubt, paid for by the taxpayer, who, if found inebriated in public would be arrested. And if they were drunk in a school zone, would find themselves facing additional charges. Somehow you suspect the parents weren't notified either.

Trust Us

TRUST US with your children.

April 9, 2008 - Three elementary schools in Delaware allowed a con artist to send fliers home with students advertising chess lessons to be held at the school. None of the three schools conducted a background check on Christopher Hackford, 21.

Hackford approached the schools about sending fliers home with their students and about using a classroom for his chess program. School officials required him to fill out a facility use form to use a classroom -- at no cost. They did not require him to get a background check.

It turned out that it was a scam that netted Kaplan $3600 that he got from parents for lessons. He only showed up for the first lesson in all three schools. Hackford -- who has larceny charges pending against him related to October 2007 thefts at several Lowe's stores in Massachusetts -- was arrested in February in Massachusetts on charges that he ran chess scams there.

Amazingly, state law mandates any vendor who goes into a school during the academic day or for a school function and has direct access to children without a teacher present get a criminal background check. State law leaves it up to districts whether to require a background check for a vendor who comes into the building outside of the school day.
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TT- Volunteers in most school and sport programs are required to have background and criminal checks. Why would schools grant access to children without any vetting whatsoever? These were children from K to fifth grade and he could have been a sexual predator.

Paris, ILLINOIS

Feb 12, 2008 - Parents are angry that a 19-year-old convicted sex offender wants to attend the high school. Not only was he on campus talking to school officials, but he traveled on the school bus. They complained to the school board Monday night.

The offender conferred with the school principal on more than one occasion at the high school regarding admission. On Friday, he was told by school administrators that could not stay until a decision was made. AND THIS IS WHERE ADULT OVERSIGHT IS SADLY MISSING. The high school principal added he thought the student left the campus following their meeting Friday and was unaware of the offender’s continued presence until after the youth boarded a school bus.

From the article, the uproar continued Tuesday morning when the youth, once again, got back on the bus for transportation to school. The substitute driver was notified to return him to his home, and school officials said if it happened again, he would be arrested.
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TT - What about the other times he was on campus? How long does it take to decide a convicted sex offender shouldn't be on a school campus?

Windham, MAINE

TRUST US WITH YOUR CHILDREN

Jan 11, 2008 - The town counselor says that he heard that a school bus driver told a supervisor that he was despondent about his divorce and wanted to kill himself. He was told to pick up 51 students anyway, then report back to the office.

In their defense, the district Superintendent says that's not exactly right.

In statement released today, they say the bus driver told his supervisor that he was resigning because he was upset over a personal matter, but would make his last morning run. He then added that he "had a gun in the woods".

The superintendent's office says the driver got back on the bus while his supervisor was on the phone and the supervisor then called police.

The town counselor wants a town meeting to get more information.

TT - We can tell you right now, bud, if this was a tenured teacher, you wouldn't learn squat even if he'd killed himself in the school cafeteria with a cannon in front of 95 elementary schoolers. But since it's a bus driver who is probably not unionized, they'll eventually give over his whole personnel file, complete with a PowerPoint presentation. But any questions about the what the supervisor did are strictly none of your business.

You just need more experience with an educational bureaucracy.

Dallas, TEXAS

A new law that requires fingerprinting goes into effect in January in Texas.
And it won't be pretty.

Nov 29, 2007 - District tightening policy as fingerprint law draws near.

A new state law that requires school systems to fingerprint teachers and other employees for in-depth criminal background checks has some districts, including Dallas, wondering what to do when they learn people have lied about their past.

The Dallas Independent School District estimates that it could have 200 to 300 employees who are living under assumed names to hide their criminal histories or who lied on their employment applications to conceal arrests that would have prohibited their hiring.

DISD's policy says such violators may be terminated. But a group of several district administrators, formed to implement the new law in DISD, wants to remove any option. The group will recommend that all violators be fired.

