SOUTH CAROLINA

Mar 26, 2007
Star-News (SC) examines why teacher molestation charges are hard to prosecute.

"The biggest difficulty you have in prosecuting any sexual assault case, especially with children, is that they do not tell right away, and by the time they disclose there is no physical evidence," said Debbie Lash, assistant prosecutor for the 9th Circuit, which includes Berkeley and Charleston counties.

Stephen Braveman studies child abuse. He estimates that just half all incidents of sexual abuse are reported. Among male victims, he said, the reporting rate is likely about 10 percent.

In the seven active South Carolina cases, seven of the 12 alleged victims are boys ranging in age from 11 to 15.

TT- the case they highlighted is a 46-year-old female 2nd grade teacher , Kimberly Moody Alexander, who was charged with performing a lewd act on a child. A Columbia police officer found the former Bradley Elementary School teacher and a 14-year-old boy lying down in the front seat of her car. The two were fully clothed and were kissing, the boy simulating sex. The jury deadlocked at her trial and prosecutors plan to try her again.
Alexander is married with two children.

The Post and Courier on "Awareness of female offenders increasing" reports experts caution that sexual misconduct by women has long been under-reported in our society, which has had trouble accepting the notion of women as molesters. They list South Carolina cases.

A state representative is pushing legislation that would institute a 25-year minimum sentence for sex crimes committed by school personnel.

Sioux City, NEBRASKA

Mar 26, 2007 - A South Sioux City, Nebraska teacher is on "leave" for one week after his arrest for soliciting a prostitute. He is a teacher and head coach at South Sioux City Middle School.

His status could come up for discussion at Monday night's school board meeting.

TT - The Nebraska Department of Education is one of the few state sites where it you can find a front page link to Certification that leads you to a link to a Code of Ethics.

Florence, ALABAMA

Mar 24, 2007 - After parents complained, a student teacher at Wilson High School has been banned from the school after he was accused of e-mailing and posting inappropriate messages to students online.

The intern was an education major at Alabama State University in Montgomery

He was escorted off the campus Thursday morning by the school's resource officer.
[Story continued here for space considerations.]

Durham, NORTH CAROLINA

"She's not teaching anymore. She's in another line of work, in the administrative field."

Mar 25, 2007 - A Durham teacher who taught eighth-grade at Chewning Middle School was arrested in 2006 for and charged with allowing a male student to spend the night with her. Thee Herald-Sun found the resolution of the case:

But in a quiet September plea deal that escaped media attention, Janet K. Briggs received deferred prosecution on two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, court records indicate.

TT- Deferred prosecution means no criminal record. Continued here.]

Bellaire, TEXAS

Mar 20, 2007 - Tamara Ryman, 37, a Bellaire High School algebra teacher, was arrested after being found with a 16-year-old male student who was naked from the waist down in a van. The current charge is trespassing.

She was found in a parked van with the boy. When the deputy approached the car, the boy had his pants down, and Ryman had just jumped into the driver's seat, according to police reports.

Ryman appears to have been an informal, if not legal, guardian for the teenage boy. He was arrested when police found marijuana and brass knuckles on him.

ABC13 - spoke with her father-in-law. Ryman is married with two children.

Aurora, ILLINOIS

Mar 25, 2007 - Kenneth Kane, 53, a West Aurora High School teacher, was sentenced earlier this month to 24 months' intensive probation after pleading guilty to charges that he improperly touched female students.

Kane pleaded guilty to aggravated battery. He must also must register as a sex offender for the next 10 years, and is banned from contacting victims in the case, according to records.

Prosecutors say Kane, of Joliet, inappropriately touched three teenage students over their clothing during the 2003-04 and 2004-05 school years.

TT - second story down.

Background Checks

School districts are required by the 2005 Jessica Lunsford Act to run background checks on workers and most visitors. So how did The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind allow felons to work on campus construction jobs during the past two years?

That's the question a Police department employee asked in anonymous letter complaining about the felons to school officials in May 2006, He also sent it to state officials, who asked the school's board of trustees' chairwoman about the felons.

A reporter at the St. Austine Record asked the exact same questions and more.
You can read it at the link.
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TT - the implication is that the school was "saving money over the school's students' safety," as an unattributed "others" put it. The records of the 10 men are daunting, but the newspaper acknowledges that they broke no law going on the campus.

