Lubec, MAINE

Thirty days for sexual contact with a 13-year-old boy. It's a good thing we have sex registration laws.

November 21, 2008 - Lubec Consolidated School teacher Tina Mason, 31, was sentenced to 30 days in jail for having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old boy. She was also given two suspended sentences of 11 months in jail after pleading no contest to charges of assault, sexual abuse of a minor and unlawful sexual touching.

Mason resigned her teaching position at the Lubec school last December after the incident came to light. Lubec school officials had concerns about a possible inappropriate relationship between Mason and one of her students, which proved to be unfounded, but contacted police when their investigation revealed the relationship between Mason and the East Machias boy.

Mason was also ordered to surrender teaching certification and will have to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Prosecutors say Mason, her husband and their two children, ages 6 and 10, were friends with the victim's family.

Old Bridge, NEW JERSEY

SENTENCED  to five years probation. 

December 5, 2008 - Lisa Glide, 35, a drama teacher at Old Bridge High School in New Jersey, was arrested on charges that she has been having sex with one of her male students.

Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan says the teacher faces second-degree charges of sexual assault and child endangerment. The prosecutor's office has been investigating Glide since November 25th after they received tips regarding the sexual relationship. The student graduated in June.

Glide was released on $100,000 bail on December 5th. She is being represented by Robert Wills of Princeton, a contract attorney with the state teachers union.

Anyone with information related to the investigation are urged to contact Investigator Michael Daniewicz of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office Sex Crimes/Child Abuse Unit at 732-745-3600 or detective Michael Machen of the Old Bridge Police Department at 732-721-5600, Ext. 3210 anytime.

GUILTY PLEA June 2, 2009 - Lisa Glide pleaded guilty to fourth degree endangering the welfare of a child.

[She] agreed to give up her teaching certificate and not reapply for a teaching certificate in any public school New Jersey.

The agreement with the state also calls for Glide to be placed on up to five years of probation and receive mental health counseling as required by her probation officer. During her probation, she can have only supervised contact with males under the age of 18.

In return for the guilty plea, the state agreed to drop a second-degree sexual assault charge and reduce the degree of the endangering charge from third to fourth.

SENTENCED Aug 10, 2009 - Glide was sentenced to five years probation despite a request by the prosecution for a sentence of 364 days. "Glide told the judge if she was in better mental shape, "it never would have happened" and said she "shouldn't have even been teaching at the time."

License Revocation - Maybe

December 7, 2008 - The Arkansas State Board of Education will consider revoking Paul Knutson's teaching license. Knutson pleaded guilty to sexual conduct with a minor.He was sentenced to 60 days in jail and will remain on probation for the rest of his life.

TT entry for Paul Knutson. Arizona previously revoked his license.
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ONLINE RESOURCE: Some Arkansas disciplinary decisions can be found in the monthly state Board of Education meeting minutes. Parents should take note and be aware of the number of teachers who are given waivers to teach despite prior criminal convictions.

Knoxville, TENNESEE

"The court finds that the 71 days served is sufficient 'shock incarceration' to effectively sober the defendant's mind as to the seriousness of the offense," the judge wrote.

Mar 16, 2007 - Erin McLean, 30, a teaching intern last fall at West High School, is not in jail or even being investigated for a sexual relationship with a 18-year-old boy she met while at the school. Now the boy is dead, shot by her husband outside their home last Sunday.

The age of consent in Tennesee is 18 and Sean Powell was 18. The mother of two boys, ages 11 and 7, Erin McClean has reportedly moved in with relatives in Nashville while her husband, Eric, remains in jail.

The funeral for Sean Powell was held on Thursday.

Mar 21 - Erin McClean tried to commit suicide five days later with a drug overdose, Nashville police said. Her family called police, she was taken to a hospital and later released.

Mar 22 - Tabloid journalism: NBC's "Today" show interviewed McClean. General Sessions Judge Bob McGee agreed Wednesday to allow the NBC interview over prosecutors' objections that it could prejudice a jury pool.

TT - It's the kind of journalism we used to associate with the National Enquirer. There's something unseemly about such public displays when one young man is dead, his family is grieving, McClean's two children will likely be removed from the home and lose their father for a long time. Human tragedy as a spectator sport.

Apr 2 - The victims adoptive mother saw "little love" in the teacher-student sex. "how can anyone put love into this situation?" She and her husband adopted Sean when he was age 6. It was his fifth foster home.

"He struggled to overcome his pain from his early childhood," Scarlett Powell wrote. "He had been displaced many times in his short life. We hoped to assist him to feel wanted and loved, which Sean desperately needed, but mostly we wanted to keep him safe and out of harm's way."

INDICTMENT SECOND DEGREE May 10 - Eric McLean was indicted but not the first-degree count prosecutors had sought, according to court documents released Thursday. The second-degree murder count against Eric McLean carries a 25-year maximum sentence, instead of the life term the higher-level charge carries.

McLean, released on $150,000 bond in April, is expected to be arraigned in a couple of weeks and have a trial date set.

TRIAL DATE SET June 20 - A trial date has been scheduled for for January 21, 2008. A judge ruled he will have to pay for his own lawyer. The defense lawyer thinks a divorce is in the near future.

WEIRD TWIST Sept 21 - ABC News is reporting that Erin McLean has gone missing with her two children. Her lawyer thinks she may be heading to California to meet with a friend she met on the Internet.

NEW INDICTMENT Dec 13 - The grand jury has indicted McLean on first-degree murder charges. He had previously faced a second-degree murder.

