Summary - May 31, 2007

Summary May 31, 2007

ARRESTED
Four women, four men.

You can't help thinking, "Was this what Equal Rights meant?"

a A Cobb County, Georgia middle school teacher, Darleen Gable, disappointed a lot of students when she was arrested for stealing from a fundraiser meant to pay for a trip to the Georgia Aquarium. The trip had to be cancelled. She also is accused of stealing from another school club. TT - Link

a Details are sketchy, but Michael Tamayo, a Tallahassee history teacher, was arrested facing charges of custodial sexual battery for a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old female student. TT - Link

aTwo women who taught at a private school that provided for emotional disturbed children were arrested for sexual involvement with two 16-year-old boys. Rebecca Becker, 28, is a teacher at the McQuade Kaplan School. Maria Zurita, 28, a teacher's aide, was also arrested. Both are charged with rape and endangering the welfare of a child. TT - Link

aHe was listed in “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers” in 2005. Michael Zuch, 33, studies teacher in Grand Island, NY, was arrested for allegedly viewing “inappropriate adult photographs” during classroom hours. Few details are available. It doesn't sound like a "pop-ups" kind of defense though. TT - Link

aIn Nevada, a 21-year-old tutor was arrested and charged with with three counts of sexual misconduct with a student and three counts of statutory sexual seduction. Thomas Gaff is the fifth Clark County, Nevada educator accused of misconduct with students in the last few weeks. It's a good thing school will be out soon. The students will be safer. TT - Link

aIn Virginia, Carrie Bishop, 33, was arrested and charged with contributing to the deliquency of a minor for having sex with a 17-year-old male student. She turned herself into police when she learned there was a warrant for her arrest. TT - Link

aaThe worst case of the day is the arrest of Aurelio Gonzalez, 28, a teacher's aide in Tampa, Florida, who is charged with aggravated child abuse for shaking, then beating the 1-year-old child he was babysitting. Those were the charges before the little girl died. TT - Link

GUILTY
aThirty-eight year old Nathan Cox to felony child enticement-sexual contact with a 13-year-old girl. He is a teacher and coach in the Prairie Farm School District, Baron, Wisconsin. TT - Link

COURT NOTES
aNews stories are scarce on Kirsten Ann Kinely, a Columbia, Maryland teacher, who was indicted on three additional counts of third-degree sex offenses. Arrested last February, and indicted on third-degree sex offense charges. She was also charged with sexual solicitation of a 15-year-old boy. TT - Link

aA judge unsealed the case files for Anastasia B. Pappas, who is charged with criminal sexual assault, accused of having a one-year sexual relationship with the 15-year-old boy while she lived with his family. She was arrested in February 2006. No reason given for the delay. She is sheduled to go to trial in June. (Glendale Heights, Illinois) TT - Link

aA University of Texas professor is charged with solicitation of capital murder for trying to hire a gang member to kill four of his former colleagues and his ex-wife. He specifically wanted the gang member to use an AK-47 to kill the Dean. The fellow inmate wore a wire. Gary Wise, 61, was in jail in connection with a shooting spree after he was fired in 2006. The inmate had tattoos. Wise thought he was a member of the Crips and the rest is ... on tape. TT - Link

SENTENCED
a(Sorta) Lela Warren, a South Bend, Indiana school administrator was accused of not reporting student complaints about classroom abuse by Schmeca White. For non-reporting, Warren was sentenced to a pre-trial diversion program, meaning all charges will be dropped in one year.
Warren didn't think it worth reporting complaints against teacher's aide Schmeca White, who was sentenced to nine years for, among other things, choking a student so hard they had to call 911. White was also accused of performing various sexual acts or causing students to perform sex acts in a classroom during their lunch period. Performing a lap dance on a 15-year-old boy and having an 11-year-old girl perform a sex act on her. She stripped naked in front of the classroom. All the students were special education students.

