What is best for children

A PLEA: "Put students before self interests"

The success or failure of attaining any goal is largely dependent upon the motivation of those who carry it out. In K-12 public education, motivation for compliance is not imposed by parents who have a stake in the results, but by bureaucrats with few incentives beyond altruism to ensure the system functions or to respond in a timely manner to areas of concern.

More importantly, regulatory accountability, by its very nature, must follow formal procedures that are the result of political compromises and legal interpretation.

Because the rules that govern regulatory accountability are largely shaped by politics, they often reflect interests other than what is best for children.

Article by Matthew Carr and Beth Lear of the Buckeye Institute.

Where children gather, so, too, will pedophiles

Feb 27, 2008 - Susan Campbell, writing in the Hartford Courant on a personal experience.

My mother married her second husband against the wishes of just about everyone, including her three children. Love might be blind, but a child sees all.Things got so bad at home that I broke the code. I went outside the family for help, stepped up to my fourth-grade teacher's desk and told her that my stepfather was hurting me. She looked confused, so I said it again, as loudly as I dared, considering that the kids in the front row could hear, and then know.

She quickly sent me back to my desk, where I spent the day trying to decide what would happen next. After school, I pretended to stack and restack library books in the classroom because I thought she would call me back to her desk and help me, but she pushed some papers into a satchel, waved to me and left. I went home knowing no one would save me from my stepfather, the pedophile.

The article is "When Child's Plea Goes Unheard; Another Pedophile May Go Free"

Her step-father was a respected endocrinologist. A psychiatrist and psychologist in three different evaluations gave the doctor the go-ahead to return and do what he did. His examiners might have made their tragic mistake for no reason other than Reardon was a respected doctor, and molesting children is not something respected doctors do. He died in 1998, but, as Campbell writes, the sad facts of his life were exposed when last year thousands of pornographic photos and videos were found hidden in his former home. Since then, more than 60 adults have filed suits.

Read the whole thing.

Female Sex Predators

Feb 24, 2008 - "Female sex predators hard to understand" doesn't begin to explain why there’s a noticeable spike in the number of women arrested for sexually assaulting minors, according to this article by Sara McDonald.

---

tt- It is hard to say whether there really is a spike in the number of women arrested for having sex with minors because we can find no study on the numbers. No one collects the statistics.

Current news stories are not a reliable measure because many cases are never reported online so there is no means to gather and quantify the problem. You would think that those who license teachers would be able to give some idea of the scale, but several investigations demonstrate that state Education officials are often the very last to know - even after the educator is convicted and is serving time.

Studies that were collected by Charol Shakeshaft vary widely on the percentage of male vs. female sex offenders, even her own studies. See p25 Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature. However, female teachers are likely to be underreported.

Analysts speculate that female abusers might be underreported if the target is male, because males have been socialized to believe they should be flattered or appreciative of sexual interest from a female.

That may be less true now than it was in her 2004 report. A lot of female educators are discovered through e-mail or instant messaging or just being caught in cars, vans, hotels or parks with students. Those are prosecutable cases that do not depend upon the testimony of the victims.

In any case, it still isn't an expected behavior, but maybe that's because our expectations of women are more idealized than it is for men. Or they were.

When Susan Lemery, 38, was arrested in 2002 for fondling and raping a 14-year-old boy, teachers at her school sent her a care package including cards from adults and children and artwork from her second grade students. The school principal visited the class to talk to the students about the case, asking them how it feels when they get accused on the playground of doing something they perhaps didn't do. Lemery was convicted by a jury on five of the six charges and narrowly escaped conviction for sexual contact with a second 14-year-old boy. She was sentenced to five years in prison. She only served three.

Tonya Hadden. served even less when she ran away to Las Vegas with a 15-year-old boy in 2002. (She was later sentenced to two years in California.) May 2002 Carolyn Ann Wilson, 40, pleaded guilty to having sex with a 16-year-old boy. She was the 10th school district employee accused of sexual misconduct in a little more than a year. She got probation.

Grooming Children

Stalking of adults and grooming of kids almost always involve using electronic devices these days, she said.

Jan 11, 2008 - In a story that focuses almost entirely on teachers who groom their students, CNN looks at Cells, texting give predators secret path to kids.

