Camden, NEW JERSEY

The theft was brazen. The principal of H.B. Wilson Elementary School, admitted yesterday that he deceived parents and teachers into paying more than $14,000 for school trips that were being paid for by the district. TT entry for Michael Hailey.

In one of the worst school districts in the country, the school rates a 1 (with 10 being highest) at GreatSchools.net Some 75% of the students are black, the rest are Hispanic. Most (70%) are poor and eligible for a free lunch. Camden, New Jersey, is one of the poorest (and most corrupt) cities in the U.S. And education is more lucrative than selling drugs.

The average per pupil expenditure is $20,077 - the highest in the nation.

The scam was simple. The principal, Michael Hailey, his top aide and others asked parents and students at the school to pay for field trips and other outings, knowing that the trips were to be financed by the school district. Then kept the money collected through fundraisers and donations. All three retired from the district after test scores were questioned.

Their other scam was to bill the state for $25,000 for extra wages for 14 School Leadership Council meetings that never took place. Three teachers lost their tenure for their role in that. Whether they were fired or not is unknown. No doubt, they retired.

TT entry for Michael Hailey, Patricia Johnson, Juanita Worthy and her daughter Keah Worthy. Only Johnson is white.
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ONLINE RESOURCE:
Legal decisions by the State of New Jersey Department of Education can be found here.
Decisions by the State Board of Examiners can be found here. (Certificate actions.)

Spring Grove, ILLINOIS

Elementary school principal found in motel with two underage girls and they weren't watching "Alvin and the Chipmunks."

April 8, 2008 - Daniel Markofski, 47, the principal of Spring Grove Elementary School, was arrested and charged with two counts of exposing a child to harmful material and one count of sexual intercourse with a child age 16 or older. Both girls were from Milwaukee.

Markofski was arrested after an officer on patrol found him partially clothed in a Glendale motel with two girls, ages 15 and 16, on Saturday. The police officer noticed the smell of pot coming from a room at the Super 8 Motel on Port Washington Road. The girls were partially nude. Police say Markofski had alcohol and marijuana.

According to a criminal complaint, Markofski admitted that he met the 16-year-old girl in an online chat room. He told authorities that he and the girl had talked on the phone several times and that he had taken her to the motel twice. The 15-year-old was a friend of the other girl. She accompanied them to the beach and then the motel room. said they talked about watching a movie. She asked to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks, but says Markofski ordered a pornographic movie instead. According to the 15-year-old, shortly after the movie started, Markofski had sexual contact with the 16-year-old and and took sexually explicit pictures of the 16-year-old with his cell phone.

He has been suspended with pay. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 18.
Full Name: David Scott Markofski

EMPLOYMENT He is licensed to teach in Wisconsin. According to state records, he taught at North Lake Elementary in Boulder Junction from 1994 to 1997. He was a teacher then assistant principal at Arbor Vitae-Woodruff Elementary School from 1997 to 2005. He was principal of both Blackhawk and Tower Rock elementary schools, which are in the Sauk Prairie School district, from 2005 to 2006. (From Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

NO SHOW April 9 - In 2005, Markofski abruptly resigned as a school principal. He just didn't show up for work. Craig Bender, the superintendent of the Sauk Prairie School District in Sauk City, Wis. said that one day Markofski just disappeared. “We couldn’t track him down.” he said.

He told the school district that he was going through a divorce and struggling with personal issues when the superintendent contacted him shortly after he stopped showing up to work. Markofski’s divorce was finalized in January 2006.

SCHOOL BOARD VOTES April 15 - – District 2 board members voted unanimously Tuesday to fire Spring Grove Principal Dan Markofski. That came despite Markofski tendering a letter of resignation to the district earlier Tuesday.“They wanted to have on public record that they chose to dismiss him,” Superintendent Dan Oest said.

The school board admitted that they did not call his previous employer and promises to to check with all previous employers.

NOT GUILTY PLEA April 18 - Markofski waived a preliminary hearing and pleaded not guilty.

TRIAL DATE SCHEDULED for August 6 in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. (Found in this story on drug testing.)