Neither, apparently, did the school. There was a memorandum from the school president in 2005 at about the same time as Jessica's Law was implemented that stated that the school would not allow felons on the campus. But most schools issued memorandums to announce that they were responding to the new law.

The felons who acted on construction projects at the school are not accused of any criminal activity. The school hasn't broken any law in employing them. The school employed a full-time, off-duty Augustine police officer to be there the whole time they were there.

So where is the story? At a guess, it's a newspaper taking advantage of the tide of resentment from the "Broken Trust" series from the Herald-Tribune to expose more wrongdoing on the part of the Florida Department of Education.

And, perhaps, some construction union resentment that the workers might have been non-unionized. It's hard to tell because the reporter doesn't examine that angle. But, then, there is no criminal conduct alleged either, and the reporter quotes a 'former" FSDB Police Department employee without explaining to the reader why he is no longer employed. And who, besides the FSDB Police Department, employed him. No one was injured or hurt, threatened, raped, pickpocketed, sexually propositioned, offered drugs, or assaulted.

At least not by the construction workers. And not by anyone else employed by the school.

The school is boarding school supported by the Florida Department of Education. It was established in 1885. It is Florida's primary public school for hearing-impaired and visually-impaired students pre-school through 12th grade. (Wikipedia)

A headline of "Felons on Campus" is catchy. But the reporter would do more good investigating the biggest threat to students: the school systems that hire and fail to provide oversight of teachers who sexually abuse students The same officials who then, after the fact, express surprise, conduct their own investigations without any training, and dismiss the allegations and allow the teacher to move on to another school. Another victim.

Brooklyn, NEW YORK

ALL CHARGES WERE DROPPED WHEN GIRL'S STORY UNRAVELED.

Mar 23 - All charges were dropped against a Brooklyn, New York janitor who was accused of raping an 8-year-old-girl. Arrested on Monday, he was arraigned then sent to Rikers. Bail was set at $150,000. The very next day, the prosecutors asked for him to be released on his own recognizance as the girl's story unraveled.

Prosecutors said yesterday that during further questioning, they concluded that the child's account had too many inconsistencies to be credible.

ABC7 reported: [The teacher] was overcome with tears at Brooklyn Criminal Court today, after the less than two minute proceeding that ended with an assistant district attorney delivering the words, "The People are dismissing the charges."

School Principal
Mar 21 - Officials reassigned the principal of the school because he allegedly did nothing about another possible abuse case involving the same girl and a different adult.

A Department of Education spokesman said yesterday that Long was being probed about "his alleged failure to report an earlier allegation of child abuse

Thanks to a poster for the tip.

Greenfield, INDIANA

Mar 24, 2007 - Greenfield-Central school officials fired a Greenfield Middle School teacher over concerns about her relationship with a student.

"No one has suggested the relationship between Trina Moore and the student was sexual or illegal, school officials said." The teacher spent hours per day outside school hours in the girl's company, talking to her on the phone or e-mailing with her, according to school officials.

When she refused to terminate her contact with the girl outside school even when instructed to do so by Greenfield Middle School Principal Jim Bever and despite complaints from the girl's mother. The teacher was fired for insubordination. Moore's attorney says she is considering a legal appeal.

"Phone records obtained through the school's investigation indicate Moore spent a cumulative total of more than 11 hours on the phone with the student one day in June 2006, and similar amounts of phone time with the girl on several other days. " While Moore's attorney says the calls were initiated by the girl, school officials said the teacher already had been warned about getting too personally involved with students.

School officials thought the conduct exceeded the bounds of a healthy teacher-student relationship.

The girl was 13-years-old.

TT- there's a lively debate at the news site that brings up some good issues. The ones who argue that she was just a caring teacher can be safely ignored. As an adult, if a parent asked you to quit talking to her child 10 hours a day, wouldn't you consider it wise to do so? The teacher wasn't fired for having poor judgement. She was fired because she was specifically ordered not to continue.

STATE CORRECTION.

Murfreesboro, TENNESEE

Dealing with a mad parent can really ruin your day.

Mar 21, 2007 - Nalin White, 29, a Siegel High School teacher, entered a a no-contest plea to three counts of soliciting a minor. He surrendered his teaching license.

Under terms of the plea, he was placed on supervised probation for 35 months and 27 days. according to the mother. In addition, he can't have contact with the victim, and he must undergo a psychological evaluation and abide by the recommendations.