NOT GUILTY PLEA Dec 14 - McLean was arraigned and entered a plea of not guilty. A motions trial is scheduled for Jan 14. McLean's two kids are with their mother. Where they are, exactly, no one seems to know. The last known location was somewhere in Colorado. A jury trial is scheduled for Sep 3, 2008.

DIVORCE Feb 1, 2008 - A judge granted Erin McLean a divorce and appointed a lawyer to serve as guardian of the children. They do not know where the mother and the children are and will be searching.

TRIAL September 3 - Jurors are being selected in the murder trial.

See our Rant of the Day.

CONVICTED, SENTENCED and RELEASED December 18 - McLean was convicted of of reckless homicide in September and was sentenced to 90 days, which would have freed him on Christmas Eve. Criminal Court Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz signed an order Friday releasing McLean after serving a total of 71 days in jail.

Long Beach, CALIFORNIA

Sentenced to two years in prison and registration as a sex offender for life.

December 8, 2008 - Sentencing has been delayed for John Kinard, 36, who pleaded no contest in November to having sex with two teenage girls. A charter school teacher in Los Angeles, Kinard also taught Spanish at Wilson High School in Long Beach.

Kinard was arrested in August. Both girls were age 15 and were friends or related to his fiancee's family. The plea requires him to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. He faces up to nine years when he is sentenced. He will return to Long Beach Superior Court on April 7 for sentencing.
Full Name: John David Kinard

GUILTY - December 8, 2008 - Kinard pleaded no contest to having sex with the two girls.

SENTENCED - April 22, 2009 - Kinard was sentenced to two years in prison but with credit for one year served. Kinard will have to register as a sex offender for life and must submit to DNA profiling and AIDS testing and pay $10,000 as victim restitution.

Millbrae, CALIFORNIA

March 12, 2008 - David Lista, 35, a English and leadership teacher at Mills High School, was arrested Thursday. Police said he admitted filming female students in an adjoining bathroom. Charges will be determined for the videotaping.

Lista's classroom is located next to the bathroom where the images were taken from a camera placed in the ceiling, police and school officials said. "What happened was he accessed the false ceiling, which was a series of panels, and had broken out a small piece," Aronis said. School officials said the confiscated images, which police say were captured over one to two months, show 19 people using the bathroom.

A technology coordinator found the images on a school computer server. Police were notified and Lista was arrested when they found a small amount of methamphetamine in a search of his home. Lista taught at the school for seven years. [Another story says 10 years.]

Students at the school complained that Lista had other things on his mind. He consistently failed to grade papers and students passed a petition to get him to return papers. They took the petition to the principal.

Several students also said Lista was caught up in an episode last year involving links on his YouTube video-sharing account. "I saw it myself," said Alfred Tam, a senior who was in Lista's leadership class. "He had links to his 'favorites' that were all these videos of underage girls dancing in bikinis." The links were passed around the student body, Tam said.

School principal Paul Belzer declined to comment on the petition or the YouTube videos .[ TT - "It's a personnel matter." Translation: How dare you question our authority?] The union has offerred to lawyer him up.

Teachers' association president Craig Childress said Lista, who has been placed on administrative leave, is entitled to legal representation through the union.

"We've made attempts to notify him of his rights to representation," Childress said. "I'm not aware of whether he has taken that opportunity."

Arraignment is scheduled for April 8. The charges will depend upon whether he traded the images or not.

NEW CHARGES - CHILD PORNOGRAPHY April 4, 2008 - Lista was charged Friday with four felony child pornography counts, including possession of the mateirl with the intent to distribute, after investigators discovered that his home computer contains hundreds of pictures and videos of child pornography.

Lista admitted to the allegations that he filmed the students, police said. But prosecutors waited several weeks to charge him while FBI investigators examined the teacher's home computer for child pornography. Arraignment is scheduled for April 8.

ARRAIGNED April 8 - Lista was arraigned and remanded into custody this morning on drug and pornography charges. He pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Lista on July 29.

HIDDEN CLASSROOM CAMERA April 9 - Lista also peeped on students using a hidden camera stashed under his classroom desk, prosecutors said Tuesday. Police found 20 images of students he had filmed during class — from a camera pasted under his desk - on a separate computer seized from his home. His home computer also contained hundreds of other pictures and videos accessed from a wide-reaching child pornography trade, investigators said.

BAIL CONDITIONS April 15 - Prosecutors asked for increased bail, but the judge denied the request. He did add stipulations that Lista cannot contact or be around minors, be around elementary, middle or high schools and he may only use the Internet to send personal e-mails or job hunt. He is currently out on $125,000 bail.

RESIGNATION April 19 - The San Mateo Union High School District board accepted Lista's resignation during a closed-door meeting Thursday night. Police said they also seized a small amount of methamphetamine at Lista’s home.

ARRAIGNMENT for COCAINE May 16 - Lista was arraigned for possession of cocaine. Lista was stopped by San Mateo police April 4 because they thought his driving seemed impaired. After questioning, Lista handed the officers a snorting tube with a quarter gram of cocaine. He is also facing one felony charge for drugs that were previously found at his home. A preliminary hearing is scheduled July 29 on the drug and pornography charges.

POSSIBLE PLEA AGREEMENT Aug 14 - Prosecutors have offered David Lista an undisclosed plea bargain but are holding off on formalizing any agreement. “We want to check into a few items first,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, declining to elaborate.

PLEA AGREEMENT - August 29 - Lista pleaded no contest Thursday to felony charges of possession of child pornography and possession of methamphetamine, and misdemeanor charges stemming from the taping of girls in the bathroom and his classroom.