White has been so sexually agressive that she has been transferred to three different jails. For non-reporting this disgusting teacher's aide, Warren was sentenced to pay a $315 fine. Maybe trial lawyers ought to take a crack at the school district. TT - Link

aThe only way you would know about the arrest and sentencing of Daniel Platt, 61, for child pornography is if you visited the U.S. Attorney's Office site. (We do.) He was sentenced to ten years in prison and lifetime supervised release for possession of hundreds of images of children involved in sexually explicit activities. The great thing about Federal sentencing is that there is no parole. He still faces state charges for the sexual abuse of an 11-year-old girl. (Millbrook, Alabama) TT - Link

ISSUES of the DAY (Rants on the System)
Collective bargaining, arbitration and Unfunded Pensions. Collective bargaining is a part of contract negotiations with school teachers unions and state and local employees unions. When the sides can't agree, an arbitrator is called in. Absolutely none of the participants cares a whit about students or the taxpayer. After giving themselves hefty salary increases in absence of any performance evaluation that warrants increases, they reward themselves with great benefits and then give themselves great pensions. The taxpayer is also called upon to pay the bill there, too. Because those pensions? They aren't self-funding. They're unfunded pensions with gaps of BILLIONS AND BILLIONS. In virtually every state. Just like GM and Ford. TT - Link

Other topics include Background Checks, here here here. (The last is where we get to reprise the Prostitutes Teachers in Oregon story.) And, lastly, Tenure. Remember when teachers used to be proud of their academic qualifications and achievements instead of bragging about their sex practices?

Summary - May 30, 2007

Summary May 30, 2007

ARRESTED -- Three Women, Two Men
AGE 52 An Electra, Texas pre-school teacher was arrested after a mother took her child to the police, cut lip and all. In a case that cries out for investigation, no one seems to be asking why child protective services has not been contacting police about other complaints. In the meantime, the teacher, Donna Bowden, was arrested. TT - Link

AGE 29 A Santa Barbara, California teacher trainee, Kelli Jo Camp, was arrested, accused of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old boy who was a student at the school where she worked. TT - Link

AGE 26 Another teacher, this one in Texas, Janet Parker, under investigation since December, was arrested. The boy was 14-years-old. TT - Link

AGE 28 A St. Paul, Minnesota teacher was arrested for sex with a student. Joseph Tucker hasn't been charged. The idiot newspaper called it "an affair." TT - Link

AGE 28 No doubt every student could tell you who the unnamed teacher in St. Paul, Minnesota is who was arrested for allegedly having sex with a student. He hasn't been charged, but you'd think the arrest would warrant printing his name. Or maybe they just arrest people in St. Paul as a training exercise. Calling it "an affair" is fairly stupid as well. [Name - Joseph Tucker - on later reports.] TT - Link

SENTENCED
In California, Carlos Hernandez sentenced to a year in a residential work-furlough program, ordered to register as a sex offender and placed on five years' probation when he was sentenced in San Diego. In exchange for the Blue Light Special bargain basement guilty plea, the D.A.'s office dismissed multiple charges of molesting two other girls when they were 17. TT - Link

A Kentucky teacher also got off light. Brandon Hall was arrested after being filmed smoking marijuana with students and drinking alchohol with them. At the home of a school board member and his wife, a teacher. A Blue Light Special bargain basement guilty plea got Hall three years probation. TT- Link

Donald R. Julian, a long-time, recently-retired teacher in Indiana pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct with a 15-year-old girl. He was sentenced to a Blue Light Special bargain basement ten years suspended and four years probation. He was "battling depression" at the time of the molestation. As an excuse, it's paltry. As an apology, it isn't. TT - Link

MEDIA Circus TRIAL
You can sense when the arrest and trial are going to be media circuses. In the case of Albert Scerbo, an Onondaga, NY teacher arrested on charges of abusing 17 children at the Indian school where he teaches, is already in full swing. The New York Times swept in with their own angle - troubled relations between the reservation and whites, or something. It was so dumb we didn't link to it. The lawyer is posturing that they demand to know the names of the accusers (as if they are unaware) and they want the student's personnel records. Cynics might think that was intended to intimidate the children and their parents, but we watch Boston Legal and know lawyers keep within bounds of the law.
TT - Link

And speaking of attorneys, the attorney for Appleton, Wisconsin teacher David Janssen accused of sexual abuse of two students, wants the counseling records for the younger of two victims. He said the counseling records may reveal "what psychological disorder she may have and what issues there are in her family life." Maloney said the records might show she came from a dysfunctional family "and projected her problems onto the defendant." TT - Link

BACKGROUND CHECK - School District: Our bad
Mesa, Arizona school official admit they made a mistake in hiring a special education teacher's assistant who was arrested for sexual battery on a student. Turns out they ignored a second background check that indicated that he had prior brushes with the law, although no convictions. Kyle M. Hite won't be returning to class, but as the case progresses, it will be interesting to see what kind of arrests they ignored to fill the position. TT - Link

