Lowell, MASSACHUSETTS

The Lowell school district may soon require national background checks for volunteers and job candidates. This would include checking a person's background for criminal records in every state.

Unfortunately, the (New York Times-owned) Boston Globe illustrates the need by citing Severine E. Wamala, a math teacher at the high school who is a native of Uganda. He only became a U.S. citizen after immigrating in 1988 to get his doctorate at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. He hasn't been convicted. His case hasn't even gone to court.

Wamala had previously been arrested in New Hampshire but the school committee member did not know the details. He is currently being held on $1 million bail after he was arrested in 2006 on on 19 counts of incest and 11 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault.

In a letter to a newspaper (no longer online) Wamala proclaimed his innocence and referred to the arrests (plural):

Being arrested does not mean one committed a crime. One can be arrested for a number of reasons. False charges is one of them. Thirteen years ago as claimed in the newspapers I was arrested numerous times for false charges. During the period 1992 to 1994, my ex-girlfriend filed 36 false charges in nine different Massachusetts courts....

If you want to make the case for national background checks, you should at least make sure the teacher cited has been found guilty.

Smyrna, TENNESEE

Mar 29, 2007 - Adlai "Jay" Gill, technical education teacher at Stewarts Creek Middle School, was arrested and charged with simple possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia March 18.

He was arrested in July 1995 when Gill and his wife assaulted each other and both were arrested. In October 1996, he was charged with driving under the influence, a charge that was later reduced to reckless driving. The latest arrest was after his wife called police, concerned that he would leave her home intoxicated.

As I approached the vehicle, I observed Mr. Adlai Gill sitting in the driver's seat with a lit marijuana cigarette in his right hand. He was using a pair of yellow needle nose pliers as a roach clip,"

Manning wrote. "I could smell a strong odor of what I believed to be alcohol as well as marijuana smoke coming from his person and vehicle."

Gill is on paid medical leave until April 16.

His brother is Harry Gill, Jr, the Rutherford County Director of Schools.

August 11 - The Daily News Journal (Murfreesboro) reports that Gill recieved a diversion that include $1,064 in fines, two months of drug screening and an 11-month 29-day suspended in a story about his returning to school in the fall.

Finley, NORTH DAKOTA

TRIAL DATE SET: Jan 4, 2007 - A trial date has been set for Jonathan Champagne, charged with sexual assault and corruption or solicitation of a minor. He's accused of having sex with a 17-year-old female student.

Champagne's trial is set for February 21st. From KFYR 550AM: "Champagne was hired as a math teacher at a high school in Crookston (Minnesota) but he was fired last month because of the pending charges."

GUILTY PLEA AND SENTENCE: Mar 28 - Champagne pleaded guilty to corruption of a minor. Under the plea agreement, he was sentenced to five years in prison with all but 60 days suspended. Two other counts of corruption of a minor, one count of sexual assault and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor were dropped.

LICENSE REVOKED: May 10 - The Education Standards and Practices Board voted unanimously to revoke the license of Jonathan Champagne. Assistant Attorney General Bill Peterson says state law mandates the revocation.

Brandon, MISSISSIPPI

Lawsuit: "...negligent misrepresentation of Ozborn as a teacher with good moral character."

Nov 21, 2006 - David Lee Ozborn, (David Ozborn) 38, Richland High School biology teacher, was sentenced to 40 years for sexual battery of two students. He had impregnated both students (ages 14 and 15) twice each and arranged for out of state abortions. He will not be eligible for parole.

The Sun-Herald reported that Ozborn's bond had been revoked in June after he allegedly tried to run off the road the car carrying one of his accusers and her parents. He was charged with intimidating a witness.

Mar 28, 2007 - The family of one of the victims filed a lawsuit against the district, the school, and principal Stanley Shows. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified monetary damages, and they're requesting a jury trial. Among other things, the suit alleges "The suit also alleges breach of duty to K.B., infliction of emotional distress, and negligent misrepresentation of Ozborn as a teacher with good moral character. "

Atlanta, GEORGIA

Mar 28, 2007 - Chelsea Gourd, 20, a substitute teacher, was arrested at the middle school where she taught. She was accused of stealing 6 credit cards and unknown amount of money on Monday and Tuesday from other teachers at the school. She is being held without bond, charged with financial transaction card theft.

A man was caught on a security camera signing some of the card receipts and police believe Gourd sold or traded the cards that were use at various businesses. Officials say they believe there will be more arrests.

