Lawrence, MASSACHUSETTS

SCHOOL DISTRICT STORY OF THE DAY
Such districts are poverty traps.

March 29, 2008 - Police are asking why they were not notified by the school when a 12-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a classmate. Police only learned of the assault five days later when the father brought his daughter to the police.

The state's mandatory reporting law requires that teachers and school officials report possible abuse of children. Assistant Superintendent Mary Lou Bergeron confirmed that the School Department is conducting its own internal investigation as to why police weren't notified about the incident that happened before the Easter break.

"It was reported by the teacher (to the assistant principal) and some how or another the communication didn't get followed through. ... That's our standing protocol, that we report it immediately. Our initial contact with police is the school resource officer," she said.

The school principal did not find out until Monday when the father came to the school. When he asked school officials about what they planned to do, the father said he was told the student would receive a suspension. When he pressed what other action would be taken, he said school officials told him that his daughter could be transferred to another class or to a different school.

The 13-year-old boy reached over to the girl's shirt and pulled the top of it out and then looked down her shirt. The girl told police she heard a the teacher telling him "to stop doing that," police said. The teacher denies that he witnessed the incident.

PREVIOUS INCIDENT

This is the second case in recent weeks of an alleged sexual assault of a 12-year-old female student on school grounds.

Two Frost School students were arrested late last month on charges of pushing a female classmate into a school closet and fondling her. A 12-year-old boy was charged with indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. A 13-year-old boy was charged with assault and battery and battery on a child under 14.

WHAT WE FOUND

South Lawrence East Middle School Rates a 1 (out of 10) at Greatschools.net The school, like many in Lawrence, is 81% HISPANIC. The district spends $13,190 per student, compared to a state average of $11,642 for test scores results where only 14% of fifth-graders are proficient in math. Statewide is 51%. (Proficiency isn't a whiz bang performance. It means at grade level.) It gets worse by grade 7 and 8, dropping to 12% and 11%. Lawrence Rates 2 overall for their schools.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education information on the school is bleak. The Hispanic school population has risen to 85% in the current school year. Graphs

PAYING MORE FOR LESS The average teacher salary was $56,282 in 2006. (Found at bottom of information page.) A new contract with teachers signed last month granted them an 8% raise.

Under the current contract, teachers in Lawrence earn a basic salary of $37,000 annually. Those with a master's degree and four years of experience earn $46,229. A step 10 teacher with a master's degree makes $63,514, and the salary increases to $70,000 for a teacher with a doctorate.

Look at the size of their budget at the story. The school district is " the largest employing agency in the city with just under 2,200." (Found in nepotism story.) Not unsuprisingly, the school does not offer school choice.

SCHOOL DEMOGRAPHICS Standard & Poors School Matters on the 2007 school demographics indicates that while 86.4% are economically disadvantaged, only 14.6% are classified as language learners. In other words, language or lack of English is not the problem.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE The elected school committee (same as school board elsewhere) has a website that is not current. There are no school agendas or school committee meeting minutes there or at the Lawrence city website.

Lawrence, Massachusetts entry at Wikipedia explains the immigrant population. See Troubles of the 1980s and 1990s.
Category OOI - Our Own Investigation
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MANDATORY REPORTING Readers might recall a 2004 story when two boys in Columbus, Ohio forced a girl, who was developmentally disabled, to perform oral sex in the school's auditorium. The story made national headlines for days. Less well covered was the fact that the school principal was subsequently tried for failing to report a sexual assault and found not guilty, but it took another three years to fire her. TT entry for Regina Crenshaw.

Few teachers or administrators are ever prosecuted for failure to report as required by law. It's hardly worth the effort as it is a misdemeanor and no teacher or administrator that we know of has lost a license for it.

See our links for Mandatory Reporting requirements.