A misdemeanor charge of cocaine possession was dismissed. He will have to register as a sex offender. Lista is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 30. A court-appointed psychiatrist will evaluate Lista before sentencing to determine whether he should be considered a sexual predator.

SENTENCED November 25 - Lista was sentenced Monday in San Mateo County Superior Court to two years in state prison. The three sentences to run concurrently — two years for drug use and possession, 16 months for possession of child pornography and 60 days for misdemeanor counts of improper peeping. Lista must also register as both a sex offender and narcotics offender.

Child Pornography and Educators
TT - List of educators sentenced for child pornography.
TT - List of educators guilty, but not yet sentenced, for child pornography.

West Seneca, NEW YORK

August 12, 2008 - Anthony Harper, 34, a West Seneca East Middle School French teacher, pleaded guilty to a felony-level sodomy charge involving a 13-year-old boy. During the plea proceeding, Harper signed a document terminating him immediately as a West Seneca school teacher. As a part of the plea agreement, misdemeanor sex abuse and child endangerment charges were dropped.
He will be sentenced November 12.

Full Name: Anthony D. Harper

SENTENCED December 5 - Harper was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by seven years of court supervision . He resigned in August after pleading guilty and had to surrender his New York teacher's certificate.

State Supreme Court Justice John L. Michalski reminded Harper that "The community will be safe from your predatory behavior.” Michalski also reminded him that he will now remain a closely watched sex offender.

APOLOGIES to contributers and readers. And many thanks for your well wishes.

The good news is that they believe they got all of it and there's no lymph involvement. It's been a longer recovery than I anticipated. Thank you for your patience and e-mails.

Smyrna, TENNESSEE

He came to court hoping for probation for five statutory rape and two assault convictions.


Jan 6, 2007 - A trial date has been set for Kenneth Anderson Jr, 38, Smyrna High biology teacher, on statutory rape charges. Anderson faces 25 charges, including several statutory rape counts, sexual battery of an authority figure and rape by fraud. Trial is scheduled for May 7. Now scheduled for July 9.

DISTRICT INVESTIGATION in 2003 June 30 - The Tenneseean reports that

the Metro school district investigated paternity charges in 2003. Metro's Adult Sex Crimes Unit closed the case a month later with no charges filed. DNA tests concluded Anderson was not the father, and he was allowed to finish out the school year. Metro didn't rehire him, and Anderson moved on to Williamson and then Rutherford County.

School officials there launched their own investigation after a parent complained about racy text messages sent to their daughter. Rutherford fired him almost a month later and reported the incident to the state.

In February 2006, Metro police arrested Anderson on multiple counts of statutory rape involving two children. One was a student at Smyrna High School and one was not.

TRIAL DATE RESCHEDULED Jan 14, 2008 - Jury selection began in trial. THEN, Anderson's trial has been postponed until July 21. [No explanation.] He has been charged with three counts of rape, 13 counts of statutory rape and nine counts of sexual battery by an authority figure for having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student.

PREVIOUS CONVICTION Anderson was convicted on statutory rape charges last year for having a sexual relationship with a different minor. The 13-year-old Antioch girl’s father found them in bed together. She was not a student.
See District Attorney General Case Disposition 2006-C-2268, September 27, 2007

SENTENCED (on the conviction of rape of 13-year-old - newspaper says she was 14. D.A. office press release above says 13.)
Jan 31, 2008 - The Tennessean, says that Anderson came to court hoping to be placed on probation for his five statutory rape and two assault convictions. They lament: two years of good behavior wasn't enough. (He's been wearing an electronic ankle monitor for two years and has not violated the corresponding restrictions, which allow him to go only to work, church and the grocery store, they write.)

Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins gave Anderson two years for each rape count and 11 months and 29 days for the assault charges, but the judge has not decided whether Anderson will have to serve the sentences consecutively or concurrently.

The judge ordered Anderson to undergo a psychosexual evaluation before administering the terms of the sentence. Watkins will make a decision April 2.

Anderson is awaiting trial in July on charges of sexual battery involving a relationship he is accused of having with a 16-year-old girl.

SENTENCED Dec 5 - Anderson was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison. Anderson was already serving time for statutory rape and simple assault.

Whippany, NEW JERSEY

November 3, 2008 - Brian Coar, 25, a Whippany Park High School math teacher, pleaded guilty to child endangerment for an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old student. (picture at story.)

The charge will be dismissed once he completes three years in a pre-trial intervention program and does 200 hours of community service. Coar surrendered his teaching certificate and promised never to pursue a job in education.

Coar's attorney tried unsuccessfully to get Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan to rule Coar's guilty plea could not be used in a civil case. The family of the girl have filed a notice of intent to sue.

Coar worked at the high school only for the 2007-08 school year.

West Palm Beach, FLORIDA

Lewd and lascivious molestation.

November 3, 2008 - At first, Chad Stoffel, 32, pleaded "best interest" guilty to the felony lewd and lascivious molestation in exchange for a term of five years probation, including the first two years on sex-offender probation. According to the terms of plea, he would become a convicted felon. The lewd and lascivious molestation charge was for alleged incidents between March 2003 and April 2004 with one of his students at Summit Christian School. The boy was 14 or 15 at the time.

However, minutes later Stoffel vacated his plea after a glitch in the terms of the deal could not be ironed out with probation officers. The contention was that under probation, he could not live with 1000 feet of a place where children congregate. His current residence doesn't meet that requirement. The prosecution said the state would waive it, but the probation department would not agree.

Another plea conference is scheduled for November 24.

