Glouster, OHIO

August 9, 2007 - The school board accepted the resignation of a Trimble High School teacher, who is under investigation by the Ohio Department of Education over allegations he fathered a child with a student in the mid-1980s while a teacher at Trimble Local School District, as well as allegedly engaging in an inappropriate relationship with another student while teaching in another school district in Ohio.

Through a public records request, The Athens Messenger obtained a copy of the May 11, 2007 letter sent by the Office of Professional Conduct to the teacher. The news story details the reasons for the investigation. He has not been charged for sex with the 16-year-old Trimble High School girl that occurred in 1984-1985. He left the school in 1987.

The only reason the Ohio Department of Education found out was that the man falsely accused of being the father by the girl's family notified them. A paternity test in the 1990s proved that he wasn't. At that time, he reported the teacher to child support enforcement where DNA testing confirmed the teacher as the father.

Despite all that, the teacher was rehired by the school district in 2000, apparently unaware of the previous history.

TT - How can you prevent something like this happening except by asking teachers to sign a declaration every year saying that they have not in the past, nor will, conduct themselves in a manner that would lead to the loss of their license or criminal prosecution? With the understanding that false declaration can, and will, be a reason for automatic termination.

Or by random lie detector tests such as those given police.