Troy Mansfield, a third-grade teacher, "spent four years building a friendship with a student. Mansfield sent her poems via e-mail, and the girl said she felt like she could confide in him. By the time she was in seventh grade, they were comfortable talking about sexual fantasies, and he'd sneak her away from school in his car for an hour of sex." He was sentenced to 31 years.

Kelly Dalecki, 26, a Florida teacher, gave a 14-year-old boy her cell phone number and an alias e-mail address. She bought and gave him Mike's Hard Lemonade, cranberry juice with vodka, condoms and marijuana, the documents state. By the time she started e-mailing porn and illicit messages, he trusted her. " The boy's mother was a teacher who worked with Dalecki.
She was sentenced to 364 days in jail - not prison.

Beth Ann Chester - recently arrested. TT - Link
Kelsey Peterson - ran to Mexico with a 13-year-old boy. TT - Link

Excellent article on how adults groom children to be victims.

"They groom children," [Detective Joshua] Shelton said. "A lot of the time, these kids mistake the grooming activity for friendship, which is exactly what it's designed to do -- to look like a platonic relationship, when all they are really doing is getting closer and closer to them socially so they can get closer and closer to them physically."

TT - Our stories that involve teachers, cell phones and e-mail communications include:

Michael Black, 28, and 13-year-old femal student. LINK
Crystal Wells, 33, and a 15-year-old male student. LINK
Chad Draper, 29, and a 17-year-old female student. LINK
Pamela Balogh, 39, and a 15-year-old female student. LINK
Cynthia Rynard, 32, and a 17-year-old male student. LINK
Jenna Hermann, 23, and a 13-year-old male student. LINK
Scott Lempa, 33, and a 17-year-old female student. LINK
Chad N. Stover, 30, and a 17-year-old female student. LINK
Tracy R. Hanzal, 29, and 14-and 15-year-old girls. LINK
Alison Mosbeck, 34, and 14-year-old student. LINK
Jeffrey Anderson, 23, and two 15-year old students. LINK
Timothy Meehan, 23, and an under age 17 female student. LINK
Richard A. Foster, 51, and minor student. LINK
Stephanie Ann Stein, 31, and a 15-year-old male student. LINK
Shariff Mills, 32, and a student. LINK
Steven Maffucci, 30, and three girls, ages 15 and 16. LINK
Daniel Velasco, 33, and a 15-year-old student. LINK
Vernon E. Heizer, 50, and a 14-year-old student. LINK
Edison Muñoz, 51, and a 17-year-old student. LINK
Steven Lysogorski, 37, and a 14-year-old boy. LINK
Vicky Lynn Lewallen, 44, and a 14-year-old female student. LINK
Janet Parker, 26, and a 14-year-old male student. LINK
Marvin King, 48, and a s 16-year-old female student. LINK
Dennis Carter, 52, and a 16-year-old female student. LINK
Derek Baird, 19, and a 16-year-old student. LINK
Unnamed teacher from Paterson, NJ and cell phone pics. LINK
Ryan Novak, 25, and a female student. LINK
Richard Parrish, 32, and a 17-year-old female student. LINK
Chris White sending pics to a female student. LINK
David Nenzoski, 49, and a 13-year-old student. LINK
--- "And then when she got the cell number, why would any teacher give a child the cell number?"
Kourney Mullen, (female)22, and a 17-year-old female special ed student. LINK

Some states and school districts are already working on the problem. LINK
And some education specialists should know better. LINK

Rating professors

Speaking of rating teachers, you can rate your professor at Ratemyprofessors.com

From New York University's school paper, Washington Square News, comes this opinion piece on Professor ratings on website can help ensure quality class.

The site is Ratemyprofessors.com
Teachers respond to the criticism in videos.

Student Free Speech

Free speech - German style. And the American lunatic left.

Nov 27, 2007 -

A German court ruled on Tuesday that students had the right to rate the performance of their teachers and publish their opinions on the Internet, as long as the results were not defamatory.

The court in Cologne in western Germany upheld a dismissal by a lower court of a complaint by a teacher who accused the operators of the website http://www.spickmich.de/ of violating her privacy, a court spokesman said.

The teacher had obtained a low rating of 4.6 points on the website, using a scale in which one is the best mark and six the worst.