OTHER CHARGES DROPPED
Prosecutor Philip Wiseberg told a judge that a phalanx of felonies Stoffel faced in a separate case would be dropped because victim was uncooperative. Sheriff's deputies charged Stoffel with unlawful sexual activity with a minor and battery of a child for alleged sexual acts with a 16-year-old student at Wellington Christian School.

Stoffel came to the attention of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office when a counselor at a religious retreat in Memphis called and said Stoffel had admitted to molesting boys in South Florida. He disclosed sexual activity with boys dating back 10 to 12 years.
Full Name: Chad Stoffel

When Stoffel was arrested in March 2006, Pembroke Pines police said Stoffel molested two boys there in 1995 but both victims, by then adults, said they didn't want the cases prosecuted.
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LEGAL NOTE: A "best interest plea" means that a defendant does not admit guilt to any offense, but agrees that a guilty plea is in his best interest under the circumstances. The defendant is sentenced, while still able to disagree with the prosecutor's description of events.

Under a best intererst plea, the criminal defendant does not admit the act, but admits that the prosecution could likely prove the charge. The court will pronounce the defendant guilty. The defendant may plead guilty yet not admit all the facts that comprise the crime. Such a plea allows defendant to plead guilty even while unable or unwilling to admit guilt.
It is also sometimes refered to as an Alford plea. Source: U.S. Legal.com

UPDATED ON BAD, BAD TEACHER link

Camden, NEW JERSEY

The theft was brazen. The principal of H.B. Wilson Elementary School, admitted yesterday that he deceived parents and teachers into paying more than $14,000 for school trips that were being paid for by the district. TT entry for Michael Hailey.

In one of the worst school districts in the country, the school rates a 1 (with 10 being highest) at GreatSchools.net Some 75% of the students are black, the rest are Hispanic. Most (70%) are poor and eligible for a free lunch. Camden, New Jersey, is one of the poorest (and most corrupt) cities in the U.S. And education is more lucrative than selling drugs.

The average per pupil expenditure is $20,077 - the highest in the nation.

The scam was simple. The principal, Michael Hailey, his top aide and others asked parents and students at the school to pay for field trips and other outings, knowing that the trips were to be financed by the school district. Then kept the money collected through fundraisers and donations. All three retired from the district after test scores were questioned.

Their other scam was to bill the state for $25,000 for extra wages for 14 School Leadership Council meetings that never took place. Three teachers lost their tenure for their role in that. Whether they were fired or not is unknown. No doubt, they retired.

TT entry for Michael Hailey, Patricia Johnson, Juanita Worthy and her daughter Keah Worthy. Only Johnson is white.
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ONLINE RESOURCE:
Legal decisions by the State of New Jersey Department of Education can be found here.
Decisions by the State Board of Examiners can be found here. (Certificate actions.)

Redding, CALIFORNIA

Pedophile previously arrested in 2001 on suspicion of touching an 11-year-old girl.

July 3, 2008 - Joshua Hoffman, 26, a fifth-grade teacher at Manzanita Elementary School, was arrested on suspicion of molesting three of his former students. He has been charged with six counts of child molestation.

Hoffman was arrested in August 2001 on by Glendora police on suspicion of touching an 11-year-old girl. The case was dropped by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

California Penal, Education and Labor codes forbid employers from asking about an employee's past arrests that didn't result in a conviction. [TT - Even if they work with children. Go figure.]

In a biography that appeared on the school's Web site until school officials removed it Wednesday, Hoffman wrote that he moved to Redding in March 2007 with his wife. He wrote that he earned a psychology degree and teaching credential from Azusa Pacific University, a Christian college near Los Angeles.
Full Name: Joshua Edward Hoffman

INDICTED August 23 - Hoffman was indicted by the grand jury and is due to go to trial in October 7.

GUILTY PLEA November 3 - Hoffman pleaded guilty this morning to having molested three of his former students. Previously arrested in 2001 on suspicion of touching an 11-year-old girl, that case was not prosecuted. Because of education and labor laws, Hoffman did not have to disclose the arrest when he became a teacher.

Part of the plea bargain was an agreement that he would be psychologically evaluated to see if he is suitable for probation. The results are expected to be announced November 24.

South Gate, CALIFORNIA

MANDATORY REPORTERS SENTENCED
Two Los Angeles school administrators each pleaded to failing to report child abuse.
Neither will, of course, lose their teaching or administrative licenses, although there are few crimes that warrant it more.

When children are not the first concern of educators, when they act to protect colleagues rather than students, the system that does not punish them and remove them is a gross violation of the public trust.

May 1, 2008 - Prosecutors today charged two school administrators, Jesus I. Angulo, 35, principal of South East High School, and Maria Sotomayor, 36, assistant principal, with one count each of failure to report child abuse.

Angulo and Sotomayor, both of Downey, allegedly learned of a sex between a minor female student and a 30-year-old substitute teacher seven months after it took place and failed to report it. Angulo and Sotomayor now face as many as six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The teacher, Jesus Salvador Saenz, 30, was arrested in March and has been charged with a felony for having unlawful intercourse with a minor, prosecutors said.
Case No. TA095986
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Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office Press Release (dated May 1, 2008)
"The complaint alleges that the two willfully and unlawfully failed to make a report as required by law when, in their professional capacity and within the scope of their employment, they learned that a student had been the victim of child abuse."
Case No. 8CA03401

TT - Typical for Los Angeles, there are no online stories of Saenz's arrest. The arrests of the school administrators came on the same day that three girls testified against Steven Thomas Rooney, a vice-principal at a middle school who was transferred to the middle school despite allegations of sexual misconduct at a prior school. TT entry for Rooney

TWO ADMINISTRATORS REMOVED - May 7 - Two senior Los Angeles school district administrators have been removed from their jobs for failing to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against an employee and then clearing him to work at a Watts middle school, where he allegedly molested two additional students.