Aurora, COLORADO

March 29,2 008 - Yvette Starzyk, 26, a substitute teacher at Hinkley High School, was arrested on suspicion of having sexual relations with a 15-year-old male student in 2004. She is charged with sexual abuse of a child by one in a position of trust and is being held on $20,000 bond.

She was fired last Thursday, four days after the Aurora School District began investigating the allegations.












She is charged with sexual abuse of a child by one in a position of trust and is being held on $20,000 bond. Police began their investigation after a school resource officer at Hinkley reported concerns related to Starzyk to the Crimes Against Children Unit
Photos: Aurora Police Department

Police said they believe there may be more victims involved with Starzyk and are asking anyone with information to contact Det. Chris Fanning at (303) 739-6096.

Fort Worth, TEXAS

Registered sex offender for the rest of his life.
Sentence? Deferred adjudication. - Meaning that after seven years, there will be no finding of guilt, the case will be dismissed, and he will not have a conviction on his record.

March 29, 2008 - Philip Walker, 59, a music teacher at Westpark Elementary School, who touched a student's breast in an apparent "moment of weakness" has been sentenced to seven years' deferred adjudication probation.

Walker reached a plea-bargain agreement Thursday and pleaded guilty to indecency-fondling in exchange for the sentence. Walker's attorney, said his client voluntarily surrendered his teaching certificate

Walker must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and can never teach children again.
Full Name: Philip Lee Walker

Lewiston, MAINE

Red flags are at FULL MAST on this one.

March 28, 2008 - A 27-year-old male teacher who is out on bail accused of molesting four students - ages 7 and 8 - wanted his bail conditions changed so that he could have contact with children under age 18 outside his family.

His attorney explained,

[Walter] McKee explained that the request was made pending Raymond's trial so that he would be able to socialize and "isn't just sitting alone, isolated.

The District Attorney objected and asked that even contact with family members under 18 be supervised. The judge agreed.

TT entry for Raymond James

Blue Hill, MAINE

Decades of persistent abuse of children and finally a prosecution.

March 28, 2008 - Howard Evans, 64, pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault and one count of unlawful sexual contact with a teenage male.

A former teacher at Liberty School, an alternative school that closed in December 2007, Evans had been named in two previous lawsuits filed in 2006 and 2007 that allege sexual misconduct. Both civil suits, which have since been settled, sought several thousand dollars in damages. While the financial details of the settlements have not been disclosed.

Evans had been a licensed massage therapist and acupuncturist. He voluntarily surrendered his license to practice last year after a complaint was filed against him with the state of Maine Board of Complementary Health Care Providers alleging “sexual impropriety,” according to a consent agreement.

The surrender of his license was part of the consent agreement with the board, the Maine Attorney General and the Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation.
His trial is scheduled tentatively for August 1.

Evans is the former chairman of the Blue Hill Planning Board.
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From The Working Waterfront (June 2007): A support group was formed in March in the Blue Hill community made up of parents, friends, former friends, and colleagues of the accused who also feel angry and betrayed.

The abuse goes back decades. Evans wrote parents in 1996, apologizing for the damage he had done to their son between 1984 and 1986.

In the letter, Evans admitted to “The sexualizing of a deep trust and friendship” and enclosed a check “as a way of creating a final end to the abuse and harm” he had caused. Evans wrote, “What I did to Nat will never happen again with any young person entrusted to my care.”

Brush, COLORADO

In Arizona, child pornography can net a sentence of 200 years.
In Colorado, pffft, probation is the norm and even a misdemeanor.

Feb 26, 2008 - David Davies, 53, a former Brush teacher convicted in 2007 of possession of child pornography is back in Morgan County to face probation violation charges. A probation revocation hearing is scheduled for March 27.

Davies was teaching in Brush, Colorado, when he was arrested in 2006. He entered a guilty plea in Morgan County Court in March 2007 and was placed on five years’ probation in June 2007. The probation was transferred to Missouri.

Officials in the 13th Judicial District probation office indicated that Davies would be facing child pornography charges, possibly federal charges, in Missouri.

