No second chance

They don't deserve a second chance "when those mistakes create some doubt about their ability to serve as examples for impressionable students."

June 28, 2008 - Editorial from the Reading Eagle Press, (Reading, PA) "School officials held to a higher standard.

Teachers and school administrators are among those in the community who must be held to a higher standard. Others include elected and appointed public officials, police and, yes, newspaper reporters and editors.

These people hold positions of influence, and when they run afoul of the law, they forfeit the high moral ground on which they must stand if they are going to retain their jobs.
. . .
There is no doubt about it, a double standard exists. But those who enter the teaching field, as well as those who are in other fields with a high public profile, should have understood the restraints that would be placed on them when they selected their careers.

As a result they cannot expect to be given a second chance when they make mistakes, especially when those mistakes create some doubt about their ability to serve as examples for impressionable students.

Editorial prompted by:

Judith Sargent, 57, principal of Valley Middle School, was dismissed after being placed on six months of special probation for stealing $25 worth of merchandise from a grocery store.
The superintendent "had no choice but to recommend her dismissal. To not do so would have sent a message to the students that stealing can be overlooked."

Susan Siegel, 53, substitute teacher at Gov. Mifflin High School, was dismissed after being arrested after enlisting a student to arrange the deal in exchange for a bottle of vodka. Caught by an undercover detective after the student told school authorities. Entry

Hastings, MINNESOTA

"Teachers and coaches can hold significant influence over their students and athletes. When they use that influence to prey on high school students, it should be a crime." - editorial

June 26, 2008 - Editorial from the Hastings Star-Gazette, "Brookins case should lead to new state law" that would make it a crime for a person of authority to have a relationship with a student.

The case they cited is of Charles Brookins,( Entry) the former St. Elizabeth Ann Seton school teacher and athletics director, and former Hastings High School coach, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from two incidents in which he supplied alcohol to minors. He also made news last year for having an alleged sexual relationship with a student at HHS.

It is not a crime in South Dakota for a teacher to have sex with a student. Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom is still working to get a law passed that would make it a crime for a person of authority to have a relationship with a student. The law was heard at the last legislative session, but was cut from another bill. Read the whole thing.

Zero tolerance

EDITORIAL and our own two cents.

April 4, 2008 - "Zero tolerance for teachers" is the title of an editorial by the Daily Vidette Editorial Board.

The editorial is in reaction to the testimony at the sentencing of Jon White, the Urbana, Illinois, second-grade teacher convicted of unspeakable, filthy "games" with elementary school children. Unbelievably, the assistant school superintendent at another school testified that White had been suspended "briefly" for pornographic material found on his school computer. White had used a credit card at the school to purchase access to the sites.

Zero tolerance rules are a curious thing. Stories of first and second graders accidentally carrying nail clippers or plastic water pistols being suspended from school are not uncommon.

So why is it that an adult, trusted with being around and interacting with first and second graders, is given the benefit of the doubt when he knowingly and purposely visits pornographic sites?

It would seem this situation is the perfect example of where a zero tolerance policy is necessary. If a teacher shows an inability to resist sexual desire when he or she is in the classroom, this is grounds for removal.

It is impossible for White to receive a fair punishment for his blatant and inhuman disregard for both the trust society placed in him, and for the children who looked to him as an educator.And to think it could have been avoided.

TT - READ the whole thing. It's very thoughtful.

TT - entry for White
White pleaded guilty to charges in Urbana, Illinois. He faces charges in Normal, Illinois, the same district where he was suspended for pornography on his computer. There were plenty of warning signs, all ignored and not shared by the schools. White taught first grade at Colene Hoose Elementary in Normal from 2003 to 2005. During his suspension in November 2004, the district investigated two separate incidents of inappropriate behavior. White was allowed to continue teaching the rest of the school year, and then he was forced to resign.