Glouster, MASSACHUSETTS

School secretary accused of sex with student was a former on-call masseuse for a Rowley motel. NOT that there's anything wrong with that.

Mar 28, 2007 - Natalie A. Nemeskal, 31, a secretary at North Shore Technical High School., pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of selling or delivering alcohol to minors and one count of felony witness intimidation. The charges stem from a party in her Hamilton home during which police said she gave students booze and had sex in a hot tub with an 18-year-old from Gloucester.

On Jan. 19, North Shore Regional Vocational School District Superintendent Amelia O’Malley fired Nemeskal after she found out the secretary, hired last fall, had been socializing with the Middleton school’s students. A teacher learned of the matter from a 16-year-old girl who had ridden home with Nemeskal, according to court documents. The student said she was concerned about Nemeskal’s well-being because she had been crying during the drive and suggested she wanted to harm herself.

The secretary gave the party on Jan 12. Also in the house at the time of the hot tub sex were Nemeskal’s 11-year-old daughter and her daughter’s friend, according to police. A neighbor turned the Nemeskal in.

Pre-trial hearing is April 24.

Lake Charles, LOUISIANA

Mar 27, 2007 - George Walker, a permanent substitute, was arrested is charged with 18 counts of stalking, iIndecent behavior with a juvenile, and soliciting for prostitution.

A female student claims walker made sexual remarks to her on a daily basis since she was sixteen, even offering her money for sexual favors. The sheriff's office says an investigation confirmed her allegations. The student is suing both Walker and Lake Charles Boston Principal Rodney Geyen, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which claims he instructed the girl not to take the matter to the school board.

No other news stories found at this time.

Warrenton, GEORGIA

Mar 28, 2007 - Thomas McDonald Jr., 34, principal at Warren County High School, pleaded guilty to propositioning a student. Prosecutors said they were prepared to use testimony that he behaved similarly in Burke County when he taught here.

He was charged after a four-month investigation that started when a 15-year-old student accused him of asking her for oral sex on school grounds. There were other problems: In 2001 he allegedly kissed a student, and in 2003 there was another alleged act of solicitation of sodomy.

After he pleaded guilty to solicitation of sodomy, he was sentenced to one year probation and fines.

Full Name: Thomas James McDonald Jr.

OUTRAGE OF THE DAY

A letter to parents who complained about a special education teacher who was later found guilty of abuse.

Source: here.

Psychological or Behavioral Screenings

Mar 28, 2007 -
After the fourth district employee accused of sexual misconduct this year, Broward County school officials said they must scrutinize the district's hiring practices. They might add psychological or behavioral screenings.

School Board members Eleanor Sobel and Jennifer Gottlieb suggested the district add psychological or behavioral screenings, which are not part of the process. The district also does not conduct drug tests on applicants.

The newspaper reports that more than 17,000 teachers work for Broward schools. They also give space for a a forensic psychologist who specializes in the treatment of sexual predators and offenders, who cautions against psychological screenings. Besides questioning their legality, he said such a small portion of educators are pedophiles that people would be misidentified."If you look at the number of teachers vs. the number of teachers doing this, it's a minuscule proportion," Alexander said. "It would be impossible to screen for this."
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TT - You can't screen for a sexual predator. Most teachers are not arrested for child pornography, or pedophilia, but for having sexual relationships with their students. Most teachers who get involved with students don't start out to seduce them or be seduced. It's a question of opportunity and woeful lack of self-discipline.

What you can screen for is suitability to be a teacher with an emphasis on maturity, responsibility, commitment and character. How hard is that to judge? How hard would it be to ask an applicant to sit at a desk and write an essay on values? Besides verifying that they can actually spell, it might signify serious intent to find the best candidates.

Departments of Education and school systems have become hiring factories with little interest or concern with the ethical training of their teachers or administrators. Except for that once-a-year, mandated training exercise that involves sitting around a table with a cup of coffee in a styrofoam container, the subject is pretty much a non-goer. The teacher knows it. The principal knows it. The student can sense it. Parents fear that's the case. Headlines prove it.

We aren't looking for pedophiles in schools! We want teachers who act appropriately and maturely with their students. No teacher should have a MySpace page to engage students in an off-campus dialogue. They shouldn't be text-messaging them. Both should be grounds for immediate unpaid suspension. Sex with a student, even if the student is of legal age, should be criminalized.

How difficult is it to act like an adult?