TT - Let's hope the feds bring charges. They don't screw around with perverts.

GUILTY PLEA & SENTENCING March 28, 2008 - Davis pleaded guilty Thursday to a probation violation. sentenced Thursday in Morgan County Court to a year jail - not prison - for probation violation in a child pornography case.

HE WAS ARRESTED AGAIN in Missouri last month on new child pornography charges. It is expected that he will be moved back to Missouri to face charges there. Those could include federal charges. After the Missouri case is concluded, he could face additional child pornography charges in Florida and Colorado.

TT - One year in jail is brutal by Colorado standards. Heck, if he had been, say, a local music talent or a playwright or someone dear to the community, he might have gotten probation. But he'd have to live in Aspen.

Child Pornography and Educators
TT - List sentenced for child pornography.
TT - List guilty but not yet sentenced for child pornography.

Teacher Ethics Bill

Teacher Ethics bill passes senate in Florida.

March 27, 2008 - Senate Bill 1712, known as “The Ethics in Education Act,” passed 38-0 in the Senate.

The bill would prohibit schools from entering confidentiality agreements with teachers who get in trouble.

The bill also provides that any public officer or public employee, whether working in schools or elsewhere in the public sector, forfeits their right to state retirement benefits if convicted of lewd and lascivious conduct or sexual battery involving minors.

The Senate earlier this month passed a resolution asking Congress to help solve that problem by passing a national ethics standard.
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TT - SB 1712 history text (html)
You can track the bill at the history link.

The bill would also classify certain teacher offenses as a breach of public trust.

The bill provides that a district school superintendent or district school board member forfeits his or her salary for a specified period following failure to report allegations of misconduct by instructional or administrative personnel.

Requires charter schools to adopt ethical standards for all employees. And prohibits confidential agreements.

Provides for the suspension the educator certificate of a person who knowingly fails to report child abuse or suspected or actual misconduct by instructional personnel.

SB 1742 urges Congress to support the passage of laws establishing ethical standards for professional educators and to support a national clearinghouse to strengthen state efforts in the reporting, screening, and sharing of critical information relative to educator misconduct, etc.

SB 1742 history text (html)
You can track the bill at the history link.

Leavenworth, KANSAS

March 27, 2008 - Mohamed Dirshe, 26, a substitute teacher in Leavenworth schools, was arrested March 17 and faces three felony counts of unlawful sexual relations and three felony counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor for illicit purposes.

Police said one of the incidents involved a student from Immaculata High School while the other two involved a Leavenworth High School student. Dirshe is accused of inviting two 16-year-old male students to his home, giving them alcohol and having illegal sexual relations with them while they were under the influence.

Mar 27 Substitute teacher from Somalia charged with sexual misconduct

Springdale, ARKANSAS

March 26, 2008 - Richard Smith, 55, an elementary teacher at Salem Lutheran School, was arrested Wednesday in connection with felony distributing, possessing, or viewing child pornography.

Smith teaches fourth and fifth grade at the school. Police were alerted by a tipster who told police Smith had images of child pornography on his home computer.

Smith voluntarily came to the Springdale Police Department for questioning and confessed to having images of children, toddlers to preteens, engaged in sexual activity, according to police. He admitted to downloading the images from various Web sites on the Internet over the past six years, police said.

Full Name: Richard Lester Smith

Smith was fired Wednesday. [TT - See how easy that is when it's not a public school?]

Washington County Detention Center inmate information.

INDICTED May 30 - A federal grand jury indicted Smith with six counts of knowing receipt of child pornography transported in interstate and foreign commerce and one count of knowing possession of a computer containing images of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct shipped in interstate and foreign commerce. A jury trial is scheduled for July 22.

Background checks

March 26, 2008 - Legislators are considering a bill to extend criminal background checks. Two separate bills filed last week seek to broaden the Child Protection Act, which determines what information school districts can receive from background checks conducted by State Police.