Students can class their teachers in categories such as "cool and funny", "sexy" and "gives fair marks" on the website.

The website, a forum for students to discuss anything from poetry to their teachers' performance, was founded in Cologne earlier this year.It claims to have more than 150,000 young contributors.

ON THE OTHER HAND, in the U.S., the First Amendment Center in the U.S. is bemoaning a new ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that extended Morse** to allow school administrators to apply zero-tolerance rules to threats of violence and "potentially" other subjects of student speech.

The First Amendment Center appeared shocked that "School administrators in the 5th Circuit thus now may apply zero-tolerance rules to any speech about violence against students."

** Morse v. Frederick was a ruling by the Supreme Court that upheld the right of a school administrator to punish a student who displayed a “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner. Described even by the First Admendment Center (funded by Freedom Forum that was established by the founder of U.S.A. Today) as a decision that "took pains to limit the precedent to speech advocating drug use and other illegal activities."

Bias in sentencing

Nov 16, 2007 - Sylvia Griggs, writing in the News and Tribune on teacher misconduct and the bias against maile teachers accused of the same crime.

A New Jersey Superior Court Judge shocked observers during the sentencing hearing of a 43-year-old female teacher who had pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault with a 13-year-old boy many times over a six-month period. The judge, who gave the offender probation rather than three years in prison, opined:

“So I really don’t see the harm that was done here ... I don’t see anything here that shows that this young man has been psychologically damaged by her actions. And don’t forget, this was mutual consent. Now certainly under the law, he is too young to legally consent, but that’s what the law says. Some of the legislators should remember when they were that age. Maybe these ages have to be changed a little bit.”

Read the whole thing.

Heavy emotional cost

"The boy, who had testified against the principal, was sobbing inconsolably. After White's not guilty verdict was read, the unnamed teenager had to bear the unofficial stamp of "liar."

Nov 7, 2007 - A column by Lawrence Aaron at The Record (N.J.) on the costs of principal's crimes reflects on the sentencing of school principal Joseph White. White was acquitted by a jury in 2003 after claiming that that police interviews were improper and that the youth who accused White had an ulterior motive.

Four and a half years later, another jury convicted White of sexual offense with another boy.

The sobbing denunciation of White by the high school boy in the latest case is a reminder of the heavy emotional cost paid by victims and their families.

The first victim was forgotten.

In these instances of betrayal of trust, where children end up as victims of adults responsible for their safe-keeping, one forgotten person is the young man who accused White in the 2002 case. He dropped from sight.

He had gone to live with White and his family after becoming a ward of the state because his biological father beat him. The young man, now about 22, is serving in the Persian Gulf, fighting the war on terror.

Aaron reports that experts say 90 percent of such offenses never come to light.

TT link for White
To their credit, The Record had a scathing editorial when White pleaded guilty.

Awareness

From The Record (North New Jersey)

Oct 22, 2007 - Staff writers at The Record have done a great job in reporting on arrests of North Jersey educators in "North Jersey teacher sex arrests up."

FINDING: Thirteen North Jersey educators have been arrested in the last five years. Eleven have pleaded guilty to various crimes, two are still awaiting trial.

FINDING: The typical victim is a student who may lack the confidence to report such a problem, or is hungry for approval and special attention.

FNDING: Experts say abuse remains widely underreported, with an estimated nine out of 10 incidents never revealed.

FINDING: Even when a teacher is arrested or convicted, the state office in charge of revoking teacher licenses doesn't always find out. County prosecutors and school districts usually notify the state Department of Education when teachers are convicted of a crime. But they are not legally obligated to do so.

FINDING: School districts are required to tell the licensing office only when an accused or convicted teacher retires or resigns.

FINDING: The charisma that makes for great teachers also may help predators "groom" children as prey, said Dr. Nancy Graffin, head of treatment services at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center at Avenel, a state facility for sex offenders.

"It's not unusual for someone who victimizes children to be particularly comfortable and adept at relating to children," she said. "It's part of the purposeful setting up of sex offending to gain the trust of children and their families."

FINDING: And so Graffin offers this reminder to parents: Children are more likely to be abused by someone they know than by a stranger.