Think about it: a teacher viewing pornography on his school computer, investigated for TWO separate incidents of inappropriate behavior and then allowed to resign and teach in another school district where eight more children were molested. Eight children who could have been spared the "tasting game" where they were blindfolded.

Lawsuits won't punish school officials who are responsible for this travesty. They should be fired outright for their neglect. Both the officials who saw viewing pornography in a classroom full of small children as a minor transgression and then failed to tell school administrators in another town about that problem and their investigation and suspicions, and the school authorities in Urbana who left White in the classroom even after being informed about the "games "-- all of them should be fired and their licenses revoked.

If a mother hadn't persisted and spoken to the wife of a police officer about the "tasting game," White still might be in a classroom somewhere. The mother had complained to school authorities in November. It took that conversation with the police officer's wife in February to end it all. White was arrested less than 48 hours later.

When will they arrest those school "authorities?"

SENTENCED April 4 - White was sentenced to 48 years in prison.

Letter of recommendation (PDF) from the school where White was suspended for a week for viewing pornography (and later admitted to masturbating) at the school. This school also investigated him for TWO separate incidents before forcing him to resign. And that was only because a parent threatened to go to the police with her complaints.

One teacher from the school wrote a letter on White's behalf for the sentencing hearing.

Tampa, FLORIDA

NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL

March 29, 2008 - From the Tampa Tribune: "Public Fed Up With Teacher Sex Cases"

Sometime during the overexposure of Debra Lafave - the Barbie-like teacher turned sexual predator - people started to think differently about female teachers having sex with students.

And that, we would argue, helps explain the number of female teachers being arrested for sexual misconduct - a string of trysts that has kept Tampa in the national headlines.

At Freedom High, a fellow instructor turned in English teacher Mary Jo Spack and at Martinez Middle School, a colleague who heard rumors of an affair involving math teacher Stephanie Ragusa blew the whistle. In Pasco County, the father of the boy who was allegedly having an affair with Mitchell High School substitute teacher Lisa Marinelli alerted authorities after spotting his son getting out of the teacher's car.

Male teachers are being held accountable too. At Newsome High School, a student reported soccer coach Ronnie Lewis for having sex with a female student.

Don't be surprised if more cases arise. It's not something in the water and it's not teachers have suddenly gone wild.

It's that the rest of us are finally recognizing these relationships for the crimes they are.

TT - Teachers aren't being arrested because the public is suddenly aware. They are being arrested because they sexually exploit students and they've gotten what? Probation.

The final sentence in that editorial is a little disturbing but not unexpected. Not when newspapers report sexual abuse as "an affair" or a "romantic relationship" and the clandestine meetings to avoid detection as "trysts" and when a newspaper actually editorialized against a sentence for a teacher because it was a "complicated affair."

Our first annual IDIOTIC HEADLINE WRITERS AWARDS

Child Protection Bill

March 6, 2008 - The News-Tribune (Tacoma, Washington) urges the Senate to pass a child protection bill.

Strange as it sounds, teachers can be convicted of kidnapping without automatically losing their certificate to teach in Washington’s public schools.

They can be convicted of murder, rape, assault with intent to kill and many other heinous felonies without getting the bum’s rush from the educational system.

As the law stands, only a small number of crimes against children automatically trigger a teacher’s expulsion from the classroom. House Bill 3103, sponsored by Tacoma state Rep. Jeannie Darneille, would change that.

The bill is partly prompted by the case of a Tacoma middle school principal, Harold Wright Jr., who pocketed – while suspended – more than $90,000 in pay while being investigated and prosecuted on a rape charge. He had the audacity to collect his paycheck for three weeks after he was convicted last year.

He got away with his long paid vacation because the victim was 19 – an adult.

Darneille’s bill wouldn’t, unfortunately, provide a way to recover any of the money paid to felons while suspended prior to trial. But it would at least stop payments to a newly convicted felon.