Currently, school districts are provided with that information going back only 10 years.

The bills, which will be heard in committee after the legislative session begins March 31, would remove the 10-year limit for convictions outside the Child Protection Act.

The legislation was prompted by the arrest of a school janitor who had been hired despite known prior arrests. School officials hired Schwertz despite the fact that he was serving five years of probation for bank fraud when he applied to work in St. Tammany schools and that two protective orders had been taken out against him, by his fiancee and by his parents. He had also been convicted of DWI.

He was arrested in March and is facing seven counts of aggravated rape and two counts of child molestation.

Joan Hunt, deputy counsel for the Department of Education, said the teachers union has traditionally opposed strengthening the law for fear that changes would encroach on privacy rights.

TT - What a surprise.

Santa Fe, TEXAS

March 26, 2008 - Michael Ingersoll, 29, a social studies teacher at Santa Fe High School, was arrested on charges of sexual assault of a child and improper relationship between an educator and student.

Ingerson was arrested at the high school by Texas Rangers. He remains in jail on $80,000 bond.

“The investigation ... was initiated after the parents of the 16-year-old girl found e-mail communications between their daughter and the accused,” [Galveston County District Attorney Kurt] Sistrunk said. “Further investigation revealed that the child was sexually assaulted by the accused at his home in Santa Fe.”

Ingersoll taught at the high school for two years. He was suspended with pay.

Home Schooling

March 26, 2008 - California court agrees to rehear homeschooling case

The 2nd District Court of Appeal agreed Tuesday to schedule another hearing in the case of a Southern California couple it ordered to send their children to a conventional school. The children were educated at home by their mother, who is not a credentialed teacher.

The court ruled that parents who home school their children had to hold teaching credentials.

The court says it plans to solicit more briefs on whether non-credentialed parents have a constitutional right to teach their children at home and to rehear the case in June.
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TT - Not all public school teachers are credentialed. It varies from district to district in California, with some districts having as low as 70% of the teachers credentialed. Which made the appellate court decision ill-considered and impetuous. (Which is nothing new for that court.)

State data on teacher credentials and experience. By County

For instance, Antelope Valley Schools range from 72% to 90% teachers with full credentials.
(Defined as "Teacher has completed a teacher preparation program and holds a preliminary, clear, professional clear or life credential.")

So, if parents must have a credential, so, too, all teachers in the classroom would have to be credentialed. No more "emergency permits" or "waivers. It would close down most schools in the state.

Education Reform (NOT)

Partisan politicking with the safety of children.

March 26, 2008 - A Calfiornia senate committee on education approved a bill that would allow California to automatically suspend teachers' credentials when they have been convicted of a sex offense or other serious crime in another state.

The bill (SB 1110) was introduced by Jack Scott (D-Pasadena) would require the California Teacher Credentialing Commission to automatically suspend a teacher's license if it had been revoked in another state. Credentials also could be revoked after a criminal conviction that limits a person's contact with children.

The other bill (SB1105) that was held over for "more information" was introduced by Bob Margett, (R-Arcadia) would address the problem of teachers who are accused of sexual misconduct in California but enter no contest pleas to a lesser offense can sometimes retain their teaching credentials. It is a "no contest" loophole.

The credentialing commission's attorney, Mary Armstrong, said current law allows teachers who plead no contest to be treated differently than those who plead guilty. Armstrong said teaching is the only profession that draws the distinctionArmstrong said teaching is the only profession that draws the distinction.

[TT - A no contest plea is an admission that if the case went to court, the defendant would likely be found guilty. For all intents, it is a guilty verdict and is treated as such in sentencing and in the criminal record.]

The Teacher Credentialing Commission sponsored both bills.

The California Teachers Association, the state's largest teachers union, testified against both of them.

The committee delayed action on Margett's bill so he could address the concerns about due process raised by the teachers union.
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INFO: Members of the Senate Education Committee.