The girl accused White of asking her if she was interested in having sex with a teacher between 26 and 28 years old. She told her mother about the conversation, and the mother complained to Siegel High Principal Ken Nolan that night.

The mother then notified the Schools Director and other central office administrators the next afternoon to look into what happened. The parent then asked the Sheriff's Office to investigate five days later, and Gill suspended White without pay that same day.

The girl's mother said she was glad her daughter pursued the complaint.
"She had been harassed at school, but she knew she did the right thing by coming forward," the mother said.

TT - It took five days for school authorities to remove the teacher from the classroom where he could be in contact with his victim. The mother had to go to the police to make something happen. What does this tell you about the first concern of some schools?

Mar 30 - County schools director Harry Gill, Jr., terminated Nalin White with a letter dated March 26. When he entered his plea on March 20, White also surrendered his teaching license.

SENTENCED and LAWSUIT - July 23 - White was sentenced and received probation and surrendered his teaching license. The mother of the victim has filed a lawsuit against White and the school principal and the school board.

Memorable Quote

Memorable quote of the week.

Out of the mouth of an elementary school principal after a teacher in the school left two children in a car. For six hours. In 80 degree weather.

"I understand law enforcement officials, they have their reputations at stake, they don't know her. They have a job to do in terms of protecting children, but my hope is that all this would be cleared up and she would be able to return to work," she said.

"Bottom line - we want to support Kristy. And it's not one of those situations of 'protecting your own, no matter what they've done' types of things," she said. "I think if the public knew the pressure some mothers are under, and how often this really does happen, they'd be amazed."

TT - They have their reputations at stake? They have a job to do protecting children? Like no one else should be concerned. And yes, the policeman did his job: he broke the window to rescue the children who were ages 2 and 4-months-old. Isn't an elementary school principal supposed to be concerned with protecting children? Ya think?

And she's right. If the public just knew.

Janesville, WISCONSIN

Mar 23, 2007 -
Christopher Hurst, 29, a Craig High School teacher's aide, has resigned. He was arrested Mar 12 when he went to meet what he thought was a 15-year-old girl. He had worked as a special-education aide in the district since 2004.

He is charged in Columbia County Court with using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime.

School officials had suspended Hurst without pay after confirming the arrest. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Apr 12.
Full Name: Christopher J. Hurst

WCLO link August 21 - Conditions of his bond have been modified to allow contact with children to accomodate his employment. Hurst is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 18 for a preliminary hearing.
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A jury trial is scheduled for 10-02-2008 at 9:00 am

Burbank, WASHINGTON

Mar 23, 2007 - Alfredo Castillo, 80, a teacher's aide at Columbia Middle School, was sentenced to 15-month sentenced for fondling a female student during the 2004-2005 school year. He also will be placed on three to four years of community custody when he's released.

She told officials the abuse occurred frequently enough that she started wearing sweatshirts to make it more difficult for Castillo to touch her.

The mother of the developmentally delayed girl who was 13-years-old at the time, reacted to the sentence. ``I pity him. My daughter isn't the damaged one - he is.''

Suffolk, VIRGINA

Mar 23, 2007 - Jerome Crawford, a teacher at Forest Glen Middle School, was sentenced to three months for going online to solicit sex from a teenager. He pleaded guilty last October

The judge ruled Crawford must register as a sex offender and continue treatment programs.
Full Name: Jerome Keith Crawford

See: Officer's job should be responsibility of all parents

Barstow, CALIFORNIA

NOT GUILTY of all charges. The jury deliberated just 90 minutes.

Jan 24, 2007 - Arrested on Jan. 24, 2006, he pleaded not guilty in an arraignment in March 2006. Today the trial began for James McKinley, a Cameron Elementary School teacher charged with sexually assaulting several of his former students.

Update Feb 3 - McKinley's trial is ongoing in Barstow. The prosecution has called 18 witnesses, including 13 students who were 8 to 10 years old at the time of the alleged incidents.

Update Feb 8 - The prosecution rests in the trial. The defense is scheduled to start Thursday then the trial will be suspended until Feb 14.

Update Mar 22 - The jury is deliberating.

Update Mar 23 - The jury deliberated less than 90 minutes before finding McKinley not guilty of all 22 counts alleging he molested 10 fourth-graders.