The new law, dubbed the "fingerprinting bill," requires all teachers, administrators, counselors, librarians and other professionals, including substitute teachers, to submit their fingerprints to the Texas Education Agency, which will have them checked for any felonies or misdemeanors in their past.

The fingerprint screenings for educators holding current state credentials - and all substitute teachers - must be conducted by Sept. 1, 2011.

A Dallas Morning News investigation last year found the Dallas Independent School District had a backlog of a year on background checks. In addition, the district hadn't been notifying the state of all educators with criminal histories.

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.

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.

[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.

It won't stop the district from hiring others whose criminal history isn't known.

Being strapped for drivers, Thurman says even after this incident, he still won't be able to wait for background check results before hiring.

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."

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.

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?

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.

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.

St. Paul police haven't been able to find Sanchez and there is a warrant out for his arrest.

Anyone with information about Miguel Sanchez's whereabouts is asked to call St. Paul police at 651-291-1111.

Charlotte, NORTH CAROLINA

Ex-teacher who took indecent liberties with a student is training others on sexual harassment.

Oct 2, 2007 - Direct quote:

In an effort to bolster employee training to prevent sexual harassment, the Brunswick County school system was considering hiring, unknowingly, a one-time teacher convicted of indecent liberties with a student.

Janet Botton Klatt, of Charlotte, founded an educational organization named Teachers for Change on July 5 and registered it as a nonprofit. That was just months after her two felony convictions, in Wake and Cabarrus counties, for which she is currently on probation.

After recent sex scandals involving Brunswick County teachers and students hit the media, Klatt offered her organization's services to the schools' human resources director, Terry Chestnutt.

Until early this year, the 45-year-old Klatt had received her own share of negative publicity as she was arrested and charged twice with having sex with a private school student, followed by a guilty plea and convictions on reduced charges.

Last week, Klatt gave Chestnutt a presentation in Rockingham on how to identify sexual harassment at schools, Chestnutt said Monday. Chestnutt said he liked the content of Klatt's presentation and was getting ready to have her repeat it for Superintendent Katie McGee. School officials would then decide whether Klatt's organization was the right one to provide sexual harassment training for teachers and administrators, who would relay the information to students, Chestnutt said.

Chestnutt said he was not aware of Klatt's convictions and had not yet conducted a reference check on her but would do so.

Nov 27 - Ms. Klatt pointed out in an e-mail the legal definition of "indecent liberties" does not include vaginal intercourse or a sex act.

This plea is Statute 140202. Indecent liberties is classified as a non-sexual charge and I have extracted a statement from the statute which confirms this. "For the purpose of this section, the term indecent liberties does not include vaginal intercourse or a sexual act as defined by G.S 14-27.1.

That, of course, is the reduced charge to which she entered an Alford plea. She may wish to contact the newspaper to correct their article alleging sex with the student.

TT - Link for Klatt

Reno, NEVADA

Trust Us With Your Children.

Apr 6, 2007 - A drama teacher at Reno High School was sentenced for not reporting that a 14-year-old student told her he was sexually assaulted. He was one of several students who went on a trip to see "The Little Shop of Horrors." The trip wasn't sanctioned by the school but parents were asked to sign permission slips. The outing was arranged and organized by the teacher, who also accompanied the students.

They spent the night at the teacher's sister's house. During the night, a male chaperone -- a close friend of the teacher's -- fondled the boy.

When the boy told his teacher, Sabrina Cellucci , she told the boy he must have been dreaming. A student on the trip told detectives that Cellucci's sister advised her to report the abuse, but Cellucci ignored her, according to a police affidavit. (Arrest Warrant Affidavit PDF)

"Cellucci said she was very concerned about losing her job and that she told (the boy) it is okay not to tell his mother about the incident in California," the student said.

Another parent chaperone also urged Cellucci to tell the boy's mother and report it to authorities, the court document said.

During the return trip to Reno, Cellucci called the boy several times in another car and asked him if he was mistaken about the incident or had been dreaming.