Local district Supt. Carol Truscott and Scott Braxton, who formerly worked for Truscott, have been relieved of duties and assigned to the central office pending further investigation into how they dealt with former Assistant Principal Stephen Thomas Rooney.

Senior Deputy Supt. Ramon C. Cortines noted that 75 current employees are on hold in "non-school" positions pending investigations into alleged inappropriate conduct.

TT entry for Truscott and Braxton.

ARGULO PLEA & SENTENCING September 4 - Argulo pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse. He was sentenced to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service.

SOTOMAYOR PLEA & SENTENCING November 3 - Sotomayor pleaded guilty to failing to report an alleged sexual encounter between a teacher and a student and was sentenced to a year of probation and 100 hours of community service.
See also - Los Angeles District Attorney's Office Press Release (dated Nov. 3, 2008)

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.

St. Louis, MISSOURI

Can you spell C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N and media malfeasance?

New St. Louis School Superintendent.
November 3, 2008 - The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on Kelvin Adams, the new superintendent of St. Louis Schools, has begun evaluating the curriculum and filling three key posts in his administration, most notably that of chief academic officer.

The school district has some 25,000-students, "barely hanging onto its status as the largest school system in Missouri." Seven years ago, 42,000 students attended city schools. The district has already shuttered 25 buildings since 2003.

Adams was the director of human resources during a short stint with the St. Louis schools in 2006-07.
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TT - Not mentioned was that Adams is the seventh superintendent since 2003. (Kansas City beats that record due to a school board's fractious interference. Voters recently approved moving seven district schools out of the Kansas City district into another school district.)

Not mentioned either by the Post-Dispatch is that the St. Louis schools have been run since June 2007 by an appointed, three-person Special Administrative Board set up by the state of Missouri after it stripped the district of its accreditation for poor academic performance. After state takeover, the elected School Board in St. Louis refused to cede authority. They are now, for all intents and purposes just spectacles, but it is a role they relish.

Adams came from New Orleans where he served since July 2007 as chief of staff to Superintendent Paul G. Vallas. (Wikipedia entry for Vallas.)

New Orleans is another state-run school district. Taken over by the state after Katrina, the New Orleans Recovery School District operates 34 public schools in New Orleans and oversees 33 more independent charter schools. With 47 charter schools, New Orleans has the nation's highest percentage of charter schools, with close to 60 percent of its children in charter schools.

Previous TT entry on how the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is a cheerleading section for two of the most inept school districts in the country.

OTHER STATES
Black school districts in New Jersey under state control are Jersey City (since 1997) as well as Camden (since 2002), Patterson (1991) and Pleasantville (We call "Unpleasantville.") where " recent investigation by an independent law firm accused past and present school board members of violating the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO Act." Then there is Jonesboro, GA, the first school district decertified since 1969.

The obvious question is why is there no national attention on the widespread corruption and incompetence in black schools in New Jersey, New Orleans, and Missouri and elsewhere? Why is there so little coverage when in an October 2008 discussion with Condolezza Rice, she spoke about education.

"I think the state of education, K through 12 education in our country, and frankly for underprivileged kids, the appalling state of education is a national security issue.

You know, I’ve long been an educator and it breaks my heart that there could be very talented kids who might be the next Nobel Prize winner in the United States in chemistry or the next great composer in America, and they’ll never get discovered because they’re trapped in some public school that is just basically warehousing them. That makes me very, very sad.
But I’ll tell you, as Secretary of State, it makes me terrified.

Transcript here.

Jackson, MICHIGAN

November 3, 2008 - Jackson Community College wants to improve remedial class results.

• Nearly 70 percent of recent high school graduates take at least one remedial course at JCC. Students are placed based on their ACT/SAT scores or a course placement test, and must retake a remedial course if they fail.
• WRITING - Of those taking the remedial classes in writing — high school-level courses meant to prepare students for college-level work — 69 percent passed last year, down from 74 percent in 2006-07.
• READING - In high school-level reading, the success rate fell from 77 percent to 73 percent. Only 57 percent of students at or below an eighth-grade reading level passed their remedial course, down from 75 percent the previous year.

The college also isn't satisfied with the persistence rate of developmental education students. Only 52 percent returned the following school year. However, that was up from 2007 and slightly higher than the rate of 49 percent for college-ready students.
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TT - Developmental education students are those unprepared for college. In other words, about the same number of students who are not prepared for college and those who are do not return to JCC.

Whether they enter another college or whether they give up on the idea of college isn't known. JCC website says 63% of their students are part-time. That could be because the students work part-time or for some other reason. None of which is explained.

However, this article comes at a time when community colleges are waging a campaign to eager to "prove their worth." (Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 7, 2008) The new economic reality is that having to compete for taxpayer dollars may mean establishing standards and satisfying employers.

NEW JERSEY
November 2, 2008 - In New Jersey, surveys and statistics in April showed nearly eight out of every 10 students entering the community college system require remedial courses; only one out of every four New Jersey students earns a bachelor's degree; and 99 of 100 large state employers surveyed characterized high school students as under-prepared for the work force. In response, the The New Jersey High School Redesign Steering Committee is calling for immediate curriculum changes beginning with the current class of high school freshmen, requiring more challenging math, science and language arts literacy courses, and 10 additional academic credits, which would raise the state minimum requirement to 120.

Also see, Public Education Transition Policy Group: Final Report prepared for Governor-Elect Corzine in 2006.

