Mansfield, LOUISIANA

June 22, 2007 - School board member Barthlomew Claiborne was arrested in April for improper lane use causing an accident, leaving the scene of an accident and driving under suspension.

Jan. 1, caused the two-vehicle noninjury wreck at the corner of Crosby and Polk streets. He told the other driver that he did not have time to wait on officers, and he gave the woman one of his cards and left the scene.

Mansfield police contacted Claiborne and told him to bring his drivers license, vehicle registration and insurance information to the police station that afternoon. But Claiborne, who said he had a meeting to attend, did not show up until the next morning. Police had three arrest warrants waiting.

Clairborne paid a fine, but city officials wouldn't say how much.

Texas School Board Corruption

Story dated June 19, 2007 - Donna Independent School Board president George Hernandez was arrested and indicted in connection with a contract scandal in another school district. He's one of two contractors indicted by the U.S. Justice Department.

Also named in the 22 count Federal indictment were:
- three Pharr-San Juan- Alamo Independent School District (PSJA-ISD) trustees
- the husband of a PSJA-ISD trustee,
- the superintendent of the PSJA school district; and
- two contractors for soliciting and receiving bribes in exchange for taking official action benefiting the contractors for PSJA-ISD contracts

In all, seven defendants will face trial in August. The indictment charges all defendants with conspiracy to commit extortion.

Federal prosecutors claim the school superintendent and three board members took bribes from contractors, who wanted school construction projects. They're accused of getting cash, gifts, and personal favors in exchange for their votes and influence

Naturally, the school board decided to take no action against Hernandez, despite his arrest and indictment.

See School Board Member Arrested June 4, 2007
See FBI Arrested Donna School Board President June 5, 2007
See Multiple School Leaders Arrested June 5, 2007
See FBI: School Leader Got $600,000 in Bribes June 5, 2007

West Las Vegas, NEW MEXICO

June 22, 2007 - Four people were indicted in a West Las Vegas school district scandal. They include:

Bilingual education director Roberta Vigil ***

School board member Ralph Garcia

Superintendent Joe Baca

Bilingual assistant Beverly Ortega

Vigil is the wife of Rep. Richard Vigil, D-Las Vegas. She is also the sister-in-law of Robert Vigil, the former state treasurer who was convicted in federal court last September of attempted extortion. He resigned in October 2005 as lawmakers were considering whether to impeach him. He began serving a 37-month sentence in April.

Roberta Vigil was demoted to teaching elementary school. Ortega was fired. Baca retired this year. Garcia is a current school board member.

New Mexico Attorney General Press Release.

Watauga, TEXAS

First Reported Nov 28, 2006 -
Additional charges have been filed against Carl Mason Jr., 21, a daycare worker at Children's Palace Christian Learning Center, accused of molesting nine children from his pre-kindergarten class.

Mason is charged with six counts of indecency/fondling, one count of aggravated sexual assault, one count of possession of child pornography and one count of sexual performance by a child/promote, which includes the publication or distribution of sexual depictions of a child.

"Mason sent the school a letter on Sept. 1 saying that he had tried to change, but admitted that he had destroyed his teaching career, according to the search affidavit." He remains in jail.

UPDATE June 22, 2007 - SENTENCED - Mason pleaded guilty to seven charges of indecency with a child, two cases of sexual performance by a child and one case each of aggravated sexual assault of a child and possession of child pornography.

The former teacher was sentenced to 40 years on the aggravated sexual assault charge, 20 years each on the indecency cases and 10 years each on the possession and sexual performance charges. The sentences will run concurrently, prosecutors said.

Mason will be eligible for a parole in 20 years, authorities said.

He pleaded guilty on the day jury selection was to begin.

Wheeling, WEST VIRGINIA

June 22, 2007 - In West Virginia, the Consolidated Retirement Board, has ordered that pension benefits be terminated for about 25 public employees who were convicted of felonies.

During the past three years, the board has ordered that pension benefits be terminated for about 25 public employees who were convicted of felonies. According to published reports, some of them — including a teacher who sexually assaulted two students — have appealed the rulings.

Including county tax assessor Jerry Weaver.

Weaver, who had been assessor for 25 years, qualified for a state pension. But, by his own admission, he was involved in a vote-buying scheme for at least 14 of those years. Last year, he pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in federal court, and was sentenced to a year in prison.