After the group of students returned to Reno High School, Cellucci made the boy meet with his molester in a classroom where the man told him he must have been dreaming and if he did fondle him, he had to have been half asleep.

Cellucci told the boy she wouldn't report it, but it was up to the boy if he wanted to.

When the boy's stepfather picked him up at school, Cellucci did not mention the boy's allegations.

School officials learned of the incident 12 days after the trip, when a friend encouraged the boy to report it to a school counselor.

The molester, Jacob Heckman, 28, pleaded guilty last year to lewdness with a child related to fondling the boy in his sleeping bag during an overnight trip and was sentenced to 90 days in jail and must register as a sex offender. Heckman is Cellucci's son's godfather, her close friend and former student.

Sabrina Cellucci, 37, will keep her teaching job. She was sentenced to 20 days house arrest. In addition, there is a suspended six-month jail term and 100 hours of community service.

Cellucci was transferred to Hug High School earlier this year.
Hug High School rates a 1 out of 10 at Great Schools.
[Bumped.]

Houston, TEXAS

Some schools just might require the intervention of the National Guard. They seem to be stuck on stupid.

Mar 20, 2007 - Deanna Woollen, 45, [scarey picture unavailable] a Sharpstown Middle School teacher, was arrested in Colorado while on a trip with 30 students from the Houston Independent School District. The students ranged in age from 11 to 15. She called the police to settle a student dispute.

From the Incident Narrative posted at MyFoxHouston: The police discovered they had two statewide traffic warrants out for Woollen and two other warrants wich were good in Denver. Her driving privileges were cancelled or denied in both Texas and Colorado. In talking to the officer, Woollen suggested that might be because she had back surgery a few years ago and developed an addiction to oxycodine.

She expressed concern with the officer about leaving the students with the two remaining adults, as one was her elderly mother and the other had problems with alcohol.

For this trip, the parents paid $450. The parents and students had a lot to say to the FoxNews reporter. Woollen is on paid administrative leave.
Full Name: Deanna Kay Woollen

TT - Greatschools Overall Rating for this school is 3. The school was rated "Academically Unacceptable" by the Texas Education Agency. We won't go into the how the parents score safety and discipline.

Someday, those students can look forward to the Sharpstown Hiigh School that Greatschools gives an Overall Rating of 2. That school , too, is rated "Academically Unacceptable."

Thornton, ILLINOIS

There's something so singularly inappropriate about a 27-year-old man wanting 13-year-olds to read aloud about anal and oral sex, masturbation, and how to have an orgasm. Makes you wonder if he ought to be psychologically tested. And THEN fired.

Trust Us With Your Children. Mar 12, 2007 - The school board will be discussing whether to suspend Scott Groff, 27, the health teacher who asked eighth graders to read aloud questions and answers about oral and anal sex, masturbation, sex positions and a few other questions and answers he took from a British AIDS charity web site. It was, as one parent put it, a "how-to manual."

Parents were angry at the material presented at the Wolcott School that was so offensive the district asked kids to return the material and not show it to younger children.

Blogger Texas Hold 'em calls it Porn 101 with good reason. The questions came directly from a British AIDS charity [read: gay sex advocates.] Here are the questions. [Sample: How do you masturbate? How do you have sex?]

In Massachusetts, they were teaching fisting to children. In Mount Pleasant, Missouri, it's teaching 7th graders about children killing other children and sodomy. TT - entry.

Mar 14 - Groff was fired, as CBS news put it. He was placed on administrative leave for the rest of the year and his contract will not be renewed.

TEXAS

Trust Us With Your Children

Mar 12, 2007 - It's news when the woman having sex with the teen isn't a teacher. KHOU looks at women in the news recently who have sex with teenage boys - several are teachers.

“There is definitely a trend towards the sexualization of children,” said Dr. Richard Pesikoff, the director of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine.

A subtle trend he believes started perhaps 25-years ago about the time many of the women, including this latest case, were children.