Another reason for the bill is Jennifer Rice. Now in the Pierce County Jail, the former McKinley Elementary fourth-grade teacher is accused of 13 crimes – including rape – against two youths.
After the accusations against Rice emerged, Tacoma school officials learned that she had earlier been getting too close to students in the Bethel School District – and that administrators there had let her resign instead of firing her.

Interim Tacoma Superintendent Art Jarvis tried last fall to file a complaint against a Bethel administrator who’d strongly recommended Rice to the Tacoma district – days after he’d signed an evaluation slamming her inappropriate behavior with students.

Jarvis got nowhere, because he had no standing under the law to complain of an employee in another district. HB 3103 would empower superintendents to file complaints against educators elsewhere – a deterrent to districts tempted to deal with problem teachers by letting them quietly leave to find positions elsewhere.

As the Rice and Wright cases illustrate, these changes are needed. There’s been no serious opposition to HB 3103, which has cleared the House and awaits final approval in the Senate. But a “small” bill like this can always fall between the cracks in the final rush of a legislative session. Senate leaders should make sure that doesn’t happen.

Virginia

EDITORIAL "Because our schools are no place for people who have demonstrated that they have a taste for abusing or molesting children."

March 3, 2008 " Protecting children has to be the business of every school. That's the way to prevent tragedies like the one that happened in central Virginia when a teacher who was accused of sexually abusing three girls in Bedford County was later hired by adjacent Nelson County, where he molested more children. The schools didn't communicate, and the state didn't know to yank his license." Read the whole thing.

Savannah, GEORGIA

NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL

March 2, 2008 - The Savannah Morning News in an online editorial is convinced that "Any teacher who is resisting change or doesn' t want to make the effort to boost school performance is part of the larger problem." They conclude:

But it also means any teacher who is resisting change or doesn't want to make the effort to boost school performances is part of the larger problem. The superintendent has given his principals the needed latitude to build teaching staffs at their individual schools. In this environment, there's no room for under-performers. It's a principal's job to straighten out those who go through the motions.

Many fine, dedicated teachers work in public schools. It's not an easy job. But this isn't the time to make anonymous threats that interfere with progress and needed change. Those who work in public education must be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

TT - Making a difference one story at a time.

Disadvantaged

NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL

Feb 11, 2008 - The Dallas Morning News on finding better teachers, "Students Deserve Better: Disadvantaged children need the best teachers." They point to a lack of qualifications and experience and a salary gap in the poorest, citing a study by The Education Trust.

Lack of Experience

Even within Dallas schools, which say they are aggressively tackling this disparity, about 14 percent of teachers in the highest-poverty schools have fewer than three years of experience, compared with 9 percent of teachers in the lowest-poverty schools.

Uncertified Teachers

About 32 percent of teachers assigned to high-poverty middle schools in Texas aren't fully certified in the subjects they teach. That compares with 19 percent in schools with the fewest low-income students. At the high school level, the gap widens. About 37 percent of teachers in high-poverty schools lack subject certification, compared with 16.1 percent in the most affluent high schools.

----------------------------
TT - They don't link to the study or the press release from the Education Trust. The newspaper ignores one of the major findings of the study. Dallas and Austin have already acknowledged the problem and are working on it. Other districts like Galena Park, Leander, Mesquite, San Antonio and Ysleta are all districts that serve minority populations and are exceptions. They all have fewer novice teachers. San Antonio actually pays more to teachers in minority schools and Leandro pays teachers more on average than paid in the most affluent schools in the district.

You would think, wouldn't you, that the newspaper would question why wouldn't teachers who have greater experience be paid more than novice teachers? And why wouldn't teachers who are certified in their subjects be paid more than uncertified teachers? The basic assumption that paying a teacher more money will result in better grades when those teachers will still be unqualified and inexperienced is, to put it mildly, ridiculous. Luring a warm body for the classroom to such districts is difficult. Luring qualified teachers may be impossible no matter what you pay them.

