Montgomery, GEORGIA

This has got to be the Outrage of the Week.

Convicted in 1991 and sentenced to prison for sexual abuse of special education students, he received tenure at the College of Education at the University of Georgia.
-- until they found out.

October 24, 2008 - The University of Georgia fired a newly-tenured associate professor in the College of Education when they learned of his criminal sex crime conviction.

Cecil Fore III, 50, was convicted Jan. 16, 1991, on multiple counts of sexually abusing three special-education students in Montgomery junior high schools where he was a teacher. He was sentenced to serve three years in a sex offenders’ unit of the Alabama penal system, followed by five years’ probation.

The victim was in the eighth grade in a special-education program at Floyd Junior High School in Montgomery at the time of the abuse.

Alabama records show that Fore’s teaching license was revoked by the state in 1991. Despite that,

after his release from prison, Fore worked from fall 1995 to May 1996 as assistant principal at the small private nonprofit McInnis School, affiliated with the Montgomery Association for Retarded Citizens. The school serves students with IQs of less than 70, said agency executive director John Morris.

Fore finished his doctorate at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale from 1997-1999.

He came to the University of Georgia from Troy State University in Alabama, where the human resources department confirmed that he taught in the department of psychology and education from 1999 until resigning in 2001.

As of Jan. 1, 2008, the university began full background checks for anyone being appointed or promoted, but Fore was granted tenure shortly before that policy took effect.

Gowanda, NEW YORK

"When I saw that child's body in the morgue, covered from head to foot with bruises, I cried . . ."

September 5, 2008 - Harold Eisenman, 60, a substitute teacher in the Gowanda school district, was abruptly fired after school officials learned that he was convicted in 1973 of killing his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter by deliberately hitting her in a karate demonstration.

At the time of the girl's death, Eisenman was a substitute gym teacher at Merrick and Bellmore schools. He was sentenced to a term of 2 to 10 years in prison and released in 1982.

Eisenman demonstrated karate kicks to the girl's sibilings by demonstrating on her. He also instructed the 5-year-old and the 8 year-old to kick the child. The mother was convicted of criminally negligent homicide in a separate trial. She sat by and watched as the girl was hit with at least two blows that would have been fatal, including one that ruptured her kidneys. The mother then tried to revive the girl by punching her in the chest and holding her under a cold shower.

After seeing the dead girl's body at the Nassau County morgue, homicide commander Capt. William Meddis said, "When I saw that child's body in the morgue, covered from head to foot with bruises, I cried . . ."

State officials said Eisenman was cleared in 2004 to work as a substitute teacher at the Gowanda school district after falsely claiming his manslaughter conviction stemmed from a reckless driving accident.
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Google Map - Gowanda
TT - State Departments of Education in every state are allowed to give waivers to hire public school teachers who have been convicted of crimes that range anywhere from manslaughter to drug dealing. You would think a felony conviction would preclude any possibility of employment, but it does not.

Most often you find these waivers in state Board of Education minutes. At the New York State Department of Education site, you will NOT find teacher disciplinary actions anywhere. You will find disciplinary actions against other "professionals" in the Board of Regents minutes. (Sample) but NOT teachers.

You can find information about every licensed professional except educators. You can also verify the license of every professional. Except teachers.

UPDATE - CHARGES FILED - September 25, 2008 - Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the arrest of Harold Eisenman, 60, on a charge of lying to the New York State Education Department about his prior conviction for manslaughter in order to qualify as a substitute teacher.

Eisenman was charged today with offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree (class E Felony), which carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. The case was referred to the Attorney General by the State Education Department.

Chattanooga, TENNESSEE

September 8, 2008 - Charles Muskiet, 38, a Latin teacher at at Baylor School, was arrested after he traveled to Dalton, Georgia, to meet what he thought was an underage person to engage in sexual activity.

He was charged with charges of criminal attempt at child molestation and computer pornography child exploitation.

He was fired by the school.
Full Name: Charles Michael Muskiet
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He was arrested by agents working with the FBI's Innocent Images task force.

Saratoga Springs, NEW YORK

The girl was 14 years old. No sex, but, sheeze, even his wife was freaked out.

