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.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Whippany, NEW JERSEY
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.October 23 - Letter to parents at the district web site.
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.
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.
Transcript here.
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.
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.
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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.)
Sunday, November 02, 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.
The State Law Enforcement Division investigation is ongoing.
"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."
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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?
Saturday, November 01, 2008
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.
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