TENURE
A teacher who was fired in 2005 is still being paid two years later. In Alabama, Laura Wilson, is receiving her $50,847 annual salary while her firing is still being appealed. Her firing was reversed by a Federal arbitrator, then the aribitrator was reversed by a court. The case is headed for the Alabama Supreme Court. With luck, she can retire before all of her appeals are exhausted. In the meantime, a bill has been introduced to get rid of federal arbitrators and go back to something like a Tenure Commission they had before 2004. TT - Link

Summary - May 29, 2007

Summary May 29, 2007


ARRESTED
Yet another teacher from Hawaii was arrested. For drugs. (What else?) Brad R. Kitsu was charged with with first-degree promotion of a detrimental drug.
TT Link

Arrested: A 65-year-old Pacific Grove, California teacher for killing the man she lived with. He was 81. Lynne Feurer remains in jail on $1 million bail.

TT Link

INDICTED
A retired Kansas City, Missouri teacher was indicted using four minor boys to make child pornography. A covert camera at his home was used to film boys who spent the night. John Enness retired as an elementary school teacher. TT Link

ARRAIGNED
A first-grade teacher arrested in February on sexual abuse charges involving male students, Christian Culver, was indicted on 49 charges of sexually abusing eight boys at the elementary school. He pleaded not guilty. He remains suspended with pay. TT Link

ONE OF SEVEN TEACHERS ACCUSED
It's a good thing it's the end of the school year. Students in Arizona should be safer. In Arizona, Jennifer Mally is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old boy. An 18-year old student told police that he, too, had sex with Mally. The new details emerged after the Arizona Republic obtained a copy of the police report. TT Link She is one of 7 school employees in Paradise Valley accused of sex with students since September 2006. TT - Link

OTHER NEWS
The same jury that found Bakersfield, CA school principal Vincent Brothers guilty of five counts of murder for killing his wife, three children, and his mother-in-law, has recommended the death penalty. (Like it will ever happen.) TT Link

Also links to other murders not reported by the media. TT Link

Pedophile pleads GUILTY
A 39-year-old middle school teacher pleaded guilty to sex with a 12-year-old girl. Daniel Sammons of Vancouver, Washington will be sentenced in August. TT Link

LAWSUIT
An attorney who filed the majority of priest abuse lawsuits has filed a lawsuit against Broward County School District on behalf of a student who was allegedly raped by a Broward teacher. School districts around the country will follow this case. TT Link

Summary - May 28, 2007

Summary May 28, 2007

Arrested

AGE 43 An assistant principal and former union president in Michigan turned himself in after an arrest warrant was issued for sexually assaulting a student. Troy Guzikowski is being held without bond. TT - Link

Guilty

AGE 28 The son of a school board president, David Costanza pleaded no contest a single count of statutory sexual assault for having sex with a student, a 15-year-old girl. The plea was blind, meaning there was no agreement on the sentence. He will know his fate July 11 when the judge hands down the sentence. His father resigned hours after his son's arrest in April. (Pennsylvania) TT - Link

Sick Leave

Maine teachers get 15-17 days sick leave a year for a 190-190 day work year. One frustrated taxpayer group is disgusted with the city's inability to rein in or even probe negotiated benefits and salaries. TT - Link

Summary - May 27, 2007

Paid Administrative Leave
Pt. 1 Paid Administrative Leave - Makes makes bad hiring decisions go away.
Pt. 2 What's the incentive to behave?
Pt. 3 Isn't a punishment; it's a paid vacation
TT - Link

Other News
When a high school was audited and a deficit was found, they hired a forensic auditing firm to find out why. In their version of "If we tell you, we'll have to kill you." they simply won't say what the audit revealed. The legnths they went to boggle the mind. (Tennessee) TT - Link

Summary - May 26, 2007

Summary May 26, 2007

Guilty

AGE 30 A jury found a Missouri teacher guilty of having sex with a 14-year-old girl. Jason Devlin will be sentenced in July. His wife was also charged with witness tampering for urging the alleged victim to recant the statement she gave to police. TT - Link

Age 39 A Michigan teacher, Scott Beyer, pleaded guilty two misdemeanor possession of child sexually abusive material charges and agreed to voluntarily end his teaching career. He'll be sentenced in June. TT - Link

AGE 36 - A Fresno (California) teacher was found guilty of nine counts counts of sexual abuse on a child. All felonies. But you won't believe what the lawyer said after the conviction. Jamie Soria will be sentenced in July. TT - Link

Age 46 A grown man with four children ages 14-21 pleaded guilty to a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl. Norman Patterson was a teacher and coach in Wyoming. Whatever possesses someone to destroy their family, ruin their careers, betray children, friends, students and a community like that? It's a tragedy for everyone. TT - Link