Although he was acquitted of criminal charges, school district spokeswoman Susan Levine said McKinley still faces dismissal under a state Education Code section dealing with immoral or unprofessional conduct, unsatisfactory performance or unfitness for service as grounds for unpaid suspension.

New York, NEW YORK

Mar 23, 2007 - Alan Schaefer, a music teacher at M.S. 67, a Queens middle school, has been charged with trying to use the Internet to have sex with underage girls.

The criminal complaint charged Schaefer with one count of using the Internet to persuade and entice what he thought was a 13-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity. He was talking to an undercover officer.

TT - no age, no arrest date, no schedule for court appearances given.

Camden, NEW JERSEY

Mar 20, 2007 - Michael Hailey, 65, principal at H.B. Wilson Elementary, was indicted, along with his top aide, administrator Patricia Johnson, 57, charged with conspiracy, theft, official misconduct and record tampering.

It's alleged that they 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. Camden is one of the nation's poorest cities.

Hailey and another principal and her daughter were also indicted in a suspected scheme to overbill the district for leadership meetings authorities say never occurred. More indictments are expected.
[Continued here for space considerations.]

Camden, New Jersey at Wikipedia.
New Jersey Attorney General Office press release.

INDICTED Apr 13 - Michael Hailey and administrator Patricia Johnson were indicted. Hailey's attorney predicts that more people will be indicted.

NOT GUILTY PLEAS May 22 - The four former school employees pleaded not guilty at their arraignment to stealing student field-trip money and submitting phony pay vouchers. Hailey, 65, of Delran, Johnson, 57, of Atco, and Juanita Worthy, 59, of Evesham, all veteran educators, retired from the district last June.

The state began investigating Camden schools after The Inquirer raised questions about 2005 state standardized fourth-grade test results at Wilson and Wiggins. The struggling schools posted some of the best scores in the state.

Scores for 2006 plummeted at both schools, and were generally lower across the district after the state sent in monitors. The state Department of Education concluded last summer that the scores had been boosted by "adult interference."

TT - Myron and Win would know what to do. Well, Win would.

NPR background on the Camden schools scandal.
Philadelphia Inquirer has a whole section on Camden Schools Testing Controversy.
From Inquirer: Camden Test Scores compared for 2004, 2005 and 2006. (The 2006 is honest testing.)

PLEA OFFERS REJECTED June 12 - Four defendants rejected plea offers. They are: Michael Hailey, 65, Patricia Johnson, 57, Juanita Worthy, 60, and her daughter, Keah Worthy, 31.

JOHNSON GUILTY PLEA Jan 29, 2008 - Patricia Johnson pleaded guilty to illegally collecting more than $14,000 from parents and teachers for field trips that were already included in the school budget. She also admitted she conspired with three other school district workers to be paid for after-school meetings that were never scheduled.

As part of her plea agreement, Johnson agreed to testify against co-defendants including retired principal of the school Michael Hailey. Johnson had been the chief administrator at the school under Hailey. The plea agreement does not call for a set sentence. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept 22.

Hailey is scheduled to go on trial in July. The Worthy defendants, both Evesham residents, and Hailey are scheduled for trial in August in connection with the leadership council vouchers.

KEAH WORTHY PLEADS GUILTY October 24 - Keah Worthy, 33, pleaded guilty to a theft charge for her part in a scheme to bilk her district out of $25,000 for meetings that never took place. She admitted to submitting false paperwork to try to get paid for fictitious council meetings. The councils were created through the so-called Abbott court decisions.

The state will recommend probation when she is sentenced on Dec. 5.

Still pending are charges against Hailey stemming from the meetings and field trips and against the elder Worthy regarding the meetings.

A spokesman for the state attorney general declined to comment on the status of the grand-jury investigation into the rigging of 2005 state reading and math tests at the Wilson and Wiggins schools.

HAILEY PLEADS GUILTY November 3 - Hailey pleaded guilty today to official misconduct to March 19, 2007 charges of official misconduct and attempted theft by deception, according to the Attorney General's office. The state will recommend, under the plea agreement Hailey made, a sentence of three to five years in state prison.

Lincolnton, NORTH CAROLINA

GUILTY
Mar 22, 2007 - Jeremiah Wood, 28, an East Lincoln High School teacher, was arrested, accused of having inappropriate contact with a 15-year-old student at school.

