Houston, TEXAS

Grand jury declines to indict.

We don't usually cover those teacher-student fight cases when the teacher is arrested but this one has some interesting twists.

June 6, 2008 - Andre Credit, 32, an associate principal at Bush High School, was arrested Tuesday and charged with aggravated assault. A student says Credit put him in a choke hold and slammed him to the ground following a food fight where the student threw a plastic bottle. The student reportedly suffered bruises and paramedics were called to treat the student at the school.

Today, ABC13 news learned that Credit was convicted of misdemeanor theft twice. The convictions happened in 1995, then in 1996. At the time he was 20 and 21 years old. He's now 32. Each time he was given a year of probation. For the '96 conviction he was sentenced to 180 days in jail. He worked at Houston Independent School District before Fort Bend hired him a year despite those convictions.

The school district reaction: "It is not a practice of the district to hire employees with felony convictions, and the district evaluates misdemeanor convictions on a case by case basis prior to employment."

The case has turned into a drama. The student talked to Eyewitness News and Credit had a press conference in front of the school surrounded by his wife and infant son and "a slew of professional colleagues, (a slew looks to be 6) some of whom are principals at area high schools" (described by the Houston Chronicle merely as "friends." ) The teachers union had a press conference to demand further investigation. Ominously, "there are questions about the handling of the investigation into the Bush disturbance."

They claim police set students down at a table to write out their statements without monitoring them and the students consulted each other. Fort Bend police say that was the administration investigation, not theirs. They talked to students separately.

A student took a cell phone picture of the takedown of the student that really makes you cringe for the facedown student. (Seen briefly in this video report.) Teachers at the school seem to be feeding the media info about the student. That he has an extensive disciplinary record and "He has had issues with being disruptive and disrespecting authority in the past,” one person on campus said, which doesn't sound like a high schooler talking.
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Unrelated to the case, a federal judge ruled Friday the valedictorian at Bush High School will not be allowed to participate in his graduation ceremony. Khurrum Khan is facing charges of felony property theft for his alleged role in what district officials described as a scheme involving missing computers at that school and computer hacking at another school. He sued when the school district said he could not attend the graduation ceremony in light of his conduct. The judge's ruling.

June 8 - TT - What has become increasingly interesting is the automatic assumption that police were incompetent and acted in bad faith in arresting the administrator. At least, those are the public postings, the emotion fed, it looks like, by the teachers union.

In Texas, the battlelines are drawn between the teachers union and anyone else who wants a say in education issues. Including elected representatives. This appears to be a case of overreaction by an administrator that, luckily, only bruised the student but might have caused severe injury. The police made a call on scene. Until evidence is presented at a preliminary, it is hard to form any opinion, but the hype seems to be way out of proportion. SERIOUSLY way out of proportion. It's the kind of hissy fit hysteria that activists like to throw. What we would like to know is if Credit is a union representative at the school or very active in the union. Or if Credit's priors were a factor.

NO INDICTMENT August 18 - A Fort Bend County grand jury declined to indict Credit.

Indio, CALIFORNIA

NO CHARGE

June 10, 2008 -
Timothy Goerzen, 35, an Indio High School math teacher, was arrested on suspicion of sexual battery on a female student.

Indio police say allegations of inappropriate touching and grabbing surfaced on June 6th. Goerzen is now on paid administrative leave while the investigation continues.

According to Superintendent Dr. Sharon McGehee, the student alleging the assault told a friend, and that friend told her parents. They then contacted the school principal.
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If you have any information regarding this incident, you are urged to contact the Indio Police Department at 760-391-4057 or Crimestoppers at 760-341-STOP, to remain anonymous.

Indio Police Department Press Release (dated 10 June, 2008)

Press-Enterprise: Eastern Riverside County Police Reports - 6/11/08
Desert Sun: Indio High School teacher arrested

NO CHARGE August 9 - The District Attorney announced that due to lack of evidence, no charges will be filed against Goerzen.