Teachers choose to work in districts for many reasons, including the living conditions in the community, job opportunities for spouses, educational opportunities for their children, crime rates and the housing market. Those are quality-of-life factors. Not because they're racists who don't want to work with minority populations which could be another logical assumption you could come to if you wanted, using the same data. Or that teachers were lazy because it is harder work to motivate a child whose parents don't care enough to support education or even teach children English at home. Then, too, the lack of discipline at home in the poorest districts often translates to problems in the classroom that no rational person would willingly accept.

There are lots of reasons why low-income schools hire teachers who aren't certified in their subject. No one else wants to work there.

And until such time that school districts demand standards of conduct in the low-income schools be the same as those found in other schools that don't have discipline problems, the schools will remain Blackboard Jungles. From choice, not demographics.

Out of the dark

EDITORIAL

Nov 20, 2007 - From The Argus: Time to drag school sex abuse out of dark

IT'S TIME to drag sexual misconduct in schools out of the locker rooms, hallways and dark shadows and into the public spotlight.

A recent Associated Press investigation found that 2,570 educators were stripped of, surrendered or denied teaching credentials or positions for sexual misconduct involving public school students between 2001 and 2005. But that just scratches the surface. A total of 313 cases were confirmed in California, but many more are hidden from public view.

Few adult sexual abusers in schools are caught. Most cases aren't reported and there's no consistent reporting or monitoring system. Many school officials are reluctant to go public with such cases. As a result many are swept under the rug, allowing violators to move on to other school districts and repeat their offenses with new girls and boys.

Their suggestions are,

• Confidentiality agreements that hide perpetrators should not be allowed.
• More thorough background checks for credentials, licenses and hiring are needed.
• A national registry for school sexual offenders and hot lines on which such violations can be reported.
• Reporting such incidents should be mandatory

TT - We've long complained about confidentiality agreements and the "stipulated agreements" that hide wrongdoing.

Background checks would only weed out new teachers with prior arrests and convictions. A few states conduct background checks every few years. That too, doesn't predict which teachers will engage in sex with their students. Most teachers who are arrested and convicted have worked for the school districts for years. Background checks in every state make use of state databases and also FBI checks.

Checking prior credentials and licensing and hiring would involve cooperation between districts and states. It isn't happening now. There is no legal requirement for full disclosure. In many investigations, such as the one called "Broken Trust" by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida, they found that, after reviewing 14,000 records, a major problem was that school districts were not even reporting abusive teachers to other districts, let alone the state.

Reporting has been mandatory since the late 1990s in California. Every state has a mandatory reporting requirement. The penalty for non reporting is usually a slap on the wrist.

We have only found two cases where failing to report was prosecuted. We are curious how a teacher can have a two-year sexual relationship with a student that half the student body is aware of, but no teachers report the same awareness, let alone contact school authorities with their suspicions.

"When teachers are abusers"

EDITORIAL Nov 13, 2007 - From USA Today

After Kelsey Peterson, a 25-year-old Nebraska middle school teacher, fled to Mexico recently with a 13-year-old former student, she was publicly fired by her school board.

That seems an easy call, yet hundreds of other teachers who are caught having sexual contact with students end up getting away with it, usually when the case appears difficult to prove, expensive to prosecute or embarrassing to the school district. The offending teachers slip away and teach elsewhere, often protected by confidentiality agreements.

...
Some states are moving to make it harder for school districts to hide such crimes. In Maine, where state officials refused to release teacher disciplinary actions to the AP reporters, the governor has vowed to change confidentiality laws. In Missouri, legislators are considering a bill that would ban confidentiality agreements in sexual abuse cases. And in Florida, legislators are debating a registry of teacher offenders.

The changes are helpful, but only if accompanied by a public awareness campaign. Students need to know that challenging popular teachers who abuse their positions of authority is the right thing to do (but that false accusations will be dealt with harshly). Superintendents need to understand that passing an abuser to another district is just as unacceptable as the Catholic Church shifting pedophile priests from parish to parish.