SENTENCED October 30 - Marfofski pleaded guilty in September to having sex with a child 16 or older and to two counts of exposing a child to harmful material. This week he was sentenced to one year in prison and 18 months of extended supervision. Markofski will also have to REGISTER AS A SEX OFFENDER.
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ONLINE RESOURCE: You can find teacher license revocations in the minutes of the Illinois State Teacher Certification Board. No reasons are given, however, for the disciplinary action. (You cannot assume that it was for criminal acivity as many states revoke licenses for failure to pay back funds advanced for professional training.)

Sample Of those listed in these minutes, we have entries for Church, Pappas and Williams. All three were sentenced for sexual misconduct with students.

Palos Verdes, CALIFORNIA

Sixty days in the local jail. Registration as a sex offender for life.

August 17, 2008 - Barry Sacks, 49, a Peninsula High School walk-on coach who also runs youth athletic camps , was arrested on July 16, accused of nine misdemeanor counts of child molestation. The charges fuel "mixed emotions.

Several former female athletes who Sacks has coached or worked with declined to be interviewed for this article, but said in e-mails that he is kind, warm and incapable of such conduct.

Some of them have lashed out at the alleged victims, accusing them of trying to oust Sacks, and at the Daily Breeze, for ruining his life by publishing a story about his court case.

The alleged acts involved nine girls, who were all 15 and 16 years old and involve "inappropriate touching" of a sexual nature.

Sacks was fired from his coaching job in June. He has also coached at Bishop Montgomery and Palos Verdes high schools. He is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 27 in Torrance Superior Court.
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ONLINE RESOURCE: Daily Breeze reporter Denise Nix maintains a blog to track South Bay crimes in the courts called Court Tracker. It's the kind of responsible public service that all newspapers should provide.
Reader Reaction to the Sacks story and how Nix found out about the charges.
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GUILTY PLEA & SENTENCING October 28 - Sacks pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of child molestation and was sentenced to 60 days in jail. Sacks can serve the time in a city jail instead of a county facility, and will likely do so. He will be on probation five years.

He will undergo 52 weeks of sex offender counseling, In exchange for his plea, seven other counts against Sacks were dismissed by prosecutors. Sacks will also have to REGISTER AS A SEX OFFENDER FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE.

Glenwood, IOWA

Guilty of child endangerment. Her lawyer: She lost her job, was refused an interview, and was expected to lose her teacher's license.

April 29, 2008 - Cindy Zimmerly, 38, a special education teacher at Northeast Elementary School, was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment for leaving her three children - ages ages 5, 3 and 1 — in a mini-van while she was shopping in a Wal-Mart store.

Zimmerly returned to the vehicle with purchases after about half an hour, then left again for about 20 minutes.

The Pottawattamie County Attorney’s office is considering formal charges. Zimmerly is scheduled to appear in court later this week.
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Northeast Elementary is a Kindergarten through 3rd grade school which is a part of the Glenwood Community School District. Glenwood is a southwest Iowa town approximately 30 miles southeast of Omaha, Nebraska. - From their web site.

She's not the first teacher to, OOPS, - forget the children.
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CHARGES WILL BE FILED May 4 - Assistant Pottawattamie County Attorney Amy Zacharias said Friday that three charges of child endangerment will be filed by the time of Cindy Zimmerly's preliminary hearing in early June. She has been placed on administrative leave.

GUILTY August 29 - Zimmerly has been found guilty of three counts of child endangerment. Zimmerly didn't contest testimony given in the case, which is similar to a no-contest plea in Nebraska. Two of the three counts will be dismissed at sentencing, said Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber.

Zimmerly's attorney has said that as a result of the charges she lost her job, was refused an interview for another job and was expected to lose her teacher's certificate.

She will be sentenced in late September.
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ONLINE RESOURCE: You can check the current status of a teacher's license online here.

Teacher discipline decisions are not summarized or searchable. The state Board of Educational Examiners minutes contain teacher discipline actions but provide no reason for the actions. link
See June 2008 minutes PDF

Moon Township, PENNSYLVANIA

She sent pictures of her genitals to a 14-year-old boy.

Jan 5, 2008 - Beth Chester, 26, a 9th grade Moon High School gym teacher and volleyball coach, was arrested. She was accused of sending nude photos of herself and suggestive text messages to a 14-year-old male student.

The charges are three counts of child sexual abuse, two counts of unlawful contact with a minor and one count each of endangering the welfare of a child and criminal solicitation. Police said they plan to file an additional charge of statutory sexual assault against Chester.