COST OF REMEDIAL COURSES
Community colleges alone spend $1.4 billion annually on remedial courses for recent high school graduates, according to a 2006 report by the nonprofit Alliance for Excellent Education. The group noted that community colleges, like public schools, are subsidized by taxes. (New Jersey Herald, September 13, 2008.)

Charleston, SOUTH CAROLINA

Standardized tests are the bane of teachers and teachers unions who recognize that the tests measure the teacher's classroom performance more than the student's. The "high stakes" they talk about isn't worry for the children. It's their jobs they fret about. And some of the lengths they go to is astonishing.

November 2, 2008 - Employees at the South Carolina Department of Education, like other states, scrutinize test results to look for signs of cheating. One telling sign is the overabundance of answers that have been erased and corrected, especially if the answers are consistently changed from wrong to right. Twenty-nine of South Carolina's roughly 1,100 schools popped up last year on the state's analysis for having higher-than-average numbers of eraser marks.

One, however, was a standout.

Sanders-Clyde Elementary in downtown Charleston, is a high-poverty school. In 2007, the number of answers corrected in some classes was more than six times the state average of less than one per test. In 2007, 96 percent of third graders taking a South Carolina test at Sanders-Clyde met the state standard in English, compared with an average of 78.3 percent at other city schools. Despite that, Sanders-Clyde students struggled when they went to other schools (New York Times, Oct. 30, 2008) It was the only school in the state red-flagged in every subject for its number of wrong answers corrected.

At Sanders-Clyde Elementary in downtown Charleston, the unusually high wrong-to-right answer switches and improbable one-year academic gains has led to scrutiny from the state and district, and now a State Law Enforcement Division investigation.

Prior History
In an analysis of erasure marks on the tests, Sanders-Clyde Elementary had more wrong answers erased and corrected than any school in the state. The state flagged the school for making improbable one-year academic gains in 2005. State officials made an unannounced visit in 2006 and found no problems.

In 2007 the school popped up on the state's analysis for its high number of eraser marks. The students' scores on the state Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test were among the best in Charleston County. That prompted supervision of the Spring 2008 tests by district monitors.

INTENSE SUPERVISION IN 2008 With intense district supervision of the school's testing process in May 2008, the results showed there were, amazingly, no unusual eraser marks. The school's test scores also fell sharply — by an average of 31 percentage points — in every subject and at every grade level

Almost immediately, teachers and the principal protested. They claimed that,

When Charleston County school officials monitored Sanders-Clyde Elementary School's testing process this year, they deprived students of snacks and breaks and created a stressful and uncomfortable atmosphere, according to teachers' firsthand accounts of the situation.

School district leaders dispute that.

Testing monitor Janet Rose, the district's executive director of assessment and accountability who oversaw the monitoring process, said she was surprised at teachers' reactions to the monitoring because it was totally unobtrusive.

Her staff deliberately sat in the back or sides of classrooms so they would not distract students, and Rose said no one was pressured to finish tests quickly.

Snacks and breaks were allowed, she said. Rose asked teachers to provide snacks in a more orderly way rather than constantly supplying students with food because that was distracting.

District staff didn't go to the school in an effort to try and find something wrong; they were there to validate the school's scores, she said.

The district stationed monitors in the classrooms and took the tests away from the school each night. When the results came in, the community was stunned.

School response
So how did the school respond? With a 16-page report that blamed the monitors.

"Many Sanders-Clyde staff members are left wondering if the distractions were intentional," the packet read. "Is it possible that individuals had personal agendas that included proving that the poor African-American child on Charleston's East Side could not have possibly produced the improvements documented over the past five years."

The State Law Enforcement Division investigation is ongoing.
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See New York Times, Oct. 30, 2008, "School’s Success Gives Way to Doubt"
The state has deemed half the schools in Charleston as unsatisfactory. The prinicpal of Sanders-Clyde Elementary resigned and left town after the closely supervised tests were given in May. She is now the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for schools in Halifax County, N.C. She denies wrongdoing.
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TT - What favors do people do for children when the adults pretend to teach them, fake their test results, patronizingly pat them on the back and graduate children who can't find jobs? Can't even fill out employment application forms and have no hope of leaving squalid poverty?

Education charlatans glorify themselves. They accept the accolades and the glowing news stories. And then they teach children by example how to blame others for lack of achievement. These imposters get away with it every day in high poverty schools using the race card - the "get-out-of-responsibility ticket." They might as well accept money for selling these children into slavery because poverty IS slavery when there is no hope.

Doubtless, we will get letters from teachers who claim that poor children don't get support from home that would enable them to learn. That's what teaching is - motivating and mentoring children. Not standing at a black board. Admittedly, it's harder to teach children whose families aren't convinced that education is worthwhile. But it is not impossible. Writing them off - poor white or black children - as unteachable is pure bigotry.

If standardized tests and the No Child Left Behind Act do nothing else, they demand accountability. For black children. For white children. And isn't it about time?

Monroe, LOUISIANA

It's like a Monty Python skit. Without the laughs.

October 29, 2008 - From the News Star (Monroe, Louisiana)

State Superintendent Paul Pastorek has asked 4th District Attorney Jerry Jones to investigate the possibility that members of the Monroe City School Board and Monroe Mayor Jamie Mayo may have violated the state's bribery statues.

Pastorek questions whether members of the board violated the statutes in attempting to place board member Brenda Shelling's daughter Cassandra Shelling in several positions in the district.

In April, Mayo appeared before the board urging members to overturn their decision not to retain Superintendent James Dupree. Brenda Shelling initially voted against renewing Dupree's contract, but switched her vote, making her the final vote needed to renew the contract.