Nearly all of the USA's 3 million public school teachers are beyond reproach. Identifying and drumming out the relatively few offenders might be cause for embarrassment, but it's vital to the safety of the nation's schoolchildren.

TT - Those confidentiality agreements are the result of education authorities protecting themselves and teachers at the expense of students and their families.

Sex with little boys

There were hundreds of stories about a Nebraska teacher who eluded police while on the run with a 13-year-old boy. What's tragic is the age of the victim is getting to be younger and younger.

Anne Knopf, 39, a Wisconsin teacher, is accused of a sexual relationship with her daughter's former boyfrield. He is 13. Update: Sentenced to nine months in jail - not prison - and five years of probation. Registration as a sex offender for life.

Jennifer Leigh Rice, 37, a Washington teacher, like Peterson, ran away with a male student. She is accused of having sex with him on the trip. He is 10-years-old. Trial delayed until Octoer 2008.

Virginia Teacher of the Year Karen Patton, 42, was sentenced to four years for sex with a male students. The two boys were 13.

Lois Enden, 55, a school aide in New York was sentenced to six months in jail - not prison - for sex with an 11-year-old boy when she was 47 or 48. Registration as a sex offender.

Buttonwillow, California teacher Sherry Brians, 41, was sentenced to three years probation and counseling for a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old boy.

Another Calfiornia teacher, this one from Paso Robles, Cora Solario, 24, was sentenced to 270 days in jail - not prison - and lifetime registration as a sex offender. The boy was 13-years-old.

Fifth-grade teacher Rebecca Withrow, 30, was sentenced to 120 days in jail - not prison - suspended for sex with an 11-year-old boy. She's a registered sex offender.

In South Carolina, Wendie Schweikert, 37, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sex with an 11-year-old boy.

Allena Ward, 23, has yet to be sentenced. She pleaded guilty to sex with five boys. Three 14-year-olds and one 15-year-old. Again, South Carolina. Update: Sentenced to six years in prison.

In New York, Lina Sinha, 40, was convicted of having sex with a 13-year-old. The jury deadlocked on the charges of sex with the 12-year-old-boy. She was sentenced to 14 years.

Released from prison after serving nearly twelve years for sex with a 12-year-old boy, Nancy Marks, now 63, was was labeled a sexual predator by a judge. She was on NBC. The episode was "Love was her defense."

Longtime subsitute Kathleen Bowler, 29, was given suspended sentences for cybersex with a 13-year-old girl and 13-year-old boy. She's now a sex offender and is on probation for life.

New Jersey teacher Amy Burke, 32, was sentenced to four years in prison for sex with a 13-year-old boy who is in counseling, angry at his parents and the prosecutor for pressing the case.

A judge turned down a plea that would have meant only 6 months in jail - not prison - for Melanie Hackett who had sex with a 13-year-old student. The judge sentenced her to 1-10 years in prison.

In Delaware, Rachel Holt, 35, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The boy was 13-years-old.

If a single one of these women were men, the term "pedophile" would immediately spring to mind.

Newspaper Editorial

Nov 1, 2007 - From TC Palm (Scripps newspapers) in Florida, "Editorial: Sex education should never be like this"

Google the words “teacher sex” and brace yourself for 14.6 million hits. Clearly, there’s a problem out there.

Hardly a week goes by without some tawdry tale of sexual escapades in classrooms, school offices or storage closets (e.g., South Fork High School history teacher and 16-year-old coed).
And as long as this country maintains its current system of reporting — or, in too many cases, non-reporting — a few sick school employees will continue preying on children.

As revealed recently by the Associated Press, 2,750 educators had their teaching credentials revoked, denied, surrendered or sanctioned following allegations of sexual misconduct over the past five years. Surely, this is a low-ball figure.

Studies estimate that only one in 10 victimized children actually reports sexual abuse, and Byzantine state laws and protective union contracts shield untold numbers of offenders from public scrutiny.