Endicott, NEW YORK

Mar 27, 2007 - Jo-Ann Peters, a teacher at Linnaeus W. West School in the Union-Endicott School District, was arrested, charged with felony grand larceny.

She allegedly stole instructional materials from her school and putting the stolen items for sale on the E-Bay Internet auction site. State police executed a search warrant at the teacher's town of home this morning and found a large quantity of things from the school.

TT - Earlier this month, a Connecticut teacher was arrested allegedly for stealing books from the town elementary school and selling them on E-Bay.

Peculiar, MISSOURI

Substitute teachers are strangers in the classroom. Strangers to the administration. Strangers to the students. Strangers to other teachers. They're paid visitors and, increasingly, they are sources of major problems.

Mar 27, 2007 - Karen Charron, 58, a substitute in the Ray-Pec School District was arrested for allegedly being under the influence. (It was Raymore-Peculiar Middle School.)

She was serving her second day in the district when a staff member reported a change in the teacher's behavior. Charron was arrested and charged with possession of an open container and endangering the welfare of a child.

The school district said it conducts background checks on all substitute teachers, and it called the behavior "unacceptable."

[TT - Background checks do not predict behavior. They only tell you what the individual did in the past. Doesn't the district require professional or personal references? An interview? Citing background checks, increasingly, is a way for some school authorities to say, "It's not our fault."]

Elyria, OHIO

The former teacher is not alleged to have harmed any student but what did the students learn about the profession when they found out about his past? Would it have made a difference if he had been required to take a pre-employment lie detector test with the question, "Have you done anything that would, if known, disqualify you from obtaining or holding a certification to be a teacher in this, or any other state?"

Mar 27, 2007 - A former teacher won't be teaching again. He left prison after serving a year for throwing the body of his infant son into a quarry.

Thomas Truelson Jr., 27, admitted in 2005 that he threw the baby into a quarry in 1999 after his girlfriend - the baby's mother - killed the newborn. The mother, Jennifer Coleman, 24, is serving six years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and six other charges.

In 2005, Coleman told friends she had killed the newborn. By then, Coleman was dating someone else, and Truelson had gone on to college and graduated and was working as a teacher at a school for students with behavioral problems at Lorain County Academy in Oberlin.

At the time the baby was killed, he was 19, and she was not yet 16.

TT - Coleman appeared on Oprah Winfrey show last year to discuss her case and urge mothers of unwanted children to turn their babies over to authorities. The baby Coleman killed was born in a toilet in her home. Coleman stabbed the baby to death and Truelson stuffed the body into a rock-filled duffle bag and threw it into a quarry. A recreational diver found it weeks later.

San Antonio, TEXAS

Lurid accusations that, if true, are disturbing.

Mar 27, 2007 - Enrique Martinez, 44, a former teacher's aide at at Nimitz Middle School, was arrested and charged with aggravated sexual assault.

According to a police affidavit, a 19-year-old man went to police March 7. He "told police that Martinez molested him more than 100 times over a period of five years, beginning when he was 13."

Martinez lured the male and other boys to his beauty shop, promising him an after-school job, the affidavit stated. But Martinez instead asked the male to become his lover, which "freaked out" the complainant, who left the shop.

Martinez then went after the boy and told him he would give him money if he didn't tell anyone what had happened, the affidavit stated. The boy then went back to the shop, where Martinez performed sex acts on the boy in exchange for several hundred dollars. The relationship continued for five years.

The man stopped allowing Martinez to perform sex acts and began assaulting him to get money out of him. The man also told police that he burglarized Martinez's home in February, which police verified, the affidavit stated.

Martinez is no longer employed at the school. The accuser is now 19-years-old.
KHOU is reporting that the teenager made the allegations after he was caught burglarizing Martinez’s home.
Full Name: Enrique Gill Martinez

Miramar, FLORIDA

Mar 27, 2007 - CBS 4 is reporting that a Miramar elementary school teacher who worked with autistic children is under investigation alleged inappropriate contact with a students at the school.

They spoke with a co-worker who did not want to be identified. The co-worker says that she reported the abuse to the school’s principal five months ago. She says the Broward County School District took him out of the classroom only last month.

The district says they temporarily reassigned him to a desk job away from children while they investigate. The story does not say when they removed him from the classroom.