August 5, 2008 - Mark Oppenneer, 37, a tenured English teacher at Saratoga Springs High School, will be fired after a hearing by the State Education Department determined he had an inappropriate relationship with one of his students in 2007. The 36-page state report recommended the firing, but did not indicate whether Oppenneer will lose his teaching license.

He was charged by the Saratoga Springs City School District with twelve counts of misconduct in September of 2007 after the mother of one of his former ninth-grade students discovered email and online correspondences between the two.

Examples of misconduct, according to the district, included Oppenneer inviting the student to meet for lunch or coffee on several occasions; his corresponding with her via telephone, text messages and MySpace; his exchanging CDs with her; and his giving her a leather notebook.

Throughout those correspondences [with the girl,] Oppenneer admitted several times knowing the relationship had developed to a point that would be deemed inappropriate by his wife, the girl's parents, school officials and "society" at large, saying, for example:

- "My wife became very upset this afternoon. She perused our conversations and found them very disturbing... I also imagine it would freak your parents out, too. And perhaps the school officials... not to mention the police." (June 22, 2007)

- "It's that whole what society thinks thing -- that somehow the mere feeling that I enjoy communication with you is bad. If you were a mom and you knew your daughter was up at 1:36 doing this, you would feel pretty upset." (August 17, 2007)

- "I'd be hard pressed to explain to other adults (my wife included) the nature of our friendship." (August 26, 2007)

District officials began to investigate Oppenneer when the girl's parents discovered the emails the two had been sending each other and contacted State Police, who in turn began talking to school and district officials. No criminal charges were filed, and there were no allegations of a physical relationship.

August 13 - Oppenneer was fired Tuesday from Saratoga Springs High School by a unanimous vote of the school board.

Buffalo, NEW YORK

Her disappearance sparked a police investigation. They found her sleeping in her car. Police located the 14-year-old boy in a mall. The school knew about the "inappropriate relationship" for two weeks and never notified police.

June 20, 2008 - Cara Dickey, 29, had been repeatedly warned by the director of the charter school about an “inappropriate” relationship with a student in the two weeks before she and the 14-year-old boy disappeared. Dickey is married and the mother of three children.

Dickey was escorted from the classroom after she was caught text-messaging her pupil was found sleeping in her white Ford Escape in Springville on Tuesday morning by state troopers. Around the same time, the 14-year-old boy was found wandering around a mall.

[Inexpicably, the news stories from this newspaper names the boy who is in the eighth grade, but we choose not to.]

Teacher was warned about 'inappropriate' behavior with 14-year-old pupil (Jun 18)
Two weeks ago, two teachers went to the school’s assistant director to report that they’d witnessed “what they felt was inappropriate behavior for a teacher with a student,” Cederick Ellis, the director of South Buffalo Charter School said. The first time they talked to her informally, the second time with her union representative present.

School administrators claim that they "monitored" her. But she was allowed to be a chaperone on class trip to Canada with upper-grade students, including the boy. On the Monday following the trip, school officials observed the two sending text messages. They seized the boy's cellphone and discovered messages from Dickey on the phone that “represent inappropriate expressions of affection between an adult and a middle-school student.” She was escorted off campus at 1:45 (time corrected in another article) a.m. The boy left campus between 1:20 and 2:00 p.m.

Fired teacher hasn't been home since she was escorted from school (Jun 20)
She was fired. Her disappearance "sparked a police investigation."

South Buffalo Charter School teacher and missing student found in different places (Jun 17)
Earlier today, counselors were called to the school, and administrators held meetings with the faculty and the seventh- and eighth-graders.
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TT - Another one of those schools who insist on conducting their own investigation and do not notify police. Police are now investigating. You can't believe how tacky the coverage of this is by the Buffalo Times who repeatedly name the boy and his father. Buffalo Times is owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway company.

Local media seem to be taking the cue. One television station even had a picture of Dickey with her husband and three children on their news site.

TO THE GRAND JURY July 28 - The case has been sent to an Erie County Grand Jury. Dickey is accused of making a suicide pact with the child and she faces charges of unlawful imprisonment, promoting a suicide attempt and unlawfully dealing with and endangering the welfare of a child.

Dickey, who sat next to her husband, Roy, in the courtroom while waiting for the case to be called, remains free on $5,000 bail. Dickey is the mother of three children.