They make a number of suggestions including one that investigations not be handled internally, and

While some reformers say the situation cries out for a national database, the less bureaucratic and more common-sense answer is to simply break down the provincial walls that keep school systems from sharing appropriate background information.

TT - That last would work if districts were shielding information out of concern for the teacher, rather than protecting school and district administrators whose negligence in handling cases is often the basis of expensive lawsuits.

The negligence frequently includes failure to act on prior complaints or on a teacher history that should have alerted them sooner. Or an early awareness of the teacher's prior problems that meant a bad hiring decision and potential liability for leaving them in the classroom. Then, too, internal investigations document the unwillingness of other teachers to report the sexual conduct of another teacher. When another teacher does report their suspicions, their report is verbal and easily ignored but can't be buried in a lawsuit.

Other reasons remain hidden behind the non-disclosure agreements in settlements with parents.

It's a safe bet that school and district administrators have as much to worry about in those records as does the teacher. Probably more.

Editorial - "Schools need to address abuse"

EDITORIAL


Oct 9, 2007 - The Knoxville News Sentinel weighs in on teacher abuse with an editorial, "Schools need to address abuse."

It is time - past time, in fact - for the area school systems to give this issue their undivided attention. A reading of the riot act to teachers, administrators and staff regarding sexual abuse of minors would seem in order: Zero tolerance. Zero sympathy.

Whether they like it or not, teachers are authority figures and role models. Yes, most teachers are dedicated and conduct themselves accordingly, and they should deplore this stain on their profession as much as anyone else.

As for students, schools could provide orientation programs alerting them how to identify potential dangers.

Invite parents. Meet in small groups as well as large gatherings. Acknowledging the problem is a positive step toward resolving it. Institute an open-door policy for students to report transgressions, with strict penalties for lying.

Schools - along with churches - should be among the safest places outside the home for children from kindergarten through high school. When they are not, the community suffers and must share the pain of the abuse that has occurred.

Mansfield, OHIO

EDITORIAL "Probation makes no sense for teacher" (Sept 6, 2007)

From the Mansfield News-Journal on the sentencing of Dustin Powers.

Powers had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl and could have received five years in prison. He should be going to jail.

A 36-year-old school teacher guilty of sexual battery against a 14-year-old student deserves time in prison.

The fact that Dustin Powers is a free man today, thanks to a decision Wednesday by Richland County Common Pleas Court Judge James Henson, does not make sense.

It's another in a growing string of decisions by the veteran judge that defy reasonable explanation.

Powers was a gym teacher at the former John Simpson Middle School in Mansfield and had worked in the district since 1997, one year after graduating from Ashland University. He has since resigned and surrendered his teaching credentials.

Married with two children, Powers began the relationship with one of his female students in 2005. "It didn't begin as a sexual relationship. It initially involved him kissing her," Richland County Assistant Prosecutor Bambi Couch-Page said during a June hearing.

Undaunted by the serious nature of the crime, and the pleas from the victim's mother, Henson sentenced Powers to four years in prison, which he promptly suspended. He placed Powers on probation for five years, declared him a sexually oriented offender and ordered sex offender treatment.

No prison time. Not even a day.

Did Powers use his position of authority as a teacher to influence a teenage girl into a relationship for which she was not prepared? Or was he simply unable to maintain a professional distance from a young woman for whom he was responsible?

Either way, it's clear he committed the crime of sexual battery against this victim, who reportedly still blames her mother for blowing the whistle on the relationship.

We can only hope that in time this young woman heals and comes to realize who the true offending party in this relationship was -- Powers.

Even if the judge didn't see fit to send him off to prison for the crime.

TT - See Our entry for Powers.

Ft. Myers, FLORIDA

Don't they even read their own newspaper?