TT - The district attorney is investigating. (A two-year investigation by the Herald-Tribune found that a large number of Florida schools and school districts are conducting their own investigations without adequately trained investigators, sometimes reaching agreements with the teacher that avoid involving the police or even other education agencies. Referring the matter to police for criminal investigation is sometimes delayed or avoided. )

Child Pornography

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Child Pornograhy

Teachers who pleaded guilty or no contest, not yet sentenced.

SEE Child Pornography updated lists.

Big Stone Gap, VIRGINIA

Mar 27, 2007 - Darlene Blagg, 36, a teacher's aide at Powell Valley High School, pleaded not guilty after being indicted on nine counts of taking indecent liberties with a juvenile under 18 while serving in a custodial or supervisory.

She is accused of accused of having an improper relationship with a 17-year-old student. The mother of the male student contacted police on Mar 13. The lead investigator said that Wise County school division was informed of alleged improprieties some time before the sheriff's department was made aware of the allegations.

A school administrator said Blagg resigned last week. Prosecutors and investigators were under the impression she had been dismissed before they knew about the case.

She is married and the mother of two children, ages 5 and 2.
A jury trial date is scheduled for June 26.

Mar 24 story (before arraignment) The male student's mother reported the allegations to the sheriff's department on March 13, about two weeks after complaining to school division authorities. The Sheriff's Co investigator said Blagg was "dismissed" from her job by school officials a week before they were notified of possible wrongdoing and began their investigation.
A school division official said that Blagg resigned last week.

May 27 - The Kingsport Times News: "A plea arrangement is also about to be tendered to Darlene Blagg, a former teacher’s aide at Powell Valley High School charged with an illicit relationship with a male student earlier this year. Elkins said a plea deadline is Wednesday in the Blagg case."

May 30 - Blagg was sentenced to three years, suspended except for 30 days. She must serve two years of supervised probation and one year of unsupervised probation and is required to register as a sex offender. For life.

[Whacked out reporter portrays the teacher spared jail by her victim by his agreement to the plea deal. He's 13-years-old. WAS THERE NO ADULT IN THAT COURTROOM?]

Dirty, filthy old man

"It is a form of offending which elicits the strongest feelings of abhorrence and repugnance."

Mar 27, 2007 - Jonathan Quick, 71, was sentenced to eight months after admitting he sexually abused pupils in his care in the 1970's and early 80's.

One of the students, David Young, a medical student who had been taught by Quick in the 1990s, committed suicide in the Phillipines in 2002.. That started an investigation pursued by his parents. Three months later they discovered he had been sexually abused by a teacher at Dollar Academy in 1990 in psychiatric reports that cite the abuse as the main reason for his depression and subsequent death.

With the asssistance of a former detective, who had helped a number of families who had suffered miscarriages of justice, they tracked down 500 students, eight of whom said they had been abuse. Quick pleaded guilty. Other former pupils told The Herald of their feelings of guilt and anger about the abuse they suffered.

TT - the location is Scotland. The affront to human dignity doesn't stop at the abuse. With the child pornography victim, the pictures remain forever, traded like playing cards, collected by perverts over the globe. For those sexually abused by authority figures, the shame, guilt, anger and vulnerability last a lifetime.

Background Checks

Certified teachers in Texas employed before 2003 have been exempt from national background checks.

Mar 26, 2007 - The Houston Chronicle reports that the Texas senate passed a bill that would require all public school teachers to submit fingerprints for a national criminal background check. It will mean fingerprinting 200,000 current teachers.

Texas has required national criminal background checks for all teaching candidates since 2003, but that law did not apply to teachers who were already certified. Under that law, they found 200 candidates had serious offences on record, including crimes against children and sexual misconduct.

TT - See Senate Bill 9 School Safety Act news release at Sen. Florence Shapiro's website. The bill, as introduced, would create a Texas clearinghouse that will be available to school districts and state agencies. See Texas Senate news.

TT - A New Jersey newspaper compared public records of those eligible for a public pension and another containing people charged with felonies and convicted of those or lesser crimes since the 1980s. They found 4 employees in North Jersey schools who had criminal records since they were employed. A fifth slipped through the cracks.

TT - The Philadelphia School District unwittingly hired a company to mediate student conflicts to reduce violence whose founder spent two years of a 10-year sentence in prison for a sex crime against his 7-year-old stepdaughter, not knowing he was here illegally after having been deported to his native Senegal. A criminal background check was done, but it looked only for crimes committed in Pennsylvania and didn't consider that he had an alias. No fingerprinting was required.