The Cost of Education in New Jersey

Will astound you, especially compared to what the standardized testing results demonstrates is, frankly, lousy teaching. It's the last state we want cloning human beings. TT- Link

Arrested

In a men's bathroom at a JC Penney story for mutual masturbation with another man. Ronald H. Huff was arrested for disorderly conduct. He may request a hearing if the school moves to dismiss him. Hearing that, no doubt, some school lawyer will advise the school board to avoid the nasty 18-month fight and give him paid leave as long as it takes to win his agreement to resign. (Tennessee) TT - Link Why JC Penney's? Why not the dirt bar down the street?

In West Virginia, Michael White, Jr, a middle school teacher, was pulled over for a routine traffic stop. They found drugs in his car and in his home. He admitted he'd been doing it a while to supplement his income. Honestly. TT Link

Union Label

Mike Rosen, a talk show host in Colorado, also writes for the Rocky Mountain News. His article, "Education's Union Label" explains why education reform dies so readily in the Colorado legislature. Coloradans don't care a lot about reform. It's the Lack-of-Oxygen, Brain-damaged syndrome we see a lot in education news from that state. But it'll burn you. TT - Link

Child Pornographers in Education

We've started collecting in one spot, all the teachers, administrators and educators who've been arrested and sentenced since we started this blog for child pornography. It's a bunch. And very worrisome that they chose careers that kept them around children. TT - Link

Top Stories This Week

A collection of news stories that struck as as illustrative of the problems and the solutions in education. Like steroid testing for student athletes in Texas, and a ruling in California to keep standardized testing in English, and the sex,drugs, and Minor Possession Citations in a Colorado year book. TT - Link

Summary - May 24, 2007

Summary - May 24, 2007

DRUG POLICY
The arrest of a teacher in Howard County, Maryland has resulted in a call for pre-employment drug testing. Sounds good on paper, however, the teacher was 62-years-old and had worked for the school system for 37 years. What exactly would that "new" policy accomplish? Somebody tipped off police who raided his car.

The school already has a policy that states that officials may subject employees to drug testing "based on reasonable suspicion of the use of contraband" and that employees violating the drug use and possession policies -- especially those who violate the policy on school grounds -- may be subject to termination. That's more than most school districts have. Random drug testing would be a better bet as long as the drug-addicted teacher isn't sent into rehabilitation with $$$$$ pay.

TT Link

ARRAIGNED

Connecticut is famous for crooked mayors and mob connections. So it's no big surprise when when the West Haven High School coach was arrested and charged with professional gambling, possession of gambling records, and using a telephone to transmit and receive gambling information - from his bar. Edward McCarthy pleaded innocent at his arraignment. It's a case we're looking forward to following.

TT- Link

ARRESTED
Adding to our growing list of substitutes arrested for having sex with students, Deana Luedtke, was briefly a substitute four years ago in a Michigan private school. It was long enough, apparently, to have an alleged sexual relationship with 13-year-old boy.

TT - Link

Robb Hunt, a Cupertino, California teacher was arrested, accused of having sex with a minor when he was a student teacher in San Jose between 2005 - 2006. Police believe there might be other victims.

TT - Link

An Evergreen, Colorado music teacher was arrested, accused of sex with two students. William Eisenman is being held is being held on a no bond hold. Police believe there may be other victims.

TT - Link

CHEESY MOVIE OF THE WEEK
We don't know about you, but knowing that Sam Shelton is no longer on a suicide watch has reassured us immensely. Our New Haven bookie hasn't posted odds on Shelton's plans for an insanity defense, but we think it's a good bet. How else do you explain how he could lead them to the carefully hidden body of the 17-year-old student? Only she wasn't dead. Hard to explain all that without pretending looney toons.

TT - Link

GUILTY
Students who live in Clarksville, Tennesee are less likely to come forward with any information about teacher sexual abuse after Bryan Farmer was found guilty of one charge of sexual battery with a 16-year-old girl. His lawyer called the student a liar over 100 times in the closing arguments, the defense claim is she is in it "motivated by money." Unless he means Farmer paid the girl for sex, we wondered what money?

TT - Link

RESIGNED
A Michigan teacher resigned after being accused of having a phone and online relationship with a 14-year-old girl from Minnesota. He's 62-years-old. What impulse makes people do such stupid and, ultimately, self-destructive things?

