Mar 21 - The Sarasota (Florida) Herald-Tribune final in their series, "Broken Trust"
In Teacher repeats behavior; new school unaware of past
A teacher talks with the Herald-Tribune. A case study in how the system failed abjectly.
Melissa Green pleaded no contest to lewd and lascivious behavior with a student, 15, at Tate High School in Escambia County. She came there from Satsuma High School in Alabama, where she had an affair with a student, 16. That school let her resign with no investigation.Two teachers to whom she confessed gave her references for another school district - where she had a sexual relationship with another student. As a mother, she says she regularly checks it to see if there are any offenders in her neighborhood. But within two miles of her house, she's the only one.
Key Players
Names and salaries for those whose job it is to "track teacher misconduct."
How area districts handle complaints
Background checks. Who investigates? Code of Conduct. Reporting Rules. Educator training.
[Compare the Reporting Rules from the three counties.]
FIXING FLORIDA'S FAILED SYSTEM
What the Herald-Tribune found. Among the findings,
The system relies on educators to police themselves instead of using trained investigators to gather evidence. As a result, problem teachers can stay in school for years until someone is able to collect enough proof to fire them and take their teaching license.Well-thought out recommendations.
[TT - Our two cents: Better than NASDTEC, the U.S. Department of Education should maintain a database of disciplined teachers. For the best reasons: 1) Women marry and can change names. 2) A Social Security number is a constant. 4) Teachers travel from state-to-state to work. 5) The U.S. Dept. of Education can act as impartially as NASDTEC. 6) Their system would be transparent. 7) Their findings would be public information and their records would be subject to the Freedom of Information Act. 8) NO MORE EXCUSES THAT IT'S A PERSONNEL ISSUE.
It will never happen. The various states, county school systems, local school systems, school administrators, unions or teachers would work against a real database that would mean a system that would track their non-performance as well.]
