NEW YORK

Mar 12, 2007 - The New York State School Boards Association wants swifter discipline for bad teachers.

Based on state Education Department data and a survey of school boards, the association said an average case will cost a district nearly $129,000 and take 520 days to resolve.

That includes $60,0160 paid to the accused teacher, who is suspended during the state disciplinary process; $26,800 for a substitute teacher; and $23,040 for legal costs.

There is also a cost is in morale of the faculty and the tarnished reputation of the vast majority of teachers, the association said. [TT - Not to mention the fact that the ultimate price is paid by children who have had to deal with the incompetent or sexually abusive teacher and the taxpayer has to pay his or her salary until conviction -- paying a teacher and a substitute sometimes for years. We know. We chronicle it every day.]

TT - The New York State School Boards Association has a web site with their report and their five recommendations.
Press release here.

Female Sexual Pedators

Dec 17, 2006 - The Houston Chronicle looks at how women aren't seen as sexual predators and boys get little sympathy when they come forward.
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TT - The story is typical of media disinterest in the subject. The report is not part of a series, and their statistical analysis is hurried and faulty when they state that,

According to the database, 267 registered sex crimes in the past 10 years included older women and teenage boys.

Such cases made up less than half a percent of all sex offenses registered in 1996 and about 1.5 percent of sex crimes the first part of this year.

They conclude that sexual crimes by women against minors are relatively rare by citing the percentages of statewide sex offenses, actually comparing female sexual exploitation of male minors with the wider crimes against adults that include forcible rape and other sexual offenses against a wider adult population. These percentages are not meaningful. What is significant is that 267 registered sex crimes in ten years works out to be nearly three a month! That are prosecuted.

And if you consider the major contention that boys are not likely to report the crimes or cooperate with investigators, the problem, it would seem, would have to be even worse than that.

The reporter even ignores her own anecdotal evidence. Startlingly, she reports that, [the defendant was one of] [Emphasis ours.]

at least six area women charged in recent months with sexual crimes involving underage boys in Harris County. Three were women who police say had sex with teenage neighbors, and one was a teacher in Pasadena accused of trying to arrange sex with a 16-year-old former student.

That is in one county in Texas. And what were the others charged with?

This is why the public is so badly misinformed about the issue. This is why parents are not forewarned about the problem. And this is why children continue to be victims of sexual exploitation.

Winston-Salem, NORTH CAROLINA

Dec 5, 2006 - Forsyth county schools are planning to show two sex predator videos to students. The sex predator videos are part of an educational series used by the Boy Scouts called "A Time to Tell."

County leaders said the video is the most direct way to prevent and stop sexual predators. The September arrest of sixth-grade teacher for committing sexual acts with children sparked the action.

Background Checks

Dec 3, 2006 - A two-part report on the Dallas (TX) Independent School strict’s "policy of hiring known criminal offenders."

As part of this investigation, a list of 35 teachers, teacher assistants, and administrators with criminal records was provided to the district. Since then two of educators have resigned.

And the district recommended the two be fired.

Lt. Governor David Dewhurst wants a law passed this session requiring out-of-state background checks for anyone working in a school.

Newport, OHIO

How teacher's unions act to undermine good schools.

News item: "At a Newport School Board meeting Wednesday, Nov. 15, the school board unanimously passed a recommendation made by Newport Superintendent Michael Brandt to form a task force that would look into the possibility of drug testing any student wanting to participate in extracurricular as well as teachers who are new hires."

The school board was responding to the arrest of a teacher and a school board member and his wife on charges of third degree unlawful transaction with a minor involving drugs and alcohol.

The teachers' union quickly pointed out a collective bargaining agreement passed in June that does not call for the tests. "It is against our contract to drug test teachers," Newport High School teacher Carol Dunn said. Dunn said the union would not change the contract until it expires. In 2010.

Changing attitudes?

Dec 2, 2006 - In an article entitled, "Attitudes sour on sex between boys, teachers" , there is this to ponder.

Statewide, the number of females arrested – but not necessarily charged – for sex crimes against adults and children increased more than 50 percent between 2001 and 2005, while the number of males arrested during that period declined 7.1 percent. The number of female arrestees has increased from 1,169 in 2001 to 1,766 in 2005.

Also: "Authorities say the problem is recurrent, and they believe the crime of female adults molesting minor males is not necessarily a rarity", but just underreported because boys do not want to come forward.

The article notes the efforts of WorldNetDaily tracking such cases. It's more than what the MSM is doing.

A Nationwide Problem - "It doesn't have an advocacy group"

Nov 22, 2006 - Nancy Barnes, writing in The Country Times, found a nationwide problem. She interviewed Hofstra University professor Carol Shakeshaft who wrote a federal stury referring to laws that ban sex between teachers and students rather than including educator sexual misconduct in the broader category of statutory rape. [Emphasis mine.]

Ms. Shakeshaft said that because incidents involving educator sexual misconduct are widely dispersed around the country, the crime does not seem as prevalent as it is."

It doesn't have an advocacy group," she continued, seeking to explain why the misconduct continues unabated. "Teachers aren't the advocacy group. Schools aren't the advocacy group. Students who have been sexually abused shouldn't be the advocacy group. So, there's just no group that can organize around the issue."