The boy's parents found the messages and met Chester Dec 26. She resigned the next day. Police found three photos Chester allegedly sent of herself -- two of them of her genitals -- to the student, as well as a nude photo the boy allegedly sent of himself to Chester.

School district officials contacted police Jan. 3 after other staffers suggested Chester might have had inappropriate contact with a student, police said.

The school district will notify state Department of Education this week, which is required by state law.
Full Name: Beth Ann Chester

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ONLINE RESOURCE
If you are a concerned parent or taxpayer in Pennsylvania, PA School Watch.org is an excellent web site. paschoolwatch.org Along with news archives, they watch current and proposed legislation. They also maintain a blog of current affairs and concerns.

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Jan 7, 2007 - Chester could face additional charges.

The boy, who is not being identified because of the nature of the charges, has told police he fell in love with Chester during a three-month relationship, which involved sexual text messages, but he has denied they had any physical contact other than a hug on the last day of school before winter break.

Chester, however, said she had intercourse with the boy, McCarthy said.“She admitted to us quite graphically what happened,” McCarthy said. “Perhaps he wanted to protect her. We’re dealing with a 14-year-old. This is typical of someone who’s a victim. He’s in love with this person and she’s in jail now and losing her job.”

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for today.

Jan 11 - Cited in a CNN story on cellphones and e-mail used to seduce children. Preliminary now scheduled for Jan 22.

FIRED Jan 14 - Chester was fired from her teaching position as well as from extra-duty paid positions such as co-breakfast monitor, co-sophomore class sponsor and assistant volleyball coach. She had taught two years. Although she had submitted her resignation Dec 27, the school board — which had not met since her Jan. 4 arrest until last night — had not acted to accept it, keeping her on the district’s payroll until Monday.

Chester would write the boy late excuses and hall passes to allow them to spend extra time together. Since her arrest, the district has held assemblies for students and faculty to discuss student-teacher relationships.

WAIVED PRELIMINARY Jan 22 - Chester waived her right to a preliminary hearing. Barring a plea agrement, she will be going to trial. No date scheduled.

NEW CHARGES Jan 23 - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Prosecutors added several charges, (actually they added five, including one count each of statutory sexual assault, indecent deviate sexual intercourse and indecent assault and two counts of aggravated indecent assault) and withdrew three child sex abuse counts from the complaint.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: She faces six other charges, including two counts of unlawful contact with a minor, endangering the welfare of children, corruption of minors, criminal solicitation and criminal use of a communication system.

(From the Tribune-Review:)Her attorney said she distraught and in counseling. She hid her face in a hood when she arrived and waited in a back room while her attorney met with the judge. She will be formally arraigned March 13.

LICENSE SURRENDERED April 3 - Chester surrendered her teaching license in lieu of discipline.

GUILTY PLEA & SENTENCING August 20 - Chester pleaded guilty to statutory sexual assault, corruption of minors and criminal use of a communication facility. She was sentenced to 1 1/2 to 3 years in jail - not prison - followed by five years of probation.

The boy's family would have agreed to a sentence that did not include jail time, had Chester not continued to contact the boy after she was arrested.

The judge also ordered she have no cell phone access and mental health counseling. He prohibited her from further contacting the student, which she had done several times after being released on bond, prompting a judge to place her on house arrest in April.

Her attorney said his client is separated and in divorce proceedings, mistakenly "looked at this group of students as her peer group."

OREGON

ONLINE RESOURCE aaaaa

The Teacher's Standards and Practices Commission of Oregon maintains online records of teacher disciplinary actions taken against teachers' licenses. The actions date back to 1997.

The site can sometimes be slow. The Commission takes the time to explain their ethical standards and their methods. Good organization.

Rated 5 out of 5 for accessibility, clarity, completeness and public accountability.

Making better decisions

The Florida Bureau of Education Information and Accountability Services is part of the Florida Department of Education. The bureau collects data to help parents and taxpayers assess schools in the state, their district and their communities.

Their stated mission is to "improve education by increasing the quality of decisions through the use of data." Most of the reports are short and in PDF format.

Chronic Absenteeism is indicated by 21 or absences for a student during the regular (180-day) school year.