Besides the two felony charges, Dickey also faces two misdemeanors, endangering the welfare of a child and unlawfully dealing with a child.

Lantana, FLORIDA

Don't you love that headline? "Teacher terminated after love affair with student"

June 20, 2008 - Palm Beach County School District fired Natalie Fraxedas, 23, a Spanish teacher at Santaluces High School, for a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old student. No criminal charges are possible because of the age of the student.

The school district released a copy of the three-page love letter from Fraxedas to the student. In the steamy letter she also admits fixing his grades.

She lost her job with the school district following an investigation prompted by the student's father who discovered the letter. "Even if I tried, I couldn't have sex with no one else." and "Last Thursday I wanted to tell you when we were having sex, but I scared myself with those feelings ..."

Teacher terminated after love affair with student (Fox29, June 17)
Another teacher fired over alleged sex scandal (Sun-Sentinel, June 16)

Fraxedas began teaching on Oct. 4, while the scandalous story of accused Santaluces drama teacher Andrew Foster dominated headlines in local newspapers and television news reports.

On March 26, the district's human resources chief temporarily reassigned Fraxedas to a position in the district's special education department.
The next day, Principal Kathleen Orloff signed a letter to Fraxedas that she would be fired, without cause, at the end of the school year.

Students, teachers and sex, oh, my (Palm Beach Post, June 18)
Opinion piece by the Deputy Editor of the Editorial Page.[Caps are theirs.]

The question, raised in Tuesday's story about this incident, is whether this dumb sex also should be illegal sex. Investigators didn't prosecute Ms. Fraxedas because they could find no crime. Post reporter Christina DeNardo interviewed state Sen. Don Gaetz, chairman of the education committee and a former schools superintendent. He told our reporter that, "Any educator who abuses that trust has committed a crime." But only five states have laws making sex between teachers and adult students a crime. They are: Connecticut, Georgia, Ohio, Wyoming and - covering my old high school - North Carolina.

TT - He's quite wrong. Texas has had a law criminalizing sex between teachers and age of consent students since 2003. It is a second-degree felony and the law is used frequently and to great effect. Search blog at top left for "improper texas" (no need for an "and.")

The reason he is opposed to making it against the law in Florida? "Sex between consenting adults can be dumb enough without getting government into the act (so to speak) any more than it has to be."
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TT - Frax was not tenured, which made the firing easier. Had she been a tenured teacher, however, the storyline might have been different.

Most wincing reference to the sordid episode was from NewsChannel 5:

Another high school teacher is accused of having sex with a student. She was caught because of a scandalous love letter the school district says she wrote to her young lover.

The school rates a 4 at GreatSchools.net Be sure to read the Parent Reviews of the school.

Sex with age of consent students in Pennsylvania appears to be an issue. We found six teachers who had their licenses revoked for having sex with students and no criminal charges were cited.

NO CRIMINAL CHARGES August 1 - From a news story on recent cases, there was this:

Officials said there will be no criminal proceedings against Fraxedas, 23. That's because Fraxedas' alleged sexual relations with one male student she tutored occurred after the student turned 18, and the episodes were consensual and all off-campus, according to a school district police investigative report

Phoenix, ARIZONA

Chancellor Rufus Glasper criticized Todd for not providing hospital personnel with Ziegler's identification. She was an unidentified body in the morgue.

June 8, 2008 - When 19-year-old Andrea Ziegler died after she was found comatose on the floor of her professor's home, her parents hired a private detective. The investigator said that

four former PVCC students accuse [a Paradise Valley Community College professor] of having sexual relations with them. Only one of them formally documented it with police and the college.

A letter from the school reveals that they made PVCC professor, Michael Todd take an on-line sexual harassment course in 2002. Todd was also warned to keep students out of his home, but that's exactly where Andria Ziegler was found passed out in April.

June 10 - The District fired Todd.

A community college professor has been fired after one of his students died at the professor's home of an accidental cocaine overdose.

Michael Todd, 51, who taught at Paradise Valley Community College for eight years, was never a suspect in Andria Ziegler's death.

But the governing board of the Maricopa County Community College District voted Tuesday to fire him anyway. The district said Todd violated professional standards and the college's sexual harassment policy that prohibits "amorous relationships" with students.