"Nothing right now is being done," she said, referring to politicians at the federal level. "We're trying to get congressmen and people to pay attention, now that the election is over. It's not at the top of anyone's list." She said that when the issue is addressed, the concern typically comes from social conservatives.

"Teachers unions have not been supportive of looking into this issue, and teachers are a big voting block. ... We're trying to get some kind of a summit [that] we get teachers' organizations to come to, so, in some way, we can all come together."

What Ms. Shakeshaft didn't mention is that the media doesn't care either. With rare exceptions.

Firing is hard to do

Nov 30, 2006 - It was the second time that the 4th District Court of Appeal overturned the Palm Beach County school administrator's decision to fire a teacher for poor performance. The court overturned his dismissal because the school district did not consider his students' FCAT scores.

The decision was Samuel K. Young vs. The Palm Beach County School Board

First decision was Curtis Sherrod vs. The Palm Beach County School Board
The school board is unable to fire despite the "excessive or inappropriate use of R-rated videos" in the classroom, a teacher's failure to provide instruction, or complete instruction in a subject, or his failure to provide timely grades" or his unfitness demonstrated by continual transfer to school after school. In their defense, the court noted that it was not "authorized to pass on the widom of such statutes" but to enforce the law as written.

The Sherrod case demonstrates how bad law continues to facilitate bad results. If it weren't for the fact that children are the losers in this political game, it would not be so disheartening. Teachers' unions resent the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. The statue that makes teacher firing "primarily" based on FCAT scores is meant to undermine state testing. Newspapers that treat FICA results like a football match, and agitate against school reform don't help. The real victims are students.

New York State has conducted Regents Examinations - statewide testing of proficiencies - since 1878 without the battlefield political exercises found in Florida. But, then the New York State Department of Education has a goal. "Our mission is to raise the knowledge, skill, and opportunity of all the people in New York.

Too bad we can't say that about teacher unions.

A Solution?

Perhaps West Virginia has come up with a solution to teachers who abuse students. The West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board has gone to court to terminate the pensions of Danny Perkins, a school employee, who "pled guilty to two counts of sexual assault in the third degree, two counts of sexual abuse by a custodian and one count of displaying obscene materials to a juvenile." He isn't the only one. They have filed suits against three other public employees.

It seems to me that a pension involves as much trust as does the social contract between a teacher and a parent who relies upon the teacher's decency. Police officers have long been subject to loss of pension benefits for misdeeds on the job. Since public shame doesn't work because the media doesn't care much about the issue, and the thought of imprisonment doesn't seem to deter teachers much, maybe the loss of pensions might cause second thoughts.

AND THAT'S JUST NOVEMBER !!!

Interested Participant, a blogger who does a great job of publicizing the issue, sums up the Women in Trouble - 41 blog entries for November 26 alone. They include neighbors, teachers, counselors, travelers, and a crime scene investigator.

Australia

Nov 27, 2006 - From the Australian:

A detailed dossier of the Education Department's 104 dismissed teachers, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, reveals for the first time the disastrous outcomes for students when the wrong people enter classrooms.

And that's only in New South Wales - total population 6 million.

Licensing

The Albuquerque Tribune reports that the state Department of Education is working to speed up the process of revoking teaching licenses. The process started earlier this year and "to date, the department has revoked the licenses of 17 educators and suspended three others.." Ten of the 17 involved sex crimes, pornography and sexual relationships with students. Compare that effort with previous efforts.

The cases investigated by the department's Ethics Bureau have increased significantly since 2004 when there were only five revocations and one suspension. In 2005, there were eight revocations and four suspensions. The department has plans to add an in-house investigator to handle the increasing caseload instead of hiring private investigators.

New Mexico, unlike many states, does not require districts to report allegations to the state Department of Education. A bill that would require principals and superintendents to report their investigations of teacher misconduct to the state will be introduced in January.

Currently, the department's Ethics Bureau is investigating 104 cases of teacher misconduct, CdeBaca said. "Those include 27 cases carried over from 2005."

The New Mexico Department of Education site is a model of efficiency and completeness. Educator Ethics is a prominent link on first page and the Ethics Bureau Services pages are comprehensive. The only complaint might be that the Ethics Newsletter is dated April 2006. It seems to be the only one ever written.

List 99

In England they maintain a List 99 — a secret register of men and women who are barred from working with children by the Department of Education and Skills (DfES).

More than 80 years old, it is maintained by the Children's Safeguards Unit at the department and contains the names, aliases, dates of birth and National Insurance numbers of all those forbidden to work with children in schools, social work and voluntary settings.

There are currently 4045 names on List 99, the vast majority of which are barred indefinitely from working in schools.

The history of Sex Offenders Law can be found here.
More

National Have Sex With Your Teacher Month

January 2006 was declared National Have Sex With Your Teacher Month at blog Gene Expression. Compiled from Interested Participant archives for the month.