Sometimes the information is startling. In a report on Teacher Demographics in Florida’s Public Schools, Fall 2006, Dade District has minority students are 90.6% of the school population. (See Table 1) Dade District isn't the highest minority school population district. You can find out the Districts with Greater than 50 Percent Minority Enrollment, Fall 2007, in this report.

Teacher Salary, Experience, and Degree Level 2006-07
Staff salaries can be found in a different report.

Florida Education and Community Data Profiles PDF (large size)
Each district is profiled by student population, income levels, crime rates, median age, births to undwed teen mothers, PreK-12 population by race, special needs, dropout rates, average teacher salary, and teacher education. The community is profiled by population figures, population density, income, age range, crime rates, unemployment rates and births to unwed teen mothers.

Non-Promotions in Florida's Schools 2006-07
Florida school laws addressing student progression and the elimination of social promotion (s. 1008.25, F.S.) have an impact on the number and percentage of students who are not promoted at the end of each school year. Grade repeated most often? Ninth.

New Law in Hawaii

THE FULL STORY

License suspensions for sex offense convictions????
Not exactly.

June 13, 2008 - The Honolulu Advertiser had this Associated Press article: Teachers convicted of sex crimes face license suspensions (story in its entirety.)

Gov. Linda Lingle has signed into law a bill enabling the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board to suspend the teacher's license of a teacher convicted of a sexual offense.

Until now, misbehaving teachers could be fired. But they retained their licenses, meaning there was little to stop them from getting jobs elsewhere.

The board oversees the state's 12,000 active licensed teachers.

Across the country, sexual misconduct allegations led states to take action against the licenses of 2,570 educators from 2001 through 2005. The cases includes licenses that were revoked, denied and surrendered.

Licenses are often required when teachers move from one state to another. If a teacher's license hasn't been revoked, there's little stopping her or him from starting over.

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TT - What the bill actually does is somewhat better than the news article stated:

1. The law requires the court clerk to notify the board within ten days when a teacher is convicted;
2. allows the Board to immediately suspend a teacher's license without a hearing;
3. and immediately upon suspension, the board has to initiate proceedings in accordance with chapter 91 to permanently revoke an individual's license to teach.

The bill is SB 2080 text

ONLINE RESOURCE
Search for any bill by number or by search terms Here
Help and examples are at the bottom of the page.

(When you find the bill, you can see the text or the status. The status page includes links to all versions of a measure, the committee reports and testimonials.)

Gary, INDIANA

Another Poverty Pit school district.

June 11, 2008 - Liduvina Espinosa, 26, a Lake Ridge Schools substitute teacher, was arrested on charges of intimidation and battery after a 16-year-old girl and her father said the woman assaulted them with pepper spray, then waved a knife around threatening to kill them because she believed the teen had egged her car.

Espinoza denied being in the driveway, but police found her shoe on the property. Police also recovered a knife and pepper spray.
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WE FOUND: Lake Ridge School District is rated 3 (with 10 being the highest) at GreatSchools.net There are 2251 students in 5 schools in the district. While the total spending in the state averages $8,216 per student, this district spends $10,932. Some 66% of the students in the district are eligible for free lunch.

TT Opinion: Many of the districts with the poorest scores and high poverty rates get extra funding that doesn't seem to make a lot of difference. In fact, you might argue that the money might serve as an incentive to achieve poor results if only for the extra bucks. If it wasn't for the the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, that requires states to act on schools that repeatedly fail to teach, it's doubtful that the worst states would intervene in such schools.

The single high school in this district rates a 2 (with 10 being the highest) at GreatSchools. School data from the Indiana Department of Education is compiled in snapshot profiles of schools in the city of Gary and school districts. Calumet High School here. NCLB report.

The school district serves students within the unincorporated sections of the Calumet Township and portions of Gary. Also from Wikipedia:

The city of Gary has had a checkered history when it comes to education. As a result, test scores have fallen well below the national average of late. In response, multiple charter schools have been founded throughout the city as an alternative to the public schools. Since that time student performance has improved and the Gary Community School Corporation has built new elementary schools.

ONLINE RESOURCE: Find a snapshot of any school in Indiana by name or number, school district, or city. Here

Middle Island, NEW YORK

Amazing how those past misdeeds catch up with you.