"Parents need to be mindful of teachers showing an interest that's too good to be true," she said. "People need to not just give blanket approval to someone just because they have status as a teacher."

Social Networking

ARTICLE


Oct 9, 2007 - From the Chronicle of Higher Education, a column by Ms. Mentor.

A reader writes,

Is it weird and cheesy for professors to be on Facebook, sending social notes to their students after a long day at school?

My colleague ("Brando"), in his mid-50s, has a Facebook site connected to the 60-plus students we see every day in our very intense program. I wonder how Brando has time to "play" with students like this on the Net. Is this a newfangled ploy to establish popularity and "coolness"?

I struggle to make students understand that I'm not instantly available by e-mail. Brando's site undermines my efforts, and students haven't a clue as to how sad this really is. In our big university (8,000), he is the only faculty member on Facebook.

Ms. Mentor reply:

Even the youngest instructors, those fresh-faced 25-year-old prodigies, are officially grown-ups.

They must cast off childish things, and hang out with their elders.

That does not mean Facebook.com, a cheerful, teenagey venue in which students create groups ("Metaphysicians Who Barbecue"), post photos, and leave greetings on each other's "walls."

Ms. Mentor does wonder why Brando, some 35 years older, is hanging around in that adolescent playground. Ms. Mentor thinks he should be playing with people his own age, rather than appearing to be desperately lonely or in need of some illicit lovin' that could wreck his career and derail the aspirations of students. Since his colleague Carla cannot stop his "weird and cheesy" behavior, Ms. Mentor will direct him bluntly: Knock it off. Now.

TT - This passes for profoundness in mentoring. If Ms. Mentor cared, she take the time to find out just how many teachers have become involved with their students through social networking sites and those e-mail exchanges. Not to mention the cell phone or IM exchanges.

A teacher isn't a friend. He or she isn't a confidant. They are not substitute parents. And, in particular, they are not playmates. There is no need for a teacher to give a student their e-mail address or cell phone number. Or invite a student to their home. The problem is that many teachers come from the university culture that includes non-stop partying and loads of uncommitted sex. The real world, by comparison, is boring.

Like our Peter Pan press that never wants to grow up, the fun-addicted student, coupled with a culture that prizes youth over wisdom, hipness over thoughtfulness, results in a Peter Pan teacher - whether 26 or 50 - who looks for excitement in the workplace. And it isn't with other adults who are more responsible.

The only reason a teacher would have a MySpace or a Facebook page that was accessible to students is because they crave adulation from the easy to impress or friendship from children. And that makes them poor role models right there because they are not teaching their students appropriate boundaries.

It isn't weird or cheesy. It's pathetic and dangerous.

Tacoma, WASHINGTON

Sept 16, 2007 - The News Tribune isn't doing what a lot of newspapers do - burying problems in our schools. They are continuing to question how Tacoma schools hired Jennifer Leigh Rice. She is the teacher who is alleged to have had a sexual relationship with a 10-year-old student.

They hired her Oct 9, 2006. Within days they knew they had a problem. Tacoma human resources director Bonnie McGuire was an assistant principal at Spanaway Lake High School when Rice came under investigation in the fall of 1998 and the winter of 1999. She left that school and was not rehired in another school.

The newspaper obtained copies of e-mail exchanges that clearly show that they knew of her history. Despite that, they gave her a contract that was signed two months later - Dec 18, apparently hoping for the best.

Her employment documents. PDF

She was arrested August 13, 2007 TT - Link

Teacher sex crimes

August 19, 2007 - Excellent article by Greg Tufaro in the Home News Tribune (NJ) on "Districts hit by educator sex crimes." Nine Middlesex County teachers or coaches have been charged with or sentenced for educator sexual misconduct within the last year.

REPORTED: "None of the Middlesex County educators charged within the last year are currently teaching; all who were sentenced have surrendered their teaching certificates. "

REPORTED: "At least 56 educators (teachers, substitutes and coaches) statewide were charged with or sentenced for educator sexual misconduct, or had their certificates suspended or revoked for such allegations, in the past two years. The figure is based upon a Home News Tribune review of media reports and New Jersey Department of Education records."

REPORTED: "During the 2006-07 academic year, the New Jersey Department of Education's Board of Examiners revoked 60 teaching certificates and suspended 10 more for conduct unbecoming. The previous academic year, 46 certificates were revoked and 15 were suspended."