Cassandra Shelling was considered for a position as principal of Carroll High School, a teacher at Wossman High School and a teacher at an elementary school. Shelling could not hold the Carroll principal postion as long as her mother is a sitting member of the school board. She did not hold the proper certifications to hold the high school teaching position at Wossman.

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INFO:
You wanna see some scary pictures, these people fit the bill. link
And their October 11 board meeting sounds like a Monty Python skit.

The bottom line seems to be that there have been several attempts to hire boardmember Shelling's daughter who had been previously employed and fired six years ago from the district following a tenure hearing regarding her conduct on school grounds.

In August, Cassandra Shelling, was a finalist in the search for principal for Carroll High School until her mother said she learned that immediate family couldn't hold any position except teacher. Next, the daughter was considered for the elementary school.

The school board has dithered on renewing the school superintendent's contract. They eventually rehired Dupree in October, with Shelling the deciding vote. A few days later Dupree placed Cassandra Shelling at Wossman High School to fill a newly created position.

Dupree claimed that her placement came upon the recommendation of principal Sam Moore. Moore later stated that he had not interviewed her for the position. In an e-mail to the board, obtained by The News-Star through a Freedom of Information request, Moore informed Dupree that he had discovered that Cassandra Shelling's qualifications would not allow her to teach high school.

Meanwhile, the school board is stonewalling a newspaper's attempt to obtain additional documents.

CITY INFORMATION:
Monroe, LA Wikipedia entry
As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 53,107, making it the eighth largest city in Louisiana. The University of Louisiana at Monroe is located in the city, as well as Delta Community College. The racial makeup of the city was 36.78% White, 61.13% African American.

MONROE CITY SCHOOLS:
The school district rates a 6 (with 10 being highest) at GreatSchools.net
There are 9098 students in 21 schools.

Observation: Usually you see some sort of consistency in the school ratings. But Monroe schools are all over the map. For example, there are three high schools. One is a 9 while two are rated 3. High schools are good measures of what a child has learned as they pass through the school system. This isn't a mobile population composed of immigrants.

Graduate Exit Exams
test scores for Carroll High School here. 100% black student population
test scores for Neville High School here 57% black, 41% white
test scores for Wossman H.S. here 99% black student population

Carroll and Wossman are rated a 3. Neville is rated a 9.
Carroll is a magnet school with, clearly, nothing attractive about it.

Winchester, TENNESSEE

October 31, 2008 - Robert Allen, Jr. , 39, was arrested on charges of having inappropriate sexual contact with a 17-year-old at retreat in August. The Franklin County High School drama and English teacher has been charged with sexual battery by an authority figure.

Mr. Allen admitted to the allegations and told investigators he bought beer and smoked marijuana with the teen in a rented cabin at Grundy County’s Bear Hollow Retreat, court records show. The student did not attend Franklin.

Full Name: Robert Thomas Allen

Murfreesboro, TENNESSEE

INVESTIGATION

November 1, 2008 - A 36-year-old Blackman High School honors English teacher May have used text messages and Web sites to engage in sexual communications with at least two female students. The teacher may before a grand jury and could lead to criminal charges.

On Thursday, Rutherford County schools Director Harry Gill Jr. suspended the teacher while police investigate. That was after the sheriff's office contacted Angel McCloud, county schools attorney, about their investigation Wednesday night.

No charges have been filed.

School Backpacks

In India, they are trying to ban school bags.

November 1, 2008 - It has been more than two years since the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) issued instructions to phase out school bags. Stating that it found the size of the school bag to be one of the major contributors of stress among schoolchildren, the board had asked all affiliated schools to take this load off the students, especially those in the primary sections.

Without success.

While in the U.S., the backpacks come with instructions.

Ballot Measures in Oregon

ON THE BALLOT

November 1, 20 8 - On the ballot in Oregon, Measure 60: Would tie teachers' pay to their "classroom performance." Classroom performance is not defined in the proposal. It would also mandate that the "most qualified" teachers be retained under employment, replacing seniority as a major consideration. A similar measure in 2000 was Measure 20 that was defeated 65-35.
- Information on defenders and opponents and their donors can be found at ballotpedia.org

Measure 64: Would block public employee unions from using the money they collect through payroll deductions for political purposes.

OPPOSED Major donor opposed to both measures: $4.1 million from the Oregon Education Association. The $4.1 million does not include the cost of their campaign ads.
Source: The Oregonian, Oct. 6. article

Litchfield, ILLINOIS

October 31, 2008 - Michael J. Wetzell, 31, dean of students at Litchfield High School, was sentenced to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty Thursday to the aggravated battery of a female student.

He was charged in March with sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl at Litchfield High School. Police in Montgomery County say Wetzell also provided that girl with alcohol.

FROM A MARCH STORY: Rumors about a relationship between the girl and Wetzell surfaced in January. School officials investigated but found no evidence of an inappropriate relationship, and Wetzell denied the accusations. In February he resigned, effective at the end of the school year, because his family wanted to move back to Rock Falls. They moved back, while Wetzell stayed behind to finish out the year. Two concerned students called school officials and the police March 17.

Montgomery County State's Attorney Chris Matoush said Thursday that Wetzell must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence, as well as a parole period after he is released ranging from three years to natural life. He also must register as a convicted sex offender.

Buckeye, ARIZONA

What can you say?

October 31, 2008 - Vincent Petti, 26, a Verrado High School football coach, was arrested for allegedly showed an indecent photograph to three female students on school grounds.

He was booked into the Maricopa County Jail Wednesday on three felony counts of furnishing harmful materials to a minor. Petti has been employed with the district since August.

Petti has been suspended from school pending an investigation.