East Valley Tribune (June 10) - The board voted unanimously (5-0) to fire Michael Todd.

MCCCD Chancellor Rufus Glasper criticized Todd for not providing hospital personnel with Ziegler's identification.

Instead, when hospital personnel in the emergency room told Todd and his neighbor that Ziegler had died, Todd said "I gotta get out of here" and went to his attorney's office, according to a police report.

Glasper also criticized Todd for not informing his supervisors of the incident.

Ziegler’s parents had notified authorities about 4:17 p.m. on Monday to report her missing, and started circulating fliers with her picture on them.

Phoenix police then got involved after they became aware of an unidentified woman’s body at the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office and connected them.

Todd was a psychology professor. Ziegler was most recently in his abnormal psychology class.

Leitchfield, KENTUCKY

No charges filed, but district is firing the teacher.

June 5, 2008 - Complete story:

Trooper Steve Pavey said KSP (Kentucky State Police) was called several weeks ago by Grayson county School authorities concerning a complaint of sexual abuse or sodomy between a teacher, Adam Decker, and a 16-year-old girl at Grayson County High School.

After an investigation by Detective Matt Johnson no charges were filed. Pavey said relations between the teacher and student were consensual and therefore no laws were broken.

In Kentucky, the legal age of consent is 16 years. That law will change in July creating an exception for those in a position of authority such as teachers and scout leaders.

The teacher is "being fired" and is "now working in the private sector. "

Wellington, FLORIDA

Mark your calendars. They actually fired a teacher in Florida!!!

June 5, 2008 - Rutha G. Scott, 54, a business teacher at Palm Beach Central High, was fired by the Palm Beach County School Board for placing a student in a dark storage room for five to 15 minutes on Feb. 1. She had previously been suspended for 71 days without pay for doing the same thing at Olympic Heights High in 2006.

Administrators cited her for "unprofessional conduct, failure to exercise the best professional judgment" and other charges.

DECISION TO FIRE May 28 - Additional detail from a previous story. Now we know what professional judgement she failed to exercise.

Scott, an award-winning teacher and former adviser for Future Business Leaders of American clubs, had taught for 22 years. Though she received satisfactory evaluations over the past decade from principals, she has received two written reprimands and a suspension for misconduct including harassment and insubordination, and was the subject of several investigations.

In 1998 while at Spanish River High, a colleague accused Scott of harassing her in front of students and faculty. In January 2001, she was given a written reprimand for showing an R-rated movie against her principal's wishes and failing to supervise students during lunch. In December 2001, an investigation was launched into allegations that Scott unloaded about her then-principal Geoff McKee to her students.

A month later, Scott was given a second written reprimand for making malicious statements about Spanish River High's administration and teachers, wearing a leather tube top to school and failing to follow school procedures.

In December 2005 while teaching at Olympic Heights High, Scott was accused of putting a student in a locked storage room for 40 to 50 minutes after he refused to remain seated and quiet while she administered a test. Scott told investigators that she did not intentionally lock the door and said the student was in the room for only 10 minutes.

In 2006, the school board voted to fire Scott, but later rescinded the termination and suspended her after a subsequent investigation revealed the closet was larger - 8 feet by 9 feet rather than 5 feet by 6 feet - than previously thought.

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TT - Don't get your hopes up. They voted to fire her. She has appealed and will be given a hearing after which, if she loses, she can take the case to a labor board. If she loses there, an Administrative judge will hear the whole thing all over again. If she loses there, there is state court, followed by an appellate court, and finally the wholly-crackpot Florida Supreme Court.

In the meantime, folks, they will pay her salary and benefits. And if she pursues the case through the entire track, we'll know she's not paying for her attorney herself.

AND WE TAKE THIS BACK= But, gee, in the aftermath of the hugely reported teacher who conducted a Survivor-like vote to kick a five-year-old out of a classroom, this just sounds so -- responsible.

Eskridge, KANSAS

March 13, 2007 - Kimberlee Anderson, 47, principal of Mission Valley High School, was dismissed after she arrested was a misdemeanor theft charge. She is accused of taking a small amount of money from a teacher's office.

The Wabaunsee county sheriff's office was called to Mission Valley High School to investigate a small amount of money stolen from a teacher's office.