August 21, 2007 - Editorial from The News-Press (Fort Myers, FL) "Teachers need full liability coverage Sub: The Legislature should not have ended the state educators liability program without a replacement"

Schoolteacher misconduct with students is very rare, but good teachers live every day with the threat of specious charges, complaints and lawsuits.Teachers and administrators need comprehensive liability insurance, and the state should make it available if necessary.

That's a fair part of the deal with the people to whom we entrust our children's education and safety.

The Legislature is under heavy pressure to cut spending, but lawmakers were wrong to eliminate the state Educators Professional Liability Insurance Program, which protects teachers if they lose a lawsuit or have to pay a large settlement.

At the same time, they note that state law limits the liability of public employees and otherwise restricts claims, and teachers and administrators have liability insurance options through their union or the Professional Educators Network of Florida. The school district also carries insurance.

Their contempt seems to be reserved mostly for the victims.

MALICIOUS COMPLAINTS
We live in a litigious society, with too many antagonistic parents and too many disrespectful children capable of malicious lies or overreactions.

Martha Simmons, a kindergarten tutor at Ray V. Pottorf Elementary, said, "There are too many people who don't respect the teacher, and children tend to make up stories when they get angry."

Maybe the Educators Professional Liability Insurance Program needed fixing, but teachers deserve full protection.

The program should not have been abandoned without first making sure comprehensive coverage was readily available to teachers and administrators. Urge lawmakers to repair or replace this program to ensure teachers aren't left exposed.

TT - What they really want is coverage paid for taxpayers. However, teachers can pay as little as $150 a year for $2 million liability coverage, according to another article in the same paper, on the same date on the cancellation of the state-funded insurance program.

The state paid $4,382,538 for premiums that only paid out $50,375 in claims. (See the chart.) This was due primarily to laws protecting state employees and laws that limit claims.

As for their claim that the complaints against teachers are malicious, they have not undertaken, nor can they cite, any study of criminal complaints against teachers that concludes that most, many, or a large percentage of complaints are false charges. In tracking cases in Florida, we find no evidence of it either. If the sloppy editorial writers at the paper had evidence of a widespread pattern of false charges, they would be better off publishing a series that documents cases to support their claims. They can't. If such a study existed, the NEA would flog it to every paper in the country.

It's just easier to take the union position.

Counterfeit Teachers

Apr 9, 2007 - From The Chaffey Breeze, "The Independent Student Newspaper of Chaffey College,"(published by journalism students) comes this editorial, "Blackboard Predators" that starts out with,

Sean Powell's 18-year-old body is feeding the maggots because a Florida teacher's attention was on his crotch rather than his cranium. From pre-school to college, classrooms have become lairs where emotionally warped predators lay in wait for susceptible students — like animals hunting for prey.

They were referring to Sean Powell, the 18-year-old student who was shot by the husband of a teacher was having regular sex with the boy.

Teachers who molest students are worse than animals. Animals generally kill for survival. Sexual perverts like McLean molest students for the sheer sake of self-indulgence and then hide behind laws and union contracts for protection.

The article sums up the solution: "The shot that killed Sean Powell is a call-to-arms to parents that the locks — the tenure laws — that regulate the candy store need to be changed."

Fire them

The Baltimore Examiner pulls no punches in condemning school staffers who abet predators. The newspaper wants them fired.

Justice finally caught Timothy Gounaris, the former Baltimore County Public School teacher who entered an Alford plea earlier this week to committing a sexual offense on a student at Pine Grove Middle School.

But so far it has evaded the school administrators in Harford and Baltimore Counties who facilitated his transfers and who hired him in Baltimore City without checking him thoroughly.

Officials let other school districts hire Gouranis despite a tainted record, including a forced resignation from Harford County Public Schools in 2000 following sexual misconduct allegations and a resignation over similar charges in Baltimore County this summer that led to his plea this week. The Baltimore City Public School System hired him for the 2006-2007 school year.