Sept 12, 2007 - Erwin Faralan, 34, a Longwood Senior High School teacher, was arrested, charged with three counts of third-degree criminal sex act. Under state law, a person is guilty of committing such a crime when they are over 21 and engage in oral or anal sexual conduct with someone less than 17. The charge can also apply in similar cases where the victim can't consent for reasons other than age.

He resigned from the school in 2005. A year later, one of his students told police she and Faralan, 34, had met outside of school where he had inappropriately touched her.

After resigning to move to California with his wife, Faralan worked at Narbonne High School in Harbor City, Calfiornia. He will be extradicted to New York.

EXTRADICTED Oct 10 - Faralan has been extradicted to New York. He has been placed on unpaid leave.

Erwin Faralan has signed a confession, his attorney said Tuesday.

"I think he rolled over as soon as they questioned him," said Philip Murphy, Faralan's New York attorney.

[Later in the article, it says he pleaded not guilty.]

Under New York state law, it is a third-degree criminal sex act when someone over 21 engages in oral or anal sexual conduct with someone who is under 17.

Detectives with Suffolk's Special Victims Section asked any former students who believe they were victimized by Faralan to contact them at 631-852-6531.

GUILTY PLEA AND SENTENCING April 10, 2008 - Faralan was sentenced to six months in prison, followed by 10 years' probation. He pleaded guilty in January to one count of a criminal sexual act in the third degree. In exchange for his plea, two additional counts of the same crime were dropped.
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ONLINE RESOURCE - Kudos to Denise Nix, Daily Breeze journalist and investigative reporter for her Court Tracker that allows readers to follow local cases through the legal process.

School ethics policies

March 21, 2008 - An education task force that included a panel of attorneys, ethics leaders, veteran educators and school system officials was convened by the state schools superintendent to address making educators' licensure and resignation conditions stricter.

At Thursday's meeting, N.C. Assistant Attorney General Laura Crumpler questioned whether the list of possible reasons to revoke a teaching license should be expanded. She also suggested examining what she referred to as "passing the trash."

School systems are not obligated to report to the state if a teacher is caught looking at pornography.

Crumpler said some school systems are hesitant to report reasons behind resignations because it's an effective settlement with teachers they want to get rid of.

Jill Wilson, attorney for the Guilford County school board, admitted school systems do love resignations because there are sometimes allegations you can't prove against a teacher. She suggested reporting those allegations to the state would be futile because "you have no evidence."

"We will decide if we don't have enough evidence," [N.C. Assistant Attorney General Laura] Crumpler retorted.

Wilson also told the group it shouldn't be a crime for teachers and students to have a romantic relationship if the student is over the age of consent and meets a teacher outside of school.

"Teachers shouldn't be having sex with students, period," Toney said.

Audrey Toney is a retired Pender County Schools assistant superintendent who is both part of the task force and on the state superintendent's ethics committee.
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TT - Guilford County School Superintendent role model. entry.
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ONLINE RESOURCE: NC State Board of Education Disciplinary Actions
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TT Some glaring problems with the disciplinary actions:

Travis Thompson, 39,
sentenced Oct 2007 for indecent exposure to a 13-year-old girl, sentenced to probation and registration as a sex offender.
NO DISCIPLINARY ACTION

Rebecca Withrow, 30,
sentenced June 2007 for having sex with an 11-year-old student. Plea called for her to surrender her teaching license. She is a registered sex offender.
NO DISCIPLINARY ACTION

Janet Klatt, 44,
sentenced February 2007 for sexual contact with a student.
NO DISCIPLINARY ACTION

Michael Olliver, 47,
sentenced January 2008 for attempted murder.
Disciplinary Action: Suspended Reason: Convicted of attempted murder
Date: January 2008

Alvin, TEXAS

Apr 3, 2007 - Brian Cody, 39, who taught social studies at Manvel Junior High School until mid-November, when a seventh-grader’s parents alleged Cody had an improper sexual relationship with their son, turned himself in last week. A grand jury indicted him on Mar 21.

He posted a $75,000 bond. School board members are considering whether to terminate his contract.
Full Name: Brian Edward Cody
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Court Record link.

FIRED Apr 6 - School trustees voted unanimously to terminate Cody's contract. He has been on leave since November.