Retirement board members voted to revoke Weaver’s pension benefits — stipulating that he could receive any money he paid into the retirement program, but would not be paid out of contributions made to it by the Public Employees Retirement System. In other words, Weaver can get his money back — but taxpayers’ money will not be spent to pad his pension.

TT - Public employees, including teachers and school administrators, don't seem to be deterred by the possibility of jail time for their offenses. Maybe an economic slap would get their attention.

Montoursville, PENNSYLVANIA

June 22, 2007 - A drivers' education teacher who had a blood alcohol level three times the limit when he crashed into the back of truck has been ordered into rehab.

If he completes the program, his record will be wiped clean. He's a first-time offender, but one who should know the dangers of drunk driving better than most.

Willingboro, NEW JERSEY

June 22, 2007 - School board member Christopher Walker who was elected in April is facing harrassment charges. He pleaded not guilty in court.

The school psychologist filed the charge against Walker for a confrontation at school when Walker went to talk about his son. He alleges that Walker repeatedly harrassed him during the school year.

The above is only part of the story. This is the same school district that faces criminal investigation after a state audit found the township school administrators falsified financial reports "to coverup the district's deteriorating position.” The district closed three schools and needed a state loan to cover a two-year, $10 million budget deficit.

The school board. Here
Hoping for a bailout in 2006.

You won't be surprised either to learn that the school rates a 2 at Greatschools.com There are 10 schools in the Willingboro Township School District, with one rated a 5.

Lakeland, FLORIDA

June 22, 2007 - A middle school teacher in Lakeland, Florida is still teaching despite three DUI convictions, a reckless driving conviction, resisting arrest without violence, crimial mischief, probation violation, a refusal to take a DUI test and a 2nd violation of probation of driving with a suspended license.

The principal, however, likes him and considers him a friend, which is why he has given the teacher several letters of recommendation. He, however, keeps the teacher on a one-year contract. Just in case.

TT - He still doesn't beat the Massachusetts teacher who has 5 drunk driving convictions and is still teaching - health.

The Ledger (Florida) amended the arrests to 2 DUI arrests; one was amended to reckless driving.

Keller, TEXAS

GRAND JURY DECLINES TO INDICT.

May 15, 2007 - A swim coach for the Carroll Independent School District, was arrested on suspicion of having sexual relations with a student.

The 17-year-old girl reported she had a sexual relationship, which began in March of 2007 with her high school swim coach," Keller police Lt. Brenda Slovak said in a written statement.

Keller and faces a charge of improper relationship between educator and student, a second-degree felony. He is accused of breaking a Texas law that criminalizes sexual relationships between teachers and students even if a student has reached the state's consensual age of 17 and agrees to the relationship.

May 16 - This is the second time in less than a year that a Carroll coach has been accused of having a sexual relationship with a student. William "Randy" Sherman II resigned in June as head coach of the Carroll Lady Dragons basketball team after Keller police began investigating him. Sherman was arrested in July on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old player at his Keller home, police have said.

The Tarrant County district attorney accepted the case against Sherman in September, but he has not been indicted, according to court records.

UPDATE June 21 - The grand jury DECLINED TO INDICT. Link

Little Rock, ARKANSAS

June 21, 2007 - Jeremy Lewis, 28, a music teacher at Daisy Bates Elementary, was arrested in an internet sting when he went to meet what he thought was a 14-year-old girl. He arrived with "sexual paraphernalia."

Lewis is married and the father of two.

Peekskill, NEW YORK

June 21, 2007 - A parent made a good point about his fifth-grade daughter being shown "Shrek the Third" in her classroom. For one, it was a bootleg copy as the movie is still playing in movie theatres. Then when his daughter told him the teacher said that a "friend had hooked him up" with the copy, the parent noted, "That's not exactly the message you want your fifth-grader to come with."

He doesn't want to see the teacher fired.

Trewhella said he thinks the apology should go to each of the fifth-graders and explain why it was wrong to show the movie. He said he has already talked to his daughter about "intellectual property."

But he also says that what really bothers him is how often teachers show non-educational videos in class, bootleg or not. His girls — he and his wife also have a sixth-grader — have recently seen the penguin cartoon "Happy Feet" and one of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" fantasies, he said.

"I run a candy and toy store," said Trewhella. "I completely understand about entertaining kids. But it has its time and place. ... In this day and age they've done so much to make educational movies entertaining."

Trewhella said his daughter was too embarrassed to talk to a reporter. Asked if she was embarrassed by him, he said, "In a word, yes, and so am I. But I'll get over it, and so will she."