Cedarsburg, WISCONSIN

Nov 25, 2006 - Firing a teacher can be costly. The Cedarburg School District has spent $100,000 to oust a teacher who viewed pornography on a school computer where some 1500 images were found. The teacher is represented by a teachers union attorney.

See sideline to the right for how expenses add up.

Dallas, TEXAS

Nov 26, 2006 - Background checks - In 1992, a Dallas Morning News investigation found 185 district employees who had felony criminal histories despite a 1989 law that authorized background checks on new employees. Nothing seems to have improved and a review process allows many to keep or get jobs despite criminal backgrounds that should be intolerable.

This year, DISD [Dallas Independent School District] reviewed several employees' backgrounds after The News asked if those people had gone through the district appeals process. Two were recommended for termination, and at least two – with indecent exposure charges – resigned, records show. School officials said they had used the newspaper's public records request to review their own employees' backgrounds.
"If they did something that was inappropriate, regardless of how we find out, we have to check it," Dr. Hinojosa said.

The district does know about at least 85 current employees with criminal records – 23 of them teachers.

Of the 85 current employees who won appeals to keep their jobs, most had committed offenses like driving while intoxicated, misdemeanor theft, fraud and offenses related to drugs. Some, though, had aggravated assault, prostitution, public lewdness and burglary on their records.

From the Athens Review: July 20, 2006 - "For the fifth time in less than a year, the Henderson County Sheriff’s Department is working a case concerning a teacher alleged to have been involved in a sexual relationship with a student.

Canada

Nov 15, 2006 - Teacher misconduct is not limited to the U.S. A CTV - Canadian television expose on the Ontario College of Teachers who are in charge of teacher discipline reveals that the self-regulating body isn't doing such a fantastic job.

An analysis of the public records on the Ontario College of Teachers' website revealed 10 other teachers who've also admitted sexual misconduct -- and still have a license to teach. Those teacher's acts included kissing, sexual touching and even having intercourse with teenage students. Most of them were suspended, then later got their licenses back.

The CTV Whistleblower program notes

Ontario and British Columbia are the only provinces where teachers are now entirely self-regulating. In all others, the Minister of Education has the final say on whether a teacher keeps their license. In Ontario, CTV News found the 11 teachers -- who've admitted sexual misconduct and still have licenses. B.C. told us there are 13 teachers there, who lost licenses for similar reasons, but only temporarily.

I can find no investigations online in any internet search for U.S. teacher misconduct and how credentialing and licensing are handled behind closed doors.

Downey, CALIFORNIA

Nov 19, 2006 - Two women have filed a lawsuit alleging that administrators failed to conduct an adequate investigation when one of their mothers came forward with concerns against Michael Griffin, a teacher who taught government and economy at Downey High School. Griffin is accused of having "sexual liasons" with the two girls in 2004. He was placed on unpaid leave in December 2005, 10 months after the lawsuit was filed

The lengthy article on teacher misconduct includes some startling facts.

According to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, 367 teachers accused of sexual misconduct lost credentials in the past five years. The commission does not keep data about teachers accused of sexual relations with students, but 86 percent of the teachers who lost credentials from 2001 to June 2006 were accused of crimes involving children.

The two girls were suspended for taping Griffin in 2004 in connection with their complaints.

UPDATE: Dec 21, 2006 - The lawsuit has been settled. To date, no criminal charges have been filed against the teacher. However, the California Commission on Teaching Credentialing has been notified about the case.

THE PROBLEM     A 2004 report on Educator Sexual Misconduct prepared for the U.S. Department of Education is available online.    It's a pedantic and flawed report that consistently confuses "sexual abuse" with "sexual misconduct," the latter a term used by the Ontario Canada Teacher's association.

Nevertheless, the report is disturbing.  

Because most educator abusers seek to conceal their sexual contact with students, offenders often target students that they can control.  In some cases, control is characterized by force.  However, most abuse occurs within the much subtler framework of grooming and enticement.  While almost all children respond to positive attention from an educator, students who are estranged from their parents, who are unsure of themselves, who are engaged in risky behavior or whose parents are engaged in such behavior are often targeted, not only because they might be responsive but also because they are more likely to maintain silence. (Robins, 2000; shakeshaft and Cohan, 1994)

Even children with disabilities are targeted. (See Table 14)   As for consequences?  Section 10.1 - notes that in an early study of 225 cases of sexual abuse in New York, all had admitted to sexual abuse of a student, none were reported and only 1% lost their license.  Nearly 39% chose to leave the district, most with positive recommendations and even retirement packages intact.  Many teachers trade an agreement to resign for a positive resignation.   

Appendix I consists of 19 pages of news stories about teachers. (pgs 61 to 80)   It doesn't begin to address the problem known in educational circles as "passing the trash" - knowingly moving teachers on when repeat offenders called "mobile molesters" are abetted by school officials who let them move on when allegations arise.  (Edweek.org, Dec 9, 1998. Google cache)  The American School Board Journal calls it "A Trust Betrayed" (June 2002: Vol 189, No. 6)   And the problem isn't new.  It is just generally ignored as a MSM issue.  

Post-Gazette Oct 31, 1999 Dirty Secrets: Why sexually abused teachers aren't stopped is a three-part series.