Alabama financial woes

Alabama schools seek loans to pay salaries.

October 31, 2008 - The Mobile County system this week borrowed $18 million from a bank to make its $33 million payroll on Friday.

Baldwin County school officials may need to take out a multi-million dollar loan to pay their teachers and employees to pay their employees early for the winter break. Earlier this week the Baldwin County school system borrowed $2.5 million from its $22 million savings account after the state announced it would cut monthly payroll allocations by 25 percent.

The state Suprintendent advised schools that the Education Trust Fund would only be able to pay 75 percent of October's payroll costs due to a lack of tax revenue.

Community colleges in Alabama will not be receiving state allocations to pay for the October payroll, due to the dwindling state of the Alabama Education Trust Fund. And community colleges will only be paid after the k-12 schools are.

The 25 percent state shortfall left many administrators concerned that across-the-board spending cuts -- called proration -- are looming.

The Oct. 31st Anniston Star editorial was blunt about the reasons for the cash flow problem.

For too long, Alabamians have foolishly believed that using sales and income taxes to pay most of the bills for public education was an acceptable plan. Regressive sales taxes fluctuate too wildly in tough times? Who cares, some Alabamians say. Income taxes aren't reliable enough to ensure that schools' needs will be met? Let the next Legislature worry about that, others have surmised.

Now the result is lethal. The economy's in the tank. Extra cash and operating reserves are becoming a relic of the past. Sales-tax revenue has plummeted. Income-tax figures have dropped as unemployment has risen.

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TT - No mention at all about how that same Education Trust Fund has paid for "double dipping" legislators who either have financial ties to Alabama community colleges or the 13 legislators who had full-time jobs in the Legislature and were on the community college payroll, along with their relatives and friends. And no mention of the latest sentencing - that of W.L. Langston, director of Fire College.

The Alabama Press-Register (Oct. 31) said Langston "deserved his sentence" of ten years in prison.

Mr. Langston used taxpayer and Fire College money to build houses for himself and another two-year college president. He made deals to provide children of system officials with jobs that required little or no work.

They said that the sentence is by far the longest handed down so far in the community college scandal, which included multiple charges filed against Bishop State employees and has ensnared high-ranking officials, rank-and-file employees and some legislators.

See TT coverage here here here

Hayward, CALIFORNIA

Yeah. Everyone wants their kindergartners pledging not to use anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender language.

October 31, 2008 - "School Clams Up on 'Gay' Pledge Cards Given to Kindergartners"

A California school system refuses to say what action, if any, it will take after it received complaints about a kindergarten teacher who encouraged her students to sign "pledge cards" in support of gays.

(Click graphic to enlarge.)

During a celebration of National Ally Week, Tara Miller, a teacher at the Faith Ringgold School of Arts and Science in Hayward, Calif., passed out cards produced by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network to her class of kindergartners.

The cards asked signers to be "an ally" and to pledge to "not use anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) language or slurs; intervene, when I feel I can, in situations where others are using anti-LGBT language or harassing other students and actively support safer schools efforts."

The school has acknowledged that the exercise was not appropriate for kindergartners.

The district said the pledge cards were intended for middle school and high school students.
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Dear Teacher,

Why don't you leave us alone and let us be children? And take your stupid politics to Berkeley or someplace else. What's wrong with kindergartners having a safe and protected childhood?

Thank you,
Jennifer

Corryton, TENNESSEE

October 31, 2008 - Mike McMillan. a history teacher at Gibbs High School, retired Friday, the same day he learned he was being charged by the superintendent with insubordination and incompetence.

The letter indicates the standardized End-of-Course scores from students in McMillan's class are among the lowest in the school system. McIntyre wrote that McMillan encouraged students to skip a U.S. history class when the tests were administered, so that he could give them an easier test later. Eighteen students were absent from McMillan's third and fourth period classes.

McIntyre said McMillan also didn't turn in testing materials when he was supposed to, concluding that McMillan had violated both state and local policies.
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SCHOOL INFO: Gibbs High School rates a 4 (with 10 being the highest) at GreatSchools.net.
GreatSchool ratings give an overview of this school's test results. They are based on a comparison of test results for all schools in the state. The Gateway/End-of-Course (EOC) test scores for 2006-2007 for Gibbs High School are here. Compare that with the school district EOC results.

Pasco County, FLORIDA

Time to update the yearbooks.

Headline: "Former Pasco teacher charged with drug trafficking"

October 31, 2008 - William A. Napolitano, 49, was arrested at a traffic stop when the trooper noticed a small plastic bag of cocaine on the front seat of the car, according to an FHP report.

A search of the car revealed $13,000 in cash, 31 grams of cocaine, 2 grams of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, including glass smoking pipes and butane torches, the release said. A female companion was also arrested. She had 36 grams of cocaine in her possession. With a street value of $50 a gram, the cocaine found on Napolitano and Lang is worth about $3,350.

Both were charged with trafficking in cocaine, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

CHARGED IN 1998 and 2004. Napolitano was charged in 1998 with soliciting a prostitute in Hillsborough County after authorities said he offered an undercover officer $15 for sex. He pleaded no contest on that charge. School superintendent John Long recommended he be fired after that arrest, but he kept his teaching job by agreeing to punitive and rehabilitative measures with the school district and state.

He was hired as boys track and cross country coach at Mitchell in 2000, earning recognition for his work. The Sunshine Athletic Conference and the Pasco Times both named him 2003 boys cross country Coach of the Year.

That same year, Napolitano was charged with soliciting a prostitute after authorities said he offered an undercover police officer $20 for oral sex.

He no longer works for the school district.