TT - Link

RELEASED
A judge ordered Stephen Bolesky, the Vermont teacher who shot his wife, released from prison to a long-term medical facility where he is expected to receive end-of-life care. If he's still alive ten years from now, we'll know it's one of those Vermont touchy-feely things.

TT - Link

CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY
Largely ignored by the major media, Camden, New Jersey is a sewer of corruption, and Third World Politics that would be the envy of Moscow. A judge stripped three Camden teachers of tenure. They were only a few who have been involved in the scandal.

TT - Link

INDICTED

A first grade teacher has been indicted on on 41 felonies in connection with the alleged sexual abuse of six male students. Christopher Culver was arrested in February. He's married and the father of a young child. He will be arraigned next week. (Clifton Park, New York)
TT - Link

A third-grade teacher in Kentucky was indicted, accused of sexually abusing two girls under the age of twelve from September of last year to this past April. Robert Brewer taught at Campton Elementary School.
TT - Link

In South Dakota, George Krenz, was indicted on three counts of fourth degree rape, sexual contact with a minor, an alternate count of second degree rape and furnishing alcohol to minors. Sturdily defended by someone who describes himself as a teacher at the Rapid City Journal site, we wouldn't want to be the poster if those other posters ever identify him.
TT - Link

License Revocation
A school district in Missouri is recommending that an unnamed teacher have his license revoked for inappropriate text messages to a student. He hasn't been charged but the investigation is ongoing. For good measure, they will be emphasising the dangers of technology, including social-networking sites in the Fall.
TT - Link

OUR VIEW
Student testing as a requirement for graduation is hotly contested -- mostly by the media and education establishment -- especially when the testing documents a widespread school failure to teach. In Texas, nearly 40,000 students failed to pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills and won't be graduating. What the media doesn't tell you is that the tests are 9th and 10th grade level, the student has multiple chances to take the test, and yet, somehow, the students get passing grades in school. Only to move on to college to take remedial classes.
TT - Link

Summary - May 23, 2007

Summary May 23, 2007

ARRESTED
Westview Middle School's 2007 Teacher of the Year was arrested for having sex with a female student. Kanesa Hopkins, now 31, was 28 when she is alleged to have had a sexual relationship with the 14-year-old girl. Hopkins also faces one count of criminal sexual conduct with a minor in nearby North Charleston, where she previously lived. The school board fired her.
TT - link

SUBSTITUTES ARRESTED
Titus Wayne Loux, 71, a substitute teacher, was on charges of importuning, a felony, and menacing by stalking, a misdemeanor, for attempting to solicit sex from a teenage neighbor boy. (Ohio)
TT - link

A substitute teacher in Florida, Ken Walling, was arrested for lewd or lascivious exhibition. Two 14-year-old boys said he exposed himself to them at his home several times last year. We're rapidly coming to the conclusion that ALL substitutes should be required to take a lie detector test prior to employment.
TT - link


SENTENCED
We said when we posted the first story that, "In the annals of shamelessness, this one rates right up there." Victor Labarron Payne, 36, had a sexual relationship with an 11-year-old girl that lasted a year. The jury found him guilty in March despite his bizarre defense. He was sentenced to 21 years. (And still another trial to go with another victim.) We have no problem calling him a filthy predator.
TT - link

Another filthy pervert, Patrick Bogan, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. Not one dirty picture, but "five cabinets in Bogan’s residence, including one that contained 49 videotapes and discs with hundreds of sexually explicit images of children. They also found several pairs of little girl panties. They also found news articles on kidnapping, child killers and molesters being sentenced, as well as evidence that he was part of an international child porn ring." (Maryland)
TT - link

IN OTHER NEWS
Scientology has started conducting classes in Baton Rouge. And elsewhere. The newspaper reports that Hubbard's study tech now is licensed for use in 738 private schools, community centers and after-school or tutoring programs. The loveliness of Scientology can be seen in BBC's Panorama program. (link provided at our link.)
TT - link

Summary - May 22, 2007

Summary May 22, 2007

SENTENCED
Hazard, Kentucky teacher Phyllis Sanders was sentenced after pleading guilty to smuggling drugs into the Kentucky River Regional Detention Center. Wierd thing is, she's 61 years old.
TT link.

SORTA SENTENCED
They call it "boot camp" or "shock sentencing" - the practice of sentencing someone to jail for years but letting them out in months, sometimes weeks. The theory is that they're first time offenders and it's a taste of prison life. The reality is that the public is the last to know that the offender is given a "Get Out Of Jail Free Card." No Pass Go or $200, but the harsh sentence looks good on paper, at least.