GUILTY PLEA & SENTENCING April 15, 2008 - WIBW.com reported that Anderson who was due in court Tuesday on three counts of misdemeanor theft.

When 13 News called Wabaunsee County to check on the proceeding, learned Anderson struck a deal last Monday, April 7th. A nderson pleaded to one count. She was sentenced to 48-hours in jail, which she served last week. She must also pay $328 in fines and court costs and will spend six months on unsupervised probation.

TT - We're willing to bet that all 184 students at the school and at least three hundred alumni know about the arrest and now the sentencing, which is why a betrayal of trust by an educator means betraying the belief and expectations of thousands of children and adults in a single act.

Reno, NEVADA

March 4, 2008 - Daniel Bryant, a counselor at a middle school, was fired for impregnating one of his students.

Officials say Bryant met the girl when he was her counselor at Vaughn Middle School. The girl is now 19.

"We believe that he was absolutely manipulative," Superintendent Paul Dugan said. "I don't know how you defend something like this, (but) that's up to him to deal with. We're not defending it, and that's why we're terminating him."

Bryant denied being the father of the child when the district investigated the allegations in November and placed him on administrative leave with pay. He was fired in January but appealed the action. His appeal was denied last week.

District officials say they also will seek to revoke Bryant's teaching and counseling licenses. The district attorney's office has been informed.

Substitutes

Feb 17, 2008 - In Guam, two substitute teachers, age 21 and 18, were arrested for supplying alcohol to four middle school students. Their reason? There was an altercation and they wanted to diffuse the situation. An enterprising reporter wondered about just exactly who could become a substitute and what qualifications were necessary.

Being a sub only requires a high school education, no training or college is required. The Guam Public School System acting administrator Lisa Nathan said they wanted to give people the benefit of the doubt which is why even a criminal conviction is no barrier to being a substitute. The reason for keeping requirements low is to allows students to "test the waters first" to see if they like teaching. And it's cheap. Hiring someone without any college costs about $9 an hour. They couldn't afford more.

Half of the substitutes, about 500, have no college or training to be in the classroom.

According to GPSS acting Chief Financial Officer Ray Miranda, about $926,000 of the school system's annual budget was set aside to pay for substitute teachers for fiscal 2008, of which $318,000 had been spent by Jan. 31.

In comparison, a private school does not accept those without some college.

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ONLINE RESOURCE: (at story) See Comparison list of requirements in states for their substitutes. The source is the National Education Association (NEA.) Kansas: "Pilot plan regulation from the Standards Board allows five school districts to let the least-qualified applicants be called to meet availability problem. "

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Feb 27 - It took long enough, but the Guam Public School System fired both Billie Jean Reyes and 23-year-old Marla Jean Reyes.

GPSS also terminated the services of 19-year-old Patrick Santos, a teacher's assistant from the Untalan Middle School, who was arrested last Saturday for allegedly having sexual relations with a 14-year-old female student

Kingsport, TENNESSEE

What do you have to do to be fired??? Well, a lot, apparently.

Feb 28, 2008 - Paula McGlothlin, 40, appeared in court on one count of driving under the influence and three counts of aggravated assault in connection with an accident when she rear-ended another car with a two-year-old child inside. McGlothlin refused a sobriety test at the scene. She'll be arraigned in April.

McGlothlin was suspended, then fired from her teaching duties. She was an elementary school teacher at Kingsley Elementary School. What's amazing is that she wasn't fired before.

[Sullivan County] BOE attorney Pat Hull said the charges for McGlothlin's dismissal include conduct unbecoming of a member of the teaching profession; incompetence - i.e. that McGlothlin is "incapable and lacks adequate capacity to carry out the duties and responsibilities of her position"; inefficiency; and insubordination.

The formal charges, as presented to the board, indicated that McGlothlin had been previously disciplined for being high or under the influence while at school, being in the principal's desk without permission, and getting into another teacher's purse at school.

The charges also indicated that McGlothlin had previously received a written reprimand for sending written communication to students that contained "material inappropriate to share with students" and, while on suspension from her duties, had engaged in a verbal confrontation on school grounds with a "young child who is a student in the Sullivan County school system."