“And this woman who is coming out of having been raised in this increasingly sexualized society is now looking at him not as a 14-year-old. The issue is we expose our children now to sexual issues much earlier,” said Pesikoff.

TT - we also allow adults to mature at a much later agel If at all.

Las Cruces, NEW MEXICO

Trust Us With Your Children.

Mar 3, 2007 - A 15-year-old was hired to be a teacher's aide in a special education class where he fondled a special education student.

Luis Nuñez pleaded no contest Friday to a charge that he inappropriately touched a special education student at Zia Middle School. He was sentenced to one year of probation and 100 hours of community service.

The girl was 12-years-old.

[TT - what kind of irresponsible idiots would allow a 15-year-old to act as a teacher's aide, let alone allow him unsupervised access to students? These same idiots.]

LAWSUIT - Nov 27 -

The parents of a disabled female Zia Middle School student have sued the Las Cruces school district and the parents of another student who earlier this year pleaded no contest to fondling the special-education student.

The lawsuit, first filed in state court in late October but moved on Wednesday to U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, charges that Zia and district officials engaged in a "conspiracy of silence" to try to cover up the incident and violated the special education student's rights when she was suspended for two days following the incident.

The lawsuit states that Luis Nuñez - was 14 at the time. Two psychological evaluations determined that Nuñez has no tendencies toward sexual deviancy, state District Judge Fernando Macias said in sentencing.

Copy of the lawsuit. Here PDF

London, KENTUCKY

Trust Us With Your Children.

Feb 16, 2007 - Derek Baird, 19, a special education assistant at South Laurel High School, was arrested and charged with possession of matter portraying sexual performance by a minor.

Another teacher heard rumors and when confronted, Baird admitted that he had a relationship with the 16-year-old girl. Police found pictures of Baird and the girl on his cell phone, presumably having sex.

Baird resigned. The story doesn't say if she was a student in one of his classes. Police said that in Kentucky, sex with a 16 year old isn't illegal but taking sexual pictures of anyone under 18, is. Bard is being held on $50,000 cash bond.

UPDATE Feb 20 - Baird was sentenced to 90 days. In the plea agreement, the charge was amended down to a misdemeanor.

Columbus, OHIO

Trust Us With Your Children.

Jan 10, 2007 - The Columbus Public School Board voted unanimously to fire Mifflin High School Principal Regina Crenshaw for failing to report a sexual assault.

Crenshaw was principal at the school in March 2004 when two boys forced a girl, who was developmentally disabled, to perform oral sex in the school's auditorium.

When staff members told Crenshaw, she did not call police. When the father of the girl learned what happened, school officials discouraged him from calling the police. link [TT - none of these subsequent stories were in national headlines as the original story was.]

Crenshaw was subsequently tried on the failure and the jury found her not guilty. The school has been trying to fire her every since. A referee finally ruled that they could fire the principal "for what he called a "significant lapse in judgment" in responding to the sexual assault of a developmentally disabled girl. [Read the timeline at the right of the article.]

Call for Reform
The Columbus Board of Education President called on Ohio legislators yesterday to reform laws governing how school districts are able to fire teachers and principals after learning that his district has, so far, spent $37,672 in its bid to fire Crenshaw. Charter schools in Ohio are exempt from almost all sections of the code governing schools, including ones dealing with terminating employees.

Public school firings are more complicated.

"I believe that everybody deserves due process," said Rhonda Johnson, president of the Columbus Education Association, the teachers union.
An average case to fire an educator costs $50,000, Johnson estimates.

"That’s why in a lot of cases we’re able to get some things worked out so that we don’t have to go through a termination case, because it’s costly to the district," Johnson said.

TT: Another way unions have made reform in public schools nearly impossible.

Crenshaw's attorney: "I find it perplexing that the schools could terminate (Crenshaw) and not even discipline that math teacher who impregnated a 17-year-old student," Clark said yesterday. "He wasn’t fired from Columbus Public Schools. (Roger Lee McEldowney, who lost his teaching certificate last month.)