UNABLE TO UPDATE: August 30, 2007 - No online stories on the resolution of this case. A check on the Texas Educator Lookup shows this message: "Note: This individual is currently under review by the SBEC Professional Discipline Unit."

All teaching certificates are valid through November 2007.

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ONLINE RESOURCE: Official Record of Educator Certificates Educator Search Criteria

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GUILTY PLEA and SENTENCING Jan 18, 2008 - Cody pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child, and improper educator-student contact. Cody was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The district attorney said they had consulted with the victims on the sentencing. (Victims, plural?)

(The newspaper should cut and paste better. The victim is no longer an "alleged victim.)

Teacher Discipline Records - Oregon

SIGNS TO CONSIDER IF YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT TEACHER SEXUAL MISCONDUCT

Prepared by the Associated Press in conjunction with their series on teacher misconduct.

Link to article. Link to Oregon discipline lists doesn't work.

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TT- We found the discipline lists.

Several other teachers had their licences revoked for criminal acts that were not specified. We are only listing those who had sexual misconduct as the cause.

Note at report: If the decision to discipline has been appealed, the teacher or administrator’s name shall not be placed on the list until such decision has been sustained by the Court of Appeals or until the appeal has been dismissed.

Annual report of teachers disciplined in 2006.
Bright, Isaac D. Revoked 08-04-06
Substantial deviation from professional standards of ethics for failure to maintain appropriate professional student-teacher relationships.

Corona-Ruiz, German Revoked 11-03-06
Sexual comments and contact with students.

Farris, David Jess Surrender Revoked 05-22-06
Sexual conduct with students.

Fischer, Brett David Revoked 01-30-06
Inappropriate Internet use. Sexual contact with students.

Lyell, Steven Mark Surrender Revoked 11-03-06
Inappropriate verbal contact and conduct with student. Substantial deviation from professional standards of competency and ethics.

Meling, Troy Randolph Revoked 08-04-06
Possession and conviction child pornography federal crime.

Morton, Steven Virgil Revoked 11-03-06
Failure to maintain appropriate professional student-teacher relationships. Failure to abide by principal’s written objective.

Verity, Jim P. Revoked Probation 08-04-06 4 years
Sexual conduct with a student.

Wiggins, Joseph Revoked 01-30-06
Sexual conduct with a student.

Wilbur, Bruce Alan Revoked 01-30-06
Sexual conduct with female students. Conviction of violating any state law.

Annual report of teachers disciplined in 2005.
Cushing, Kenneth John Revoked 1-13-05
Sexual conduct with a student and substantial deviation from professional standards of competency.

Deines, George Henry Revoked 4-28-05
Violent or destructive behavior on school premises. Sexual conduct with a student. Engaging in an act constituting criminal conduct.

Deming, David Edward Revoked 11-07-05
Knowing and substantial unauthorized use of school materials or equipment for personal purposes. Sexual conduct with a student. Inappropriate Internet use.

Gilmore, Lance Michael Revoked 3-10-05
Substantial deviation from professional standards of ethics for failure to maintain appropriate professional student-teacher relationships. Conviction of violating any state law.

Knode, Richard Wayne Revoked 11-14-05
Sexual harassment.

Murphy, Daniel Christopher Revoked 4-28-05
Sexual conduct with a student. Sexual harassment.

Rennie, David S. Revoked right to apply 1-07-05
Sexual conduct with a student. Conviction of violating any state law and engaging in an act constituting criminal conduct.

Williams, Boyce Revoked right to apply 11-07-05
Sexual conduct with a student. Conviction of violating any state law and engaging in an act constituting criminal conduct.

Annual report of teachers disciplined in 2004
Annual report of teachers disciplined in 2003
Annual report of teachers disciplined in 2002
Annual report of teachers disciplined in 2001

Educator Conduct Records

Nov 2, 2007 - An Associated Press story in the Cincinnati Post reports that the Ohio Department of Education now has an online database of teacher discipline records since 1999. The database went online on Thursday.

Ohio education officials crafted the Web site after reviewing online information released by Florida, South Carolina and Vermont on teacher misconduct.

All three states provide more detail about a teacher's misconduct than Ohio does. For example, Florida's database includes a link to case documents, including the original complaint.

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The The AP story does not provide a link to the site.