REPORTED: "In instances in which a teacher voluntarily surrenders his or her certificate without yet being criminally convicted of sexual contact with a minor, the forfeiture is accepted in a form letter with the full effect of a revocation but without details, because the Board of Examiners is not permitted legally to discuss the allegation; it can only confirm the surrender."

Many cases are off the record because of negotiated settlements. ***

REPORTED: "A review of Board of Examiners decisions from September 2005 through June 2007 found that at least 34 teachers in the Garden State had their certificates revoked or suspended for alleged educator sexual misconduct. The crime accounted for at least 25.9 percent of all revocations and suspensions during that period."

The nine Middlesex County, NJ teachers listed in the article are:
Shawn Feeney, 31 - Sentenced to 4 years.
Karen Binder, 42 - case ongoing
Anthony Spinato, 25 - Sentenced to 7 years
Amy Burke, 32 - Sentenced to 4 years** (Info from this site)
Jim Kazanjian, 51 - to be sentenced August 23
Bruce Nealous, 46 - No charges filed yet
Kevin Burns, 24 - to be sentenced October 26
Michael Petak, 31 - Sentenced to probation for witness tampering
Claude Thouret, 26 - Unknown to us
(Links are to TT entries)

*** TT - Next, we hope they will examine those negotiated settlements that keep criminal charges out of the public record.

A negotiated settlement that allows the teacher or administrator to quietly surrender their license without public knowledge of the reasons may well be motivated more by the need to avoid public admission of liability than any contractual necessity. They certainly need to be examined by an outsider.

Spokane, WASHINGTON

Apr 2, 2007 - The Spokesman-Review has a month-long special report called "Our Kids: Our Business." described as, "An area-wide effort to protect and nurture our community's children."

The project is aimed at child abuse and neglect, but it shows what the media can do if they want to get involved. And actually DO something. Among the Stories segment is one on teacher sex offenses and reporting.

Today, "Our view: Kids deserve better: " Fast notice needed on teacher sex offense reports"

San Bernardino, CALIFORNIA

Compiled by the San Bernardino Sun , one of the few newspapers that follow up on cases. An education blog would help keep all the stories together where readers could find them.

Area teachers either charged with or convicted of sexual misconduct with students

Eric Norman Olsen, 29 - Substitute teacher from Ontario who taught in at least 17 school districts. He pleaded no contest in February to charges that he improperly touched six female students. He faces a sentence between probation and five years in prison. Olsen told police he enjoyed female students sitting on his lap. Detectives initially said the Ontario man may have molested more than 100 students.

Rogelio Alvino Cardenas, 60 - Sheriff's deputies believe Cardenas, a 17-year teacher at Del Rey Elementary School in Victorville, may have molested at least 15 female students. He faces charges based on the reports of two students. Cardenas was arrested in January and has pleaded not guilty.

Sean Ramiro Lopez, 32 - Lopez used a fabricated science experiment as a ruse to molest three boys and was sentenced in January 2006 to more than 74 years in prison. Lopez was convicted of inviting the Clement Middle School students to take part in a scientific program to help them increase muscle mass and the size of their genitals. Beginning in 2000, the students met Lopez in what they believed was a laboratory, where they would undress, allow Lopez to measure them, watch pornographic movies and masturbate.

Joan Hadden, 33 - A former teacher at Cajon High School in San Bernardino, Hadden was arrested in Las Vegas in May 2002 after she was found in the company of a 15-year-old student with whom she was having a sexual relationship. Hadden was sentenced to two years in state prison on June 20, 2003, on nine counts of various charges, including lewd and lascivious acts with a child and unlawful intercourse with a minor.

Michael Carrol Logan, 35 - Palmdale resident was arrested March 27, 2002, on suspicion of having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old female student at Granite Hills High School in Apple Valley. Logan, a firefighter and paramedic with the Apple Valley Fire Protection District, taught a fire service class at the school, according to sheriff's officials. Logan was sentenced to three years in state prison March 9, 2005, on charges of oral copulation with a person under 18 years old and unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

- Compiled by Mike Cruz

SOUTH CAROLINA

Mar 26, 2007
Star-News (SC) examines why teacher molestation charges are hard to prosecute.