The charge is one count of taking indecent liberties with a student by school personnel. He turned himself in at the sheriff's office. He was released on bond.
(Photo courtesy WCNC)
Full Name: Jeremiah Howard Wood

Lincoln County Sheriffs Office is a great site.. No press release online yet.
Check out their FAQs.

GUILTY PLEA to sexual battery. [Source: N.C. Board of Education]

LICENSE ACTION February 2008 Action: License Revoked. Reason: Guilty plea to sexual battery. [Source: N.C. Board of Education]

Elkview, WEST VIRGINIA

Sentenced to 42 months and probation for life-under the direct supervision of a federal probation officer.

GUILTY PLEA Nov 14, 2006 - Garland Eary, 54, a fifth grade teacher at Pinch Elementary School, pleaded guilty to child pornography possession.

Sentencing is scheduled for March 13.
Full name: Garland Lenn Eary

Feb 9, 2007 - Correction to state. (Thanks to a reader.)
Eary is still shown as a teacher at the West Virginia Department of Education school directory.

U.S. Attorney's Office News Release dated Oct 17, 2006.

SENTENCED Mar 22 - After pleading guilty in November, Eary was sentenced to 42 months in prison. He will be on probation for life. He gave up his teaching certificate to the state.

U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver described Eary’s child porn collection as “revolting to the senses,” according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Copenhaver said that by being a “willing consumer” of child pornography, Eary supported the sexual abuse of children, according to the release. [We link to below.]

Three former colleagues of Eary wrote to the court to support him.

U.S. Attorney's Office News Release dated Mar 21, 2007.
"EARY will be under the direct supervision of a federal probation officer for the remainder of his life."

Oct 5 - Lawsuit filed to end pension benefits.

Officials at the state’s public retirement board are trying to end pension benefits for a former Kanawha County teacher who pleaded guilty last year to having child porn.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Kanawha Circuit Court, a lawyer for the state Consolidated Public Retirement Board asks the court to terminate benefits for Garland Lenn Eary.

Eary’s “less than honorable service” renders him ineligible to receive benefits, according to the lawsuit.

Morristown, TENNESSEE

Mar 19, 2007 - No criminal charges have been filed against Michael Crosby, 36, a teacher at Morristown-Hamblen High School East, but he was dismissed for allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct with a student.

[For space considerations, continued here.]

JUDGE RECUSES HIMSELF June 9, 2008 - Judge Kindall D. Lawson has recused himself from deciding Michael Crosby’s appeal of his firing by the Hamblen County Board of Education. Whoever is appointed will probably want to hold another hearing, said Scott Reams, the board’s attorney.

Crosby was fired from his teaching position at Morristown-Hamblen High School East in 2007 on charges of unprofessional conduct and insubordination related to his alleged relationship with a female student and because of e-mails sent to another teacher via the school’s computer system.

While the girl told the school board that she did not have a sexual relationship with Crosby, numerous other witnesses testified she had told them she was having sex with Crosby.

Crosby’s attorney, Robert L. Jolley of Knoxville, maintained that there was no proof that Crosby had a sexual relationship with the girl and that by allowing hearsay testimony, the school board made its decision based on evidence not admissible in a court of law.

Reams countered that Crosby’s relationship with the girl did not have to be sexual in nature to constitute an inappropriate relationship for a teacher to have with a student. He cited the testimony of one witness who said he had seen Crosby and the girl kissing and hugging in the back room of a business Crosby owned and where the girl worked.

At the time of the school board’s hearing on Crosby, the girl was living in Crosby’s mother’s house, Reams said.

"There was ample evidence that there was an inappropriate relationship," Reams said. "Clearly, Mr. Crosby should have been disciplined. If the board had not done so, it would have been violating its responsibility to the students and to other employees."

In his appeal, Crosby alleges he did not receive adequate notice of the charges against him and that the board’s decision violated his right to freedom of speech.

Jolley maintained there was no evidence that the other teacher was offended by Crosby’s e-mails, that the e-mails were sent after work hours and that disciplining Crosby over them was a violation of his rights.

On the other hand,
Mar 22, 2007 - A Wisconsin teacher who was fired and the charges were later dismissed, is appealing his firing. Dennis Bravick, was accused in Mar 2005 of four counts of invasion of privacy when prosecutors said he entered the girls locker room on several occasions while female students were changing.

A year later - Mar 2006 - all 4 charges were dismissed.
A year later - Mar 2007 - he is appealing to get his job back.