Full Name: Paula Jones McGlothlin

San Luis, ARIZONA

Jan 18, 2008 - The Gadsden Elementary School District School Board dismissed social studies teacher Paul Aguiniga this week after an investigation determined he engaged in a series of online conversations with a student. The conversations included discussions and images containing sexual activity and pornography.

Aguiniga has been on paid administrative leave since October. The school district hired a private investigator. The report was presented to the board who voted to dismiss Aguiniga. He has a right to appeal the dismissal.

The San Luis Police Department is now investigating the incidents to determine if any crimes were committed, department spokesman Sgt. Gerardo Torres said. Online chats with another student also are part of the probe.

TT - Every school should have a policy that limits contact between teachers and students outside of school hours to school-provided web pages where students can ask questions and get clarifications, if needed, on school matters. This would allow postings and interactions to be monitored by school administrators. There is absolutely no reason for a teacher to give his or her cell phone number to a student or for a teacher to call a student, let alone invite a student to their house or apartment.

Houston, TEXAS

Story dated Jan 17, 2008 - The The Houston school board fired Cimerli Johnson, 33, the principal of "troubled" Ryan Middle School. The board said Johnson improperly promoted students to the next grade and that her employees were paid 'tens of thousands of dollars' for time they never worked.

Johnson was reassigned in October after allowing a 14-year-old male student spend two nights at her home. The grandmother and guardian of the boy says that Johnson took the teen home with her for sleepovers on at least two separate occasions. At the time, she thought Johnson was married with children of her own. The grandmother also alleged that Johnson purchased a cell phone for her grandson. The school district launched an investigation into the principal’s behavior.

Johnson told the school district investigator that she bought the teenager a cell phone because of his improved performance at school. In a report filed in November, the school district investigator concluded that Johnson showed a "lack of good judgment" regarding the student, but that there was "insufficient evidence of sexual misconduct." Police did not file any charges.

The investigation led to a routine financial check that found more than $100,000 paid for work that was not performed or not properly recorded at the school.

Dayton, OHIO

Found guilty of attempted obstructing of official business for interfering when school staff felt cases of child abuse and neglect needed to be reported to law officers.

Sentenced (sorta) to 6 months probation and 120 hrs of community service.

July 28, 2007 - Roseda Goff, 60, superintendent of City Day Community School, has been charged with attempted obstruction of official business for discouraging a teacher from reporting a case of child abuse involving a student.

Julie Bruns, chief of the juvenile division of the Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office, said the incident began with a child at the school who told a teacher the youth had been struck by the youth's mother and displayed injuries. The youth's gender was not made available.

The teacher, Bruns said, went to Goff for instruction.

"It is our belief that on that occasion, and on prior occasions, she has told teachers not to report suspected abuse even though she and all the teachers are mandated to report," Bruns said. "Those teachers, having a conscience, reported it anyway. She attempted to persuade them not to report it."

Ohio law requires teachers to report incidents of suspected child abuse to authorities.

The charter school was on probation for test examination improprieties. An investigation by the Dayton Daily News questioned the similarity of the questions on the actual exam with test exams given at the school.

The school, with about 170 students, jumped up two steps on the state’s rating scale from the lowest category of “academic emergency” to”continuous improvement” after huge gains in the percentage of students who passed the test.

A new governing board was installed and Goff was fired.

TRIAL Dec 1 - Goff is on trial for allegedly trying to discourage teachers from reporting child abuse. Judge Tony Capizzi said he will rule within 14 days. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. A teacher and her husband called Children Services to report child abuse of a student but only after asking two teachers to help. Both declined.

GUILTY VERDICT Dec 12 - A judge found Goff guilty of attempted obstructing of official business for interfering when school staff felt cases of child abuse and neglect needed to be reported to law officers. The charge is a third degree misdemeanor. Sentencing is scheduled for for Jan 9.

SENTENCED Jan 10, 2008 - Judge Tony Capizzi sentenced Goff to six months probation (the maximum allowable), a $500 fine and a 60-day suspended jail sentence. He also ordered her to do 120 hours of community service.

The Dayton Daily News reports that the judge also ordered her to surrender her teaching license.

"In many ways, you deserve to go to jail today," Capizzi told Goff.