Those officials may not have committed the unspeakable act of physically violating their students. But they surely abandoned students to a man with a track record of doing so. Is that what taxpayers pay school leaders to do? Is that the security parents expect when they send children to school?

Despite pleas to the contrary, human resource departments had nothing to fear legally from sharing all information about Gounaris — or any other teacher leaving under an ethical cloud.
Legal experts and the Maryland Association of Boards of Education have called the school systems’ liability concerns unfounded.

But the bigger issue is the sheer cowardice of those connected to Gounaris’ case. Even if officials’ unfounded fear of a lawsuit were real, should they sacrifice the children in their care to a predator merely to avoid potential litigation? Of course not. And their insurance carriers say doing so actually increases the risk of suits and attacks on children.

Jesus said it would be better for those who hurt children to die rather than to lead them astray. Earthly justice works differently. But at the very least, their behavior grossly violates every code of ethical conduct. Their actions should be criminal.

All those connected to helping him switch school districts must be fired.

Thankfully, the Maryland Association of Boards of Education has taken steps to prevent similar issues. Last month, the group organized a meeting to let human resource departments know they cannot be held liable for sharing all information, save some medical records, about candidates for faculty or staff positions in other school districts.

The state is also considering a policy to require those teachers who voluntarily forfeit their certifications to go through the process again when switching school districts. That would ensure a more thorough background check and would be welcome.

But the most important reform would be to hire school administrators worthy of public trust.

Editorial dated Apr 6. TT link to Gounaris.

Remove poorly performing teachers

Apr 5 - Detroit News editorial: "Remove poor teachers to save Detroit schools"

Detroit Public Schools is facing the greatest challenge in its history, as thousands of students flee failing classrooms to find schools where their needs -- not teacher contracts or dysfunctional board politics -- come first.

Soon the Detroit schools will have an important opportunity to turn around this trend. The district absolutely must take it.

The district and the Detroit Federation of Teachers have agreed to a short-term tryout period that allows schools that are restructuring to transfer or cut poor-performing union teachers.

In the coming weeks, the two parties will begin negotiating whether this provision should continue. With teacher quality among the most important factors in student achievement, the district must make sure it keeps this clause -- and work to expand it to other schools.

They cite Cerveny Middle School where the new principal replaced 60% of her staff. "To save their students and their district, Detroit public school leaders must retain the ability to make such staffing changes as needed -- and put their students' success ahead of everything else."

TT - but what of those thousands and thousands of children who were ill-served by poorly-performing union teachers? What are those children? Throwaways? Bad experiments in education? Union roadkill? Do none of those adults have shame for robbing children of precious years of learning and growing?

Role Models

Apr 1, 2007 - Editorial from the Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro, TN.

If only incidents that happen on campus are included in a teacher's personnel file, we are left to believe our teachers could do just about anything they want on their own time, with no ramifications. That's a disturbing scenario, because teachers, whether they like it or not, are role models for students.

Indeed, with so many parents providing a poor example, teachers are often the best role models students see.

That doesn't mean they have to live like saints, but they are held to a higher standard because they are public employees and they work with our children each day.

In Rutherford County, for example, teachers are required to tell the school system about drug- or alcohol-related arrests but only if they happen on campus. Criminal records should be part of a teacher's personnel file.

"Instead of relying on state law to take care of these matters, our own school system should form a policy to deal with teachers who break the law. Not only will it ensure our students have better role models, it could help our teachers solve personal problems that could be taking them down the wrong road."

Professionals

RANT OF THE DAY

Mar 15 - Just once it would be nice if a school called in someone other than the parasitic counselors who race in to assuage student concerns when something happens. You know, maybe someone with morals who can put the ugliness into a context where the child isn't a victim, but a target. Where the abuser is an evil sod who isn't sick, but evil.

By next week, another professional - a lawyer - will be calculating how to make it look like the 6-year-olds seduced the teacher. Or the 16-year-old was a l m o s t of age. Or the 14-year-old boy was a vcitim of his hormones.