Randy Eddy was sentenced to 10 years, but he got out in six months. Ridiculously, the judge noted that Eddy had already lost the custody of his two children and any possibility of teaching again. He's a 37-year-old man who had sex with a 17-year-old girl. He should be teaching?
TT - link. He isn't the only one.

ARRESTED

A Westbury, N.Y. subsitute was arrested charged with charged with three counts of rape in the second degree and three counts of criminal sexual acts in the second degree with a 14-year-old girl. The sub, Neal Barnes is 23. Nice way to start, and end, a career. .
TT - link

Another substitute, Julie Petty, 36, a Tennessee teacher, was arrested and was charged with sexual battery by an authority figure and rape by an authority figure. The girl was 14-years-old.
TT - link

In yet another gay teacher sex story, Emma Painter, a teacher in New Jersey, was arrested on charges of official misconduct and witness tampering for trying to pursuade a 17-year-old female student to lie about the student's sexual relations with another female teacher, Erica Umosella. Umosella was arrested earlier this month.
TT - link

An El Monte, California teacher, Marco Irigoyen, was arrested for lewd conduct with a child under the age of 14. The reports said the victims are not students at the school. Few details until he is arraigned on Wednesday.
TT - link

A second Prescott, Arizona teacher, David Chauncey, was arrested for child pornography. Police found 70,000 images, the majority of them involved children. Police selected 10 photos, which depict children as young as toddlers in lewd acts to charge him.
TT - link

IN COURT

Jason Devlin Montgomery County R-2 High School teacher. He was arrested in 2004.
TT - link

IN OTHER STORIES

Twilight Zone stuff. In Maryland, Michelle Dolm, signed an agreement stating that she will not have any contact with the five boys she threatened with explosives over a seven-month period. The agreement was entered into the Circuit Court of Frederick County this morning. The prosecution asked for the agreement after Dohm spoke to one of the victims at a sporting event. She's due to be sentenced in June but why she's not confined at home isn't clear. And why they failed to make 'no contact' a part of her release isn't clear either when it was clearly called for since she harassed the students for over seven months.
TT - link

A school yearbook in Conifer, Colorado features bongs, drugs, Minor Possession citations and smirking students. All produced under the watchful eye of their yearbook adviser and English teacher, Amy McTague, who apologized with the usual "move forward" admonition.
TT- link

Texas might soon have mandatory random steroid testing policy, paid for either by an increase in ticket sale prices or the taxpayers. Both the Senate and the House have approved versions of the bill. We can thank professional sports players, overreaching coaches and dumb athletes who want to win at any cost.
TT - link

Staggeringly, a San Francisco judge dismissed the lawsuit by eight school districts who want to have students take the standardized tests in Spanish. He said it was the state's duty to make sure students speak the language and that voters approved English-only instruction in 1996. Endangered Species Conservatives in California were stunned.
TT - link

An Albuquerque, New Mexico student was allowed to graduate after "Someone" UNNAMED in the school district administration changed his grade from "F" to "D". They're investigating, the union if filing a grievance, the state Board of Education is looking into it. The boy is the son of former Albuquerque school board member Miguel Acosta and Bernalillo County Commissioner Teresa Cordova. Need we say more?
TT - link

The Tennessee State Board of Education lists License Denial, Suspension, Revocation and Reinstatement in their monthly meetings but without explanation. We hope that the four teachers that had their licenses revoked permanently, the three had their licenses revoked for three to five years, and two teachers that were suspended, appreciate the cover. It might be failure to pay for school loans, but shouldn't the Board say so?
TT - link

A Wisconsin school district paid the family of a 15-year-old girl $175,000 in a no-details, we-admit-no-guilt lawsuit brokered by high-priced lawyers, paid for by the district's insurance company, ultimately funded by taxpayers, the facts of which are shielded from public scrutiny. That's called accountability. And, heck, there's more money where that came from!!!
TT - link

Camden, New Jersey is one of the poorest cities in the country, and one of the most dangerous. And not just street thugs. Four school employees, including the principal, pleaded not guilty to charges of tealing student field-trip money and submitting phony pay vouchers.
TT link

Summary - May 21, 2007

Summary for May 21, 2007


SENTENCED
In Georgia, Darryl Williams was sentenced to serve three years for molesting a 15-year-old boy. We're talking about trapping the boy in a room and... He got a good deal. The grand jury indicted him on two counts of aggravated child molestation --felonies –- well as on the additional, four felony counts of child molestation. He agreed to plead guilty to the four felony counts of child molestation. And he doesn't have to register as a sex offender.
TT link.

