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