After a complete review of the facts and circumstances surrounding the case, we have declined to file charges,” said Michael Jeandron, a spokesman for the district attorney's office. “The reason for this decision is based on the lack of sufficient evidence to warrant such a filing.”

Ben Guitron, spokesman for the Indio Police Department, said late Friday he had not been officially notified by the district attorney's office regarding the decision, and planned to “look into the matter further” with the detective bureau.

NO CHARGE

The Riverside District Attorney's Office has no press release on this at their site.

Whittier, CALIFORNIA

NO CHARGES.

July 31, 2008 - Prosecutors declined to file charges Tuesday against a Granada Middle School band director due to insufficient evidence.

A 20-year-old woman made comments about the alleged rape on her MySpace page. Her sister saw it and convinced her to report it. Sheriff's Sgt. Dan Scott said the alleged assault happened in 2002 in the band room when the woman was 14.

Despite the DA's decision, detectives don't doubt the woman.

"We have absolutely no reason not to believe her," Sheriff's Sgt. Dan Scott said.

"When the DA rejects a case, they do not feel they have enough evidence (to) win the case beyond a reasonable doubt," he said. "That's all it means."

St. Petersburg, FLORIDA

NO CHARGE.
July 26, 2008 - Prosecutors will not pursue criminal charges against Snieszko.

April 30, 2008 - Darren Snieszko, 25, a Gibbs High School science teacher was arrested on charges that he engaged in inappropriate behavior with students. He was charged with interfering with custody. Police say he encouraged a 16-year-old girl attending Gibbs to go on what he called a field trip to Lowry Park Zoo alone with him.
News Channel 8 has a great arrest photo.

St. Petersburg Police Department spokesman Bill Proffitt characterized the outing as a date. The girl and her mother went to the police station on April 11 to complain. Another female student at the school also is claiming Snieszko took her on a trip, but Snieszko has not been charged in that incident.

The student said Snieszko sent a her a variety of romantic messages using MySpace, cell phone text messages and instant email messages, according to a police report.
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Comment at news story: "AT what point are we going to FIRE the person in charge of the school system?"
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NO CHARGES July 26 - Prosecutors will not pursue criminal charges. School officials began an investigation that found Snieszko didn't have any sexual contact with the girls, but that he became too close to them by taking them to the movies, the zoo and Busch Gardens without informing their parents, said Valerie Brimm, a district administrator.

Brimm said one student said she and Snieszko kissed, though Snieszko told investigators that the student initiated it.

The school district was going to recommend that Snieszko be fired, but gave him the option of resigning. He quit July 1.

"He was very remorseful in saying that in hindsight he made some terrible decisions," Brimm said.

Prosecutors will not pursue the criminal charge because the girl's mother wanted to put the incident behind them, said prosecutor Beverly Andringa.

Barstow, CALIFORNIA

DISTRICT ATTORNEY WILL NOT FILE CHARGES.

Feb 18, 2008 - Gerard Schrader, 56, a teacher at Barstow Junior High School, was arrested on suspicion of child molestation.

He faces charges of committing a lewd act on or with a child under 14-years-old and committing a lewd act with a child aged between 14- and 15-years-old.

Jerry Bergmans, the superintendent of the Barstow Unified School District, said that students brought complaints against Schrader to Susan Levine, assistant superintendent of personnel at the district. He said he did not know specifics about the complaints, but they involved accusations of molestation.
“It involved some of our female students and things that they told our assistant superintendent,” Bergmans said.

Levine, who is a mandated reporter and required to report complaints to the authorities, conducted a small investigation into the allegations on her own and then called the police, Bergmans said. The investigation is now being handled by the Barstow Police Department.

Anyone with information can call the Barstow Police Department at 256-2211.
People with information that wish to remain anonymous can call WeTip at 1-800-78-CRIME or leave information on the WeTip Web site at www.wetip.com.

NO CHARGES Michael Fermin, supervising deputy district attorney at the Barstow courthouse, said Friday that the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office elected not to file charges against Gerard Schrader.

Fermin said that based on the information available, his office did not believe it would be able to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, but he declined to elaborate further.

NO CHARGES WILL BE FILED