Craig Edwards, an Arkansas teacher, was sentenced to 3 years of probation and 30 days for "second-degree sexual assault involving a student." He'll have to register as a sex offender. But why he is a sex offender after being given only probation isn't clear. And the newspaper doesn't seem to have asked any questions.
TT link.

Christopher P. Westfall, a fifth grade at Sutton Elementary School in Massachusetts, was sentenced to seven years after he pleaded no contest yesterday to three charges of second-degree molestation of a 13-year-old Rhode Island girl he met in an internet chatroom. He is 29, above the age of should have known better.
TT link.

ARRESTED
Another Massachusetts teacher, Christopher P. Westfall , who also taught at an elementary school, was arrested and charged with engaging in oral sex with a 16-year-old male student on school grounds. And during school hours.
TT link.

In Carmi, Illinois, Jason R. Francis, a teacher who resigned abruptly in April, was ordered to turn himself into police on preliminary charges of criminal sexual abuse and aggravated assault. It is believed that he had inappropriate sexual contact with a student. No clue what happened and the newspaper doesn't seem to know either.
TT link.

SUSPENSIONS
Why do so many educators get rewarded with suspensions with pay for inexcusable, stupid, or profoundly irresponsible acts? We don't normally report on suspensions. More than one e-mail has complained that it was "o.k. to cover teacher sex stories, but alcohol and drugs were private matters." We happen to disagree. A drunk or drugged-out teacher in a classroom isn't something most parents would find acceptable. Only in Massachusetts, however, could a teacher have five drunk driving arrests and still teach. He's a health teacher. Go figure. He isn't on today's list, but if you search Massachusetts. (Broad hint.)
TT link.

FASHION SHOW
Our Story of the Day was the court appearance of a teacher accused of 17 counts of sexual contact with a minor. The reporter, however, had a hard time concentrating.
TT link.

IN OTHER NEWS
Ward Churchill and the University of Colorado deserve each other. Bryan Farmer is on trial in Tennesee for statutory rape and sexual battery of a 16-year-old female student while another student is suing him. The Chicago Teachers Union held an election and, predictably, it's Chicago.

Summary - May 18, 2007

Summary for May 18, 2007

UPDATED stories
Two additional charges have been filed against Darcie Esson, the Colorado teacher infamous for being accused of having sex in a motel room while her two children and a babysitter slept nearby. The preliminary hearing was tentatively scheduled to be continued until June 19.
Our entry for Esson.

The Pennsylvania principal accused of selling crystal methamphetamine out of his car and his school office has given up his right to a formal arraignment. (Good explanation of reason suggested by prosecution at story.) John Acerra is is scheduled to appear in court for a status conference June 25, where his attorney will announce whether his client is accepting a plea bargain or heading to trial.
Our entry for Accera.

Kevin Goddu, a Plaistow, New Hampshire teacher arrested in April was indicted this week on 14 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault of a former 16-year-old student. He will be arraigned May 31.
Our entry for Goddu.

James Love, a substitute teacher and a minister held a Bible and blew kisses at his supporters as he was escorted back to jail after pleading not guilty to molesting four boys.
Our entry for Love.

GUILTY - Child Abuse
She loved animals and they were removed from her filthy home in Ohio. She was an anti-war activist, a poet and a vegetarian who adopted a baby from Guatemala who was also removed when the French teacher was arrested for child abuse. Ruth Ellen Bates, 61, was arrested in May 2006. She pleaded guilty to felony child neglect with a risk of injury. She was sentenced to two years probation.
Our entry for Bates.

GUILTY - Five counts of murder
After a long and tedious trial full of theatrics, race politics, local sensationalism, attorney grandstanding, and an almost complete media blackout that ignored the whole thing, Vincent Brothers, a Vice Principal in Bakersfield, Calfornia, was found guilty by a jury of five counts of murder for the death of his wife, his three children and his mother-in-law in July 2003.
Our entry for Brothers.

GUILTY - Child Abuse
Chattanooga, Tennesee - Elementary school teacher Derrell Nunn and his wife, Jamila Nunn, were found guilty by a jury of the aggravated child abuse of their 9-month old son in 2002. The abuse left him in a wheelchair, on a breathing tube and unable to speak but a few words.

Our entry for Derrell Nunn.