It can be found at Educator Conduct Search

Scheduled educator conduct hearings can be found here.
New - How Convictions Affect Licensure.
New - Disciplinary Process and FAQs
New - How to file a complaint regarding educator conduct

Just to try it out we entered Todd Clowery. See TT Link for Clowery. The result of the Educator Conduct Search shows:
Basis for Discipline: Conviction for misdemeanor assault
Discipline Action: Voluntary Surrender

On the other hand, we found Permanent Revocation for Robert Holloway dated Oct 2007
And the following (links are to TT entries)
Voluntary surrender Michael Rossfeld dated Sept 2007
Permanent Revocation Paul Grimes dated May 2007
Voluntary surrender Claude Brown dated Sept 2007
- Board voted to permanently revoke Brown's license in Sept 2007 minutes
Voluntary surrender John Aubrey dated July 2007
Permanent Revocation Michael Dodge dated July 2007
Voluntary surrender Gary Stroup dated Dec 2006
Permanent Revocation Megan Graves dated Dec 2003 (Action date should be 2006)
Permanent Revocation Bradford Dean dated Feb 2007
Voluntary surrender William Eiseman dated Jan 2007
Permanent Revocation Jason Miller dated March 2007
Voluntary surrender Scott Fazekas dated Sept 2007
- Board voted to permanently revoke Fazekas license in Sept 2007 minutes
Permanent Revocation Samrin Kong dated Sept 2007 (Board vote)
Voluntary surrender Dustin Powers dated Jul 2007
Voluntary surrender John Stadler dated Sep 2007
- Board voted to permanently rvoke Stadler's licence in Sept 2007 minutes

The Ohio Board of Education voted to permanently revoke the license of
Zachary Daubenmire in May - but he is not on in the database

Sentenced in the month of August. Not in the database
Renee Smith - Sex registration for life
Kathleen Ekama - ordered that she never teach disabled students again.
Titus Loux - ordered at sentencing not to teach
Jonathan Utin - sentenced to 40 years

Sentenced in June. Not in the database
Christine Scarlett - three days in jail for having baby with a student

Sentenced in May. Not in the database
Ruth Bates - felony child neglect with risk of injury

No license action found for
Thomas Hearn - drugs
David Nenzoski - Sex with 13-year old girl. Sentenced to 13 years.

State Board of Education meeting minutes are online. They do contain teacher discipline actions. They are in Word format.

WAIVERS

Oct 27, 2007 - The Oklahoman conducted an investigation into day care centers and the people who were given waivers to be in them.

The waivers were issued by the state Department of Human Services. You won't believe the people they consider safe to be around children.

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We just bet, however, that most people are not aware that state education agencies grant waivers to allow those with criminal records to teach.

It was a Rant of the Day in July. And we have found such waivers in several states, usually in the Board of Education meeting minutes.

See at TT - Arkansas Education Link (with links to three more meetings with waivers.)

But for sheer stupidity, there is the Oregon Senate Education and General Government that passed a bill out of that committee to allow schools to hire teachers who have been convicted of misdemeanor prostitution in the past. TT - Link

It isn't about forgiveness. It's about the protection of children and the gamble that states take with the safety of children not their own.

ABC's of Betrayal PT II

Oct 15, 2007 The Columbus Dispatch series continues. From "District slow to investigate teacher":

And he was the girl's science teacher and the school's dashing 26-year-old football coach. Letter after letter to a Delaware County judge described him as dedicated, trustworthy and as squeaky clean as a Boy Scout.

The 16-year-old Rutherford B. Hayes High School student with whom Eiseman did the "wrong" thing was viewed as wild and regarded with cold contempt by many in a school community that saw her as staining Eiseman's good name.

She wrote the judge that after telling her story to a detective, she had become a pariah; life was hell. Students at the Delaware high school wore T-shirts that shouted "Eiseman is Innocent" and fretted over his misfortune as he prepared to stand trial.

Even the school district initially rushed to protect "Mr. E."

Instead of alerting police about the allegations -- which named girls that the tipster said Eiseman was sexually involved with -- Delaware looked for the anonymous accuser. That decision left Eiseman in the classroom for the last few weeks of the school year.

An anonymous e-mail alerted the school to his MySpace page.