"The biggest difficulty you have in prosecuting any sexual assault case, especially with children, is that they do not tell right away, and by the time they disclose there is no physical evidence," said Debbie Lash, assistant prosecutor for the 9th Circuit, which includes Berkeley and Charleston counties.

Stephen Braveman studies child abuse. He estimates that just half all incidents of sexual abuse are reported. Among male victims, he said, the reporting rate is likely about 10 percent.

In the seven active South Carolina cases, seven of the 12 alleged victims are boys ranging in age from 11 to 15.

TT- the case they highlighted is a 46-year-old female 2nd grade teacher , Kimberly Moody Alexander, who was charged with performing a lewd act on a child. A Columbia police officer found the former Bradley Elementary School teacher and a 14-year-old boy lying down in the front seat of her car. The two were fully clothed and were kissing, the boy simulating sex. The jury deadlocked at her trial and prosecutors plan to try her again.
Alexander is married with two children.

The Post and Courier on "Awareness of female offenders increasing" reports experts caution that sexual misconduct by women has long been under-reported in our society, which has had trouble accepting the notion of women as molesters. They list South Carolina cases.

A state representative is pushing legislation that would institute a 25-year minimum sentence for sex crimes committed by school personnel.

NEW YORK

Feb 26, 2007 - A report on the moral character of teachers isn't encouraging.

Last year, 134 cases were brought to a subcommittee that decides if teachers in trouble get to keep their certification.

That's 28 more than the year before, and almost twice as many as five years ago.

Those cases run the gamut, both criminal and non-criminal, but the bulk have to do with arson, child pornography, drugs, endangering, and larceny.

[TT - no link to the report.]

West Virginia

Drugs are the second biggest reason why teachers are fired. Random testing is being proposed, however, teachers unions are actively working to prevent reform in public schools.

Feb 15, 2007 - West Virginia teachers union representatives are opposed to drug screening proposed by one county that would subject current employees and new hires to random testing.

The unions are opposed, they say, because it doesn't include all administrators, including board members and upper-level administrators.

According to the proposed guidelines, safety sensitive positions include principals, assistant principals, guidance counselors, teachers, mechanics, carpenters, cooks, custodians, electricians, locksmiths and machinists, among others. The board began looking at such a policy after a Pratt Elementary School Principal was arrested and charged with cocaine possession. UPDATE Feb 20: The principal was found NOT GUILTY and reinstated to his job.

TT- we were floored when a teacher in Hawaii was arrested for drug dealing and distribution when a teacher union representative stated that he shouldn't be fired because he was a good teacher. This is how unions prevent reform.

Our records show 41 teachers or administrators arrested for drugs, either possession or distribution. That's an average of 10 a month. In Lewiston, NY, a teacher advised students when drug raids were planned. An Oregon teacher traded a fifth of whiskey for a student's ritalin. A Muskogee, Oklahoma teacher who looks like someone's mother stole student prescriptions. In South Carolina, a teacher maintained a meth lab in his basement. The police found out when a girlfriend set fire to the house.

Drug dealing teachers in Michigan, Oregon, Texas, Maryland, Alabama (the 3rd teacher arrested on drug charges) and Ohio (second one arrested on drug charges.) In Geneva, Ohio, the teacher's boyfriend was a drug dealer. A South Carolina teacher shared her cocaine with a student. A third-grade special education teacher was arrested for drugs when police when to her home to find her boyfriend who had gunned down two people. They found three handguns in her home and a pot growing industry.

Nashville, Tennesee - a substitute teacher was arrested for possession of drugs and a firearm. He has a history of similar arrests. A Washington, DC. teacher was an active member of a drug trafficking operation. Another teacher in Fernley, Nevada, sold drugs along with her husband.

A Galveston teacher was arrested in her schoolroom, charged with holding drug proceeds for others and intent to sell. Also arrested at school was a Missouri teacher who smelled of marijuana because she smoked pot in the school parking lot. Two teachers in Hawaii still claim it wasn't pot they smoked before school. A Valencia, New Mexico teacher was arrested at school when they found several bags of meth in her purse. In Wisconsin, a teacher stole credit card information from other teachers to help her buy prescription painkillers over the internet.