TT - If a teacher pleads guilty or is found guilty of a sex offense, they immediately lose their license. However, if a teacher pleads no contest - which is essentially agreeing that they would be found guilty in court and is treated EXACTLY like a guilty verdict or guilty plea - the teacher remains suspended until a final decision by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing is made.

Not mentioned in the news story was this provision in Margett's bill:

Removes the one-year limitation for making adverse action findings available to employing school districts, thereby requiring the CTC to make the findings available indefinitely.

Margett's bill would correct the "no contest" loophole and the one-year limitation on public records, but it is unlikely that it will be passed, now or any time in the future despite being supported by:

• California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (Sponsor)
• California District Attorneys Association
• California School Boards Association
• Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
• School Innovations and Advocacy

The bill can be tracked here.

Tucson, ARIZONA

Former teacher acquitted on sex charges, now accused of murder.

March 26, 2008 - Netzahualcoyotl Ramos, 34, is being held on a charge of first-degree murder of two men in a drug deal that went bad. He is being held on a $1 million bond.

Ramos, along with Vincent A. Valenzuela, 21, were arrested on first-degree murder charges and identified as the shooters in an incident that began as a drug deal involving crack cocaine and marijuana, court documents show

Last September, Ramos was acquitted on six counts of sexual conduct with a 13-year-old student.
Full Name: Netzahualcoyotl G. Ramos

Another Florida teacher investigated

March 26, 2008 - Another Tampa teacher is under investigation. Police confirm that a Middleton High School teacher is being investigated after a student reported seeing the teacher engaged in text messaging with another student.

Last Thursday, Freedom High teacher Mary Jo Spack was arrested and charged with having sex with a student.The week before last, deputies arrested 28-year-old Stephanie Marie Ragusa and charged her with 5 counts of lewd and lascivious battery involving a student. Last October, police arrested Middleton High teacher Christina Butler after she admitted having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student.

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WHAT WE AT TT FOUND:
Pasco County/Hillsborough Female teachers. (age) Story date. Allegations.

TT entry for Mary Jo Spack (age 45)
---- Hillsborough County Schools
---- Arrested March 20. Sex with two boys 17 and 18.
TT entry for Stephanie Ragusa (age 28)
---- Hillsborough County Schools
---- Arrested March 13. Sex with 14-year-old boy.
TT entry for Lisa Marinelli (age 40)
---- Pasco County Schools
---- Arrested March 20. Sex with 17-year-old boy.
TT entry for Christina Butler (age 33)
---- Hillsborough County
---- Arrested in October. Sex with a 9th grader.
TT entry for student suspended for reporting Butler.
TT entry for Jaymee Wallace (28)
---- Hillsborough County Schools
---- Sentenced Dec 2007. Lesbian sex with student.

Male Teachers
TT entry for Michael Black (28)
---- Pasco County Schools
---- Sentenced Jan 2008. Sex with 13-year-old girl.
TT entry for Michael Allen Welch (32)
---- Pasco County Schools
---- Arrested Oct 2007. Drug arrest.
TT entry for Ronald Lewis (35)
---- Hillsborough County Schools
---- Arrested Jan 2008. Sex with 17-year-old girl.
Same article: Christopher Gillis (22)
---- Hillsborough County Schools
Suspended, under investigation. Jan 2008

TT entry for John Sinibaldi (46)
---- Hillsborough County Schools
---- Suspended Nov 2007. Text msging student.
Same article: Christy Ayala, school secretary.
---- Hillsborough County
---- Accused molestation 15-year-old boy.

Wikipedia: Pasco, along with Hernando, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, comprise the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Teacher Quality

NEWSPAPER
EDITORIAL

March 25, 2008 - An editorial from the DesMoines Register asks the governor to veto HF 2645, the hastily-approved bill that at expands the power of public-employee unions.