TT - The school rates a 4 at Greatschools.com Only 55% of those fifth graders tested are meeting or exceeding state English Language Arts standards. The school has the lowest percentage students meeting or exceeding standards on English language of 9 local schools. The math isn't too much better.

Hopefully, the parent will run for school board.

Sulphur Springs, TEXAS

News Item dated June 17, 2007 - Heather Thompson, 30, a teacher and secondary coach at North Hopkins School, was arrested for improper relationship between an educator and a student. The victim is a 17-year-old boy.

Thompson resigned before she turned herself in.

Full Name: Heather Alicia Thompson

Wrentham, MASSACHUSETTS

It's just taxpayer money. What the heck.

June 21, 2007 - In what may be a trend, taxpayers are starting to question the grandiose payouts to school district administrators and principals. Many of the payouts are for bad hiring choices, a kind of "move on" payment intended to encourage the bad hire to retire or find other employment. Sometimes the district doesn't even supply a reason but hands out perks because they can.

A Wrentham selectman says he wants to know why the King Philip Regional School Committee voted to pay for lifetime health benefits for a former principal.

Edward Goddard said he wasn't satisfied with a statement by the School Committee's chairwoman, Claire Sullivan, at Monday's Town Meeting that she didn't "really feel comfortable getting into" the reasons for the vote.

"That's not good government," Goddard said.

Michael Levine retired as principal of King Philip Regional High School in 2004 but now works as principal of East Greenwich High School in Rhode Island. In an agreement signed before his retirement, the district agreed to pay 75 percent of his health insurance premiums once he retired. When he dies, the benefit would be transferred to his wife.

Some residents said they were outraged that the district will likely eventually spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on benefits for someone who now works at another school.

Selectmen, apparently, asked the Town Administrator to look at the closed door meeting in which the contract was discussed and voted on.

Dunnellon, FLORIDA

June 21, 2007 - Ralph Schollenberger, 35, an eighth grade teacher at Dunnellon Middle School, arrested on charges of lewd and lascivious battery of a former student whose age wasn't given.

Schollenberger claimed he was meeting the girl's older sister. The student doesn't have a sister.

June 22 - The girl was 15-years-old. Her mother contacted police when she was told by a neighbor that the two were having sex.

Andover, MASSACHUSETTS

June 21, 2007 - David Cobb, 71, a teacher at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, who was sentenced for attempted sexual assault of a 12-year-old boy and possessing hundreds of images of child porn is being released from prison after serving 11 years.

He was arrested in 1995 and dubbed "Pumpkin Man."

Cobb taught English at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., for three decades until his arrest in August 1995, when he was caught walking near his Farmington summer home with the boy, the backpack containing the porn, the pumpkin mask and a list of prices for sexual acts titled "Pay Scale for Helping Pumpkin."

He became infamous as the "Pumpkin Man," because he wore the mask while soliciting children.

Cobb later pleaded guilty in Maine to unlawful sexual contact with a 9-year-old girl and 12-year-old boy in 1985. Eligible for parole in 2003, he refused to enter a sex offender program and because of that, he was denied parole.

Cobb will be required to register as a sex offender within five days of his release.

See Eagle Tribune coverage. Union Leader has a picture of him.

City and State are locations of the school.

Nov 26 - A Superior Court judge granted the defense's motion to dismiss the state's motion to impose a deferred sentence.

Dearborn, MICHIGAN

June 21, 2007 - Steven Lysogorski, 37, who has worked in middle schools in Dearborn, and supervises students who receive detention and works with at-risk students, has been arrested after an internet sting when he went to meet what he thought was a 14-year-old boy.

Reportedly, Lysogorski was going to give the "boy" a cell phone for for anal and oral sex.

He is expected to be arraigned on Friday.

At the Detroit News site:
The arrest comes as Attorney General Mike Cox announced that 200 people listed as sex offenders in the state have pages on the popular online social networking site MySpace.

AG Press Release.

UPDATE June 22 - PLEADED NOT GUILTY ysogorski pleaded not guilty. A preliminary examination is scheduled for July 5.

Hoquiam, WASHINGTON

June 21 - The Daily World: Three teachers in one district in Washington have been accused of misconduct in the past 13 months.

(ONE) A football coach has been accused of sexual relations with a female student. He's 40, married with two children.