TT - Not only are districts slow, they frequently victimize the victim by discrediting them, spreading rumors about promiscuity, conducting their own investigations that are aimed more at providing cover for the teacher than concern for the student.

Worst of all, they are educators who fail to curb, and sometimes even encourage, excessive support for the teacher from students and fellow teachers, support that is designed to intimidate the victim.

We know. We see it over and over again. In Ohio and elsewhere.

From today's stories:
See A teacher on the move
- Twenty years and twelve school districts, one teacher admits, "They should have taken my license."
See Decision delayed on early release for ex-teacher
See Schools often keep state in the dark
- The biggest districts typically fail to report teacher discipline to the Ohio Department of Education.
See Profiles of Disciplined Teachers

A law that took effect March 31 mandates the reporting of teacher misconduct to the state. It is designed to prevent teachers from escaping allegations of wrongdoing with a dubious resignation "for personal reasons" or bare-bones employment verification.

The law would also prevent districts from maintaining two personnel files or separating the discipline records from the personnel file. Some districts let in-house counsel investigate so that the files become protected from public view because of attorney-client privilege.

Others, including Columbus, have kept two files on teachers accused of misconduct -- one personnel file and one discipline record -- and would hand over only the personnel file unless the investigation file was specifically requested.

There is NO PENALTY if districts do not report as required by law.

Poll : See The Hot Issue: Do some school districts protect teachers at the expense of students?

See their Searchable Database of the more than 1,700 Ohio educators have been disciplined by the Ohio Department of Education since 2000.

Bismark, NORTH DAKOTA

You can have sex with students and do six months in jail or get probation. But kill a few birds and they REALLY throw the book at you.

Oct 12, 2007 -

The state board that licenses teachers will investigate whether to discipline a Valley City man recently sentenced in federal court for killing dozens of raptors and other migratory birds.

Fifty-eight-year-old Alvin Schumacher teaches math and science at North Central Public School at Rogers. He was sentenced to 18 months of probation after pleading guilty in June to the hunting violations. (He also has to pay $20,000 in "restitution to the government.")

The Education Standards and Practices Board decided this week to look into whether Schumacher's conviction makes him a poor role model for students.

TT - To their credit, the North Dakota Education Standards and Practices Board has their Code of Ethics online where it is easily located and their Board meeting minutes are all online.

Perhaps that is why in one year of this blog, there has only been one North Dakota teacher arrested and sentenced for sex with a student.

(Two others were mentioned in minutes during 2007 as having been sentenced, but their offenses were not given and no information was available online.)

GEORGIA

September 5, 2007 - Timothy Byerly, 60, who used to teach school in Georgia, was arrested for child pornography. He was living and working in Cape Coral, Florida.

Byerly was fired and left teaching in 2001 for viewing child pornography on a work computer. He was Byerly was excommunicated from the church in late July because he continued to access child pornography.
Full Name: Timothy Evart Byerly

If you recognize the name and face, send us an e-mail.

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ONLINE: The Georgia Professional Standards Commission lists actions on teacher discipline cases. However, no names are given and no explanation is provided.

June 2007 Minutes.
Where they reviewed 60 probably cause cases,
15 Settlement Agreements,
14 Negotiated Settlement Agreements and
5 Voluntary Surrender/Voluntary Denial cases.
There are 54 ongoing investigations.

The May Minutes are not accessible. File format is wrong.
LINK to other Commission Minutes.
Board Members here.

Check out what is NOT moral turpitude. Writing a bad check is moral turpitude, possession of marijuana is not.

South Carolina Disciplinary Actions

State Board of Education Orders of Disciplinary Action (2003 - to present)

Search all orders by Last Name

Our previous look at South Carolina teacher discipline records.

Florida Teacher Discipline Database

Teacher Misconduct Records

Florida Board of Education will allow parents and the public to look up misconduct records of Florida teachers. The database is of Final Orders issued on or after January 1, 2007. They will be adding older teacher discipline cases in the future.

(Final Order defined as "Document that codifies the action taken by the members of the Education Practices Commission which issues final action against an educator's Florida Educator Certificate."

You can find the lookup here. Quick name: MyFloridaTeacher.com
It requires LAST NAME or DISTRICT
If you are unsure of the District name, search anydistrict, or look up the district at GreatSchools.net

Florida already has an educator certification lookup.