Senate passage Monday came six after the proposal was introduced, when many Iowans were away during school districts' spring breaks. The measure surfaced Tuesday, March 18, in an amendment to House File 2645, which originally was expected only to tweak Iowa's collective-bargaining law.

March 26, 2008 - Jack L. Hill, president of the Iowa Association of School Boards, explained why the bill would strip school boards of much of their authority and their ability to fire teachers. Districts must have the flexibility to make the decision to terminate teachers. At present, their decisions can be taken to arbitration after which districts can appeal to courts to make a final determination.

The new bill removes the ability to appeal that decision to district court. School board decisions, overturned by adjudicators, are regularly upheld by the courts.

Sheridan, ARKANSAS

Cyber sex, reportedly on a school district computer. Sentenced (sorta) to probation.

Dec 17, 2007 - James Gatling, 58, a Sheridan Junior High School golf coach, was arrested and charged with sexual indecency with a child for after allegedly having sexually explicit Internet conversations with a person Gatling believed to be a 13-year-old female. It turned out to be a police officer.

Police say recorded webcam videos, now in evidence, show Gatling performing sexually explicit acts on himself, asking to meet with the "girl." Gatling allegedly admitted to authorities that he had used a Sheridan School District computer to engage in the sexually explicit conversations.

Conway police are filing similar charges against Gatling. Federal immigration and customs enforcement officials are also involved in the investigations.
Full Name: James Randy Gatling

Sheridan Coach Charged With Indecency
Former Coach Charged With Sexual Indecency Appears in Court
Sheridan coach arrested for sexual indecency <-- Source of Gatlin spelling

GUILTY PLEA & SENTENCING (sorta) March 26, 2008 - Gatlin pleaded guilty Monday to sexual indecency with a child and was sentenced to serve four years of probation. He must also register as a sex offender.

Vanceboro, NORTH CAROLINA

March 26, 2008 - John Rasberry, 33, a West Craven High School teacher, pleaded guilty to having sexual intercourse with a female student.

Rasberry was sentenced to 13 to 16 months in prison, suspended for 36 months. He was put on intense probation for six months and regular probation for 30 months. Rasberry, the father of two small children, has to turn in his state teacher's license and register as a convicted sex offender.

Full Name: John Franklin Rasberry
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Parents complained recently about how the school board handles complaints. Two teachers resigned during winter break, all for investigations about misconduct with students. TT entry.

Oswego, NEW YORK

March 26, 2008 - Jennifer Dempsey, 28, a Spanish teacher at Oswego High School, was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child for an alleged inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old male student.

Dempsey has been placed on paid leave.

It was Demspey's second suspension within two months, [Superintendent David] Fischer said.

She was suspended on Feb. 11 after parents complained to high school officials that Dempsey had sent inappropriate electronic messages to their children. Fisher said the messages were sent to "3 of 4" children. He declined to reveal the content of the messages.

Dempsey is due in Oswego City Court on April 3.

"At this point there are no allegations involving sexual contact," said Oswego County Assistant District Attorney Greg Oakes. Oswego Sheriff's Office Report (dated March 26, 2008)

Phoenix, ARIZONA

March 26, 2008 - Barrett Williams, 44, an elementary school teacher at Pendergast Elementary School, was sentenced to three years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.

Williams pleaded guilty last July. He will be a registered sex offender and will be on lifetime probation.

Williams was arrested after investigators, in October 2006, found child pornography on his computer, including images of boys younger than 12 engaged in various sex acts with adult men, she said."Williams was discovered because of his subscription to a billing company which was known to accept payment for Web sites supplying child pornography,"said [Sandy Raynor, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.]

He previously taught at West Side Private School in Glendale (from 1999 to 2001) and Northwest Community School in Phoenix (from 1996 to 1999 .)
Full Name: Barrett Keith Williams

Child Pornography and Educators
TT - List sentenced for child pornography.
TT - List guilty but not yet sentenced for child pornography.