Capizzi said he was irked that Goff told a probation officer that she still believed she was not guilty. Capizzi said it was only more than 30 years of teaching and a clean criminal record that saved her from going to jail.

"You have to be held accountable for what you did," Capizzi said. "You sat through a trial and heard witnesses testify and didn't listen to a word they said. You've gone home and spent the last month or so, again, in complete denial of what occurred."

Prosecutor Julie Bruns said the case should send a message to others who work with children.

"Do I think this is happening other places? You bet I do," she said.

At the trial, former City Day teachers testified that a student told them last April that her mother had beaten her. Educators in Ohio are required to report to law enforcement any suspicion of child abuse, but the teachers said Goff told them that was her decision. They said Goff called the girl a liar and sent her home without taking action. Capizzi said the girl was beaten again that night.

Naples, FLORIDA

Dec 18, 2007 - The Collier County School District fired Ron Miller, Principal at Barron Collier High School for sending sexually explicit and pornographic emails to a female staff member, a teacher and a woman in Orlando from his work computer. This, according to an official investigation released by the school district.

A teacher and a secretary at the school who are said to have been involved with him with be investigated after the holidays.

Letter to Miller advising him of the results of their investigation. (e-mails included)

TT - They are the sexual banter of a man and a woman. But incredibly stupid to use a school computer where the footer of every document clearly says the e-mail system is the property of the school system and for official business. And, "There should be no expectation of privacy." DOH

Oakland, TENNESSEE

Anger management, anyone?

Nov 9, 2007 - The Oakland school district director fired teacher and coach Andrew Schmeltzer after he was arrested, accused of assaulting a 12-year-old boy.

At an Oct 19 football game, two Rutherford County Sheriff's deputies reported what they witnessed, and one of them charged Schmeltzer with assault.

The deputy stated in a warrant he witnessed the teacher grab the boy by his shirt near the throat and push the child against the ticket booth. The boy was crying and attempting to get away, but the teacher grabbed the boy again and pushed the child up against a wall and held him there, according to the warrant.

Schmeltzer is scheduled to appear in court Nov 28.

In the meantime, he wants his job back. The only problem is that he appears to have had a complaint filed against him in 2004 by another teacher after he reportedly slammed a bat he was carrying on the desk, breaking several of her belongings. He resigned from that Wichita Falls, Texas school. The principal at that school gave him a strong recommendation and said she would be willing to rehire him.

Coach dismissed

Oct 18, 2007 - A Perry Hall High School coach said he was dismissed from his coaching position Oct. 4 after Baltimore County education officials learned of a 15-year-old "incident" that occurred when he was teaching in New Jersey.

He lost his New Jersey license because of the "incident" that never went to court after he agreed to give up his state teaching license. School authorities were alerted with an Associated Press reporter called seeking information about the revocation of teaching certificates.

According to an Associated Press story, [the coach] was accused of touching the breast of one female student and of kissing another female student twice. A third student accused [him] of asking her for sex -- but has since recanted.

The former coach maintains he was denied his "due process" and that he wasn't teaching, but coaching, and that didn't require a teaching certificate.

If the charges had been expunged, however, the school system wouldn't be able to use the information for its background check, nor are applicants required to disclose such information, according to the county school system's Web site.

The coach is retaining an attorney.

TT - Many cases don't go to court because a teacher gives up their teaching license. We don't know if that's the case here, but whenever a teacher "agrees to give up their teaching license" it suggests a quid pro quo arrangement that ought to alert parents and taxpayers that something isn't quite right.

In some cases where the victim or victims are very young, say 4 to 8 years old where trial would be a hardship and successful prosecution is not predictable, we can see bargaining with the teacher, when the only thing you can hope for is to get them out of the classroom. But the number of cases where educators "agree to give up their teaching license" in plea bargaining has become alarming.

Nashville, TENNESSEE

After her husband shot and killed the student she was involved with in Knoxville, she moved to Nashville to teach. Now there are new allegations of improper contact with another student.

September 8, 2007 - Erin McLean, an English teacher at Pioneer Christian Academy, was fired over allegations of improper contact with a student. She used her maiden name to obtain the job.

McLean called one of her students 15 to 20 times and the student's parents became concerned about inappropriate contact.

See TT link to case.