In one school, drug dogs were employed to search lockers. The only drugs found were in a substitute teacher's truck.

Drugs are a problem in society in general. But they are even worse in the classroom, not only for the message they send but for the safety of students. Schools talk about zero tolerance for students, but teachers are routinely placed on administrative leave after their arrest, usually with pay as the teachers unions make this part of their contract. No instant retribution. No zero tolerance. Just bureaucratic inertia.

It is our position that teachers, like policemen, should be randomly tested for drugs. Police, too, are subject to random lie detector tests. Considering the number of teacher-student sex cases, that wouldn't be bad either.

NEW YORK

Feb 15, 2007 - WSYR, Syracuse, New York reports that records show tremendous growth in teacher sex cases.

An internal state Education Department report obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Law shows "tremendous growth" in so-called moral conduct cases against teachers over five years.

The study found the number of accusations against teachers doubled in five years, to nearly one case for every day and a half of the school year. Almost three in four of the "moral conduct" cases involved sex between a teacher and student.

The study was dated 2005 and includes some disturbing facts.

The study found:
-401 cases were brought to the state Education Department's Professional Standards and Practices Board from 2000 to 2004. They included inappropriate relationships, sex crimes, child pornography and lewd behavior.
-71 percent of the cases sent to the state's professional practices committee involved sex.
The next largest category was drug and alcohol cases, which accounted for 10 percent.
-245 cases ended with a teaching certificate either revoked, suspended, surrendered or denied.
-101 of the cases were in 2004, more than double the 48 cases in 2000

The relationships and other sex cases often continued for months or years before action was taken.

The internal 2005 report was the first state study of its kind. Three months earlier, an Associated Press report based on hundreds of individual case records revealed most public school teachers and administrators who had their licenses revoked or suspended were accused in sex cases involving students. In many of those cases, relationships continued for months or years and administrators allowed offenders to resign quietly even if they could later teach elsewhere. [Emphasis mine.]

Stopping Predators in the Classroom

Educators and parents must play a strong role to safeguard kids - that's what Florida Today thinks is the solution to predators in the classroom in this editorial.

They were responding to the 70-year sentence given to Daniel Cliatt, a Florida teacher who molested a boy in his classroom. Starting when the boy was 12. Their advice is:

That's why the first line of defense remains parents who talk frankly about abuse with children, so they'll be less likely to let shame or embarrassment silence their concerns.

So start talking early and do it often.

TT - Our Teacher Trash view is that it's also a good idea to caution your child not to beware of strangers so much as to beware of those who are familiar to them who act strangely.

The overly-familiar teacher, the overly-affectionate family visitor or relative, the authority figures who go too far. The coach or Mom's boyfriend who seeks to be closer to the child's family to groom the child. The classroom has traditionally been the place where children can seek higher ideals. They should not be exposed to perversion and sexualization. Whether they are eight or seventeen, the parents trust the school to monitor the actions of their teachers.

Parents of one teacher who was convicted of crimes against a student e-mailed us with their suggestion that all classrooms be equipped with cameras. This would provide defense for the teacher. It would also provide a concrete means of monitoring classroom performance and behavior.

Both of the child and the teacher.

Both for administration and for parents who request an opportunity to monitor the classroom themselves.

Female teachers

From an article in Deseret Morning News on female teachers and male students.

Julie Bradshaw, director of Primary Children's Medical Center's Center for Safe and Healthy Families:

"These romanticized notions of being broken into the sexual world by the kind and caring older woman are just wrong because it doesn't work that way," Bradshaw said. "Most of these women have severe psychological problems, or they wouldn't be attracted to young boys."

A state investigator for complaints about teachers who acts as a prosecutor for the Utah State Office of Education said that in 2000-2006, the state investigated 45 male educators and 15 females for sexual activity with students. With more than 20,000 teachers certified in Utah, these are relatively small numbers, according to the state education investigator.

TT- actually the numbers any state education departments investigate and prosecutes is minuscule compared to the number of teachers who are investigated by local police, arrested, prosecuted at a local level, and resign or are fired immediately.

A more meaningful figure would be the number of teachers who have had their credentials or licenses revoked because of it. That isn't a figure that is available to the public. Or in the article.