Outrage of the Week

Boulder, Colorado residents suffer from lack of oxygen. There's no other way to explain how they would elect school administrators who would allow a Sex and Drugs talk at Boulder High School, let alone mandate that high schoolers attend while hippie New Age California psychobabblers advise them to masturbate, take drugs, enjoy sex whether it was male and male or female and female. The talk was so lurid that a parent was shut off reading it because, as the school board president said, the language was inappropriate for the public.

Our nomination for oxygen-deprivation induced stupidity. No wonder the Ramsey's lived there.

Other News

Three Las Vegas teachers are being investigated in separate incidents for sexual misconduct with students. All are on administrative leave. Maybe it was a strategy to start the summer earlier. If so, it worked.

Zero tolerance raised its ugly head again when three drug-sniffing dogs were taken to a Muncie, Indiana school and the students were clean (again) but a teacher's pickup truck yielded up pills. What a surprise. He's the third teacher caught by teacher-hating dogs.

A New York teacher was arrested, charged with sexual abuse of an 11-year-old boy seven years ago when she was old -- even then. Other arrests include a Dover, Delaware teacher charged with 4th degree rape by a person in a position of trust, authority or supervision.

Indictments include an Ohio teacher indicted on 29 felony counts of sexual battery with a 17-year-old female student. In Texas, they took two years to investigate a teacher, but they indicted him. A substitute teacher in Holland Patent (No, it's not misspelled.) New York, was also indicted. Yep, sex with a student.

And then there was a 37-year-old Omaha, Nebraska male teacher in love with a 14-year-old female student. They were planning on keeping it quiet until they could "come out." Meanwhile, they met at a park in his car -- she couldn't drive yet -- until park neighbors complained.

For blood pressure aggravating reads there is the story about how three teacher and school unions are fighting a school district's attempt to curb absenteeism. The teachers get 15 six days a year. The thug talk is worthy of a Sopranos script.

And this, folks, was one day.

Summary May 14, 2007

Summary for February 14, 2007

Arrested
Another teacher in Hawaii has been arrested in connection with drug dealing. In other news, lawmakers gave preliminary approval for teachers and school workers to participate in random drug testing as all law enforcement officers in every state of the union do. But teacher union opposition is likely to kill the effort.

A 28-year-old Missouri teacher was arrested and charged with having sex with a 15-year-old female student.

Arrested on a charge of sexual exploitation of children, a Georgia teacher is in jail. Police found child pornography on his computer and seized three computers, several hard drives and computer disks.

Convicted
This is the third male teacher accused of taking nude pictures of male students. This one waived a jury trial. A judge in Colorado found him guilty of of 35 counts of coercing three young teenage boys into posing nude. He'll be sentenced in April, but it's not the end. Other charges are pending in another county.

Sentenced
To six to 20 months - a real wrist slap - for an Erie, Pennsylvania teacher who pleaded no contest ("I admit it, but you might not be able to prove it.") for having sex with a female student. The girl was 14 at the time, the teacher was 24 and female as well.

It's the Law
Misreported by a half dozen papers as "Appeals Court Sentences Teacher to No Parole," the court's decision was to overrule a judge who sought to become a 13th juror, letting his opinion override the jury decision in a case. He did not order a new trial; he mandated a new verdict. That being so, the teacher who murdered her husband in 2004 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility parole, is still -- in prison without the the possibility of parole. We provide details and a link to the decision by the Michigan Court of Appeals.

Summary - May 13, 2007

Summary for February 13, 2007

Lawsuit
A Florida coach was sentenced to six months in jail and three years probation for his sexual involvement with a student. Now she's suing the school district for having hired him.

Arrested
Two school volunteers - a 67-year-old man in Georgia and a 52-year-old Maryland grandfather were arrested. The first was charged with molestation of students, the second of his granddaughter.
TT- School volunteers and teaching assistants aren't always fingerprinted or have background checks run. We don't know about these two cases.

Just Wondering
It's been a year since a Texas P.E. teacher was suspended - with pay - for injuring a child. The local paper is wondering why nothing has been done. It's probably the cocaine arrest. Or the board has been busy -- six other employees of the school district are on suspension with pay.

Thinking about Suspension
Four months after a Texas teacher was arrested for touching a 11-year-old boy, and one month after his indictment, the school board is considering suspending the teacher until his contract ends in May. Maybe.

Porn Star Teacher
A Kentucky teacher sued to get her job back when it became known that she had starred in several porn movies. (A reader informs us that she actually shot footage for one movie, but the movie company had enough footage for 11 movies and we take his word for it.) However, on Friday the Kentucky Court of Appeals dismissed her case. Not to worry. Her lawyer says she has another teaching job in another state.