Then there was, (TWO)

In May of 2006, Harvey Billmaier, a special education teacher, was suspended for allegedly looking at pornographic images on his classroom computer. Then-superintendent Tim McCarthy also wrote in his report that Billmaier was suspected of “grooming behavior involving a high school student.”

It turned out that Billmaier, who is openly gay, was a writer for his boyfriend’s soft porn movie company based out of Ocean Shores. The district says Billmaier allegedly told a male student, “When you turn 18, you could be in movies” and made other similar statements during class.In an interview with The Daily World at the time, Billmaier admitted to the computer charges but denied the grooming accusations.

A year later, Billmaier retains his teaching license, although the investigation into the allegations of misconduct is ongoing, according to Charles Schreck, director of the Office of Professional Practices for the state Superintendent of Public Instruction. Schreck said his office has only four investigators and investigates each case as it is filed, occasionally bumping up “priority” cases. He said he didn’t know when investigators would get to the Billmaier case and said there is no statute of limitations on how long investigators have to conduct their probe.

Billmaier’s present whereabouts are unknown.

(THREE) In December 2006, Hoquiam choir teacher Matt Hirschfelder was placed on administrative leave for not reporting a “passionate kiss” with a graduating senior the previous May. Hirschfelder was eventually allowed to resign, although he now faces criminal charges stemming from what Hoquiam Police detectives say was a sexual relationship — something Hirschfelder vehemently denies.

Last month, Hirschfelder pleaded not guilty to first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor in Grays Harbor Superior Court. He was released on his own recognizance. His trial has been set for August. The state superintendent’s office is also investigating Hirschfelder, Schreck said.

TT- All three cases are ongoing investigations.

Olympic Valley, CALIFORNIA

June 21, 2007 - Christine Johnson, 28, a teacher at Squaw Valley Academy, was arrested May 13 on on suspicion of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Johnson was scheduled to appear for an arraignment hearing on June 19, but did not show up.

Her attorney told the judge that his client returned home to St. Louis, Mo. Bahrke continued the arraignment to next Tuesday and issued a bench warrant for her arrest at $7,500 bail, which will be held until that date.

TT - No age given for the victim.

Update June 28 - Christine Johnson pleaded not guilty. A settlement conference date has been scheduled for July 23.

Update July 23 - A prelimary has been scheduled for next month.

She has been described by colleagues as “perfect on paper.” Johnson holds a master’s degree, a California teaching credential and had ample classroom experience, they say.

No date given.

PRELIMINARY DELAYED: August 7 - Johnson was granted more time and another conference before the preliminary examination will again be set.

Even if the victim refuses to testify, the prosecution still has a case, said Placer County Deputy District Attorney Chris Cattran in a phone interview with the Sierra Sun.

She no longer lives or works in the Tahoe area but resides in Missouri.

CASE CONTINUED: Sept 21 - The case was continued to give the defense and prosecution more time to discuss a negotiated plea. The next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 22, when a preliminary hearing will likely be set.

Lawrence, KANSAS

June 21, 2007 - The still unnamed Lawrence, Kansas teacher accused of sex with a 15-year-old boy is, reportedly, close to a plea agreement. At the arraignment, the lawyer asked for a continuance. The new court date is July 2.

The woman was suspended when the allegations surfaced, and the Lawrence school board in April voted not to renew her contract for the 2007-08 school year.

HOWEVER, the Lawrence Journal won't name her until after conviction. She is, of course, Meredith Kane. TT - Link

Unrelated, but read the article on teacher contract talks.

Waltham, MASSACHUSETTS

June 21, 2007 - Robert Dacey,, 49, a drama teacher at McDevitt Middle School and a former baseball, basketball and football coach at Waltham High School, who was accused of sex assaults on three male students was found dead of an apparent heart attack.

Dacey allegedly told the victims he would pay them $50 if they would help him train women who would then work for a friend’s Mafia-run massage business, Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Dunigan said during his arraignment in Waltham District Court last year.

She said Dacey put duct tape over the boys’ eyes and told them the identity of each of the women was a secret, and that "a bodyguard would come in the room if (the alleged victims) got out of hand or tried to look."

Dunigan said the masseuse was actually Dacey, who donned a wig after the boys were blindfolded. She said duct tape, Ace bandages and whips were found in Dacey’s apartment when police raided it last year.

Dacey, who had no prior criminal record, pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape of a child, two counts of enticement of a child and indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 last year.

Dacey taught in Waltham for 20 years.