Summary - July 27, 2007

Summary July 27, 2007
Follow links for updated information.


ARRESTED (again)
A not-quite-bright teacher who was arrested in June for supplying alcohol to two 15-year-old boys was released on bond with the usual instruction not to contact the victims. Ashley Keller, 24, apparently sent and received 986 text messages which translates to roughly 986 contempt of court charges.
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Summary - July 26, 2007

Summary July 26, 2007
Follow links for updated information.


SENTENCED - Sex with two teenage girls
Arrested in December 2006, Shawn Feeney, 31, will be spending four years in prison after pleading guilty in April to criminal sexual contact with two teenage girls. (New Jersey) TT - LINK

CONVICTED - child molestation
In Houston, Robert "Kevin" Cyphers, 45, was convicted of repeatedly molesting an 8-year old girl. The penalty trial is set for next week. (Texas)
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PLEADED NO CONTEST - Sex with teenage girl
A Florida teacher pleaded no contest to three counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor for having sex with a 16-year-old girl. Shawn Trotter, 34, will be sentenced in August. Police suspect two other students were reportedly also involved with Trotter. The two former students refused to cooperate with investigators after the publicity forced the 16-year-old to leave school because other students found out.
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ARRESTED - Car chase with 16-year-old girl with him
Thomas Pagliaro, 32, is under arrest after police spotted him in a car with a teenage girl. As police approached, he sped away, crashing into a mailbox some three blocks away. He was charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse, criminal sexual abuse and aggravated fleeing from a police officer. Plus the usual traffic stuff. (Illinois)
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ARRESTED - Internet sting
A Louisiana teacher, Joel Whitmore, 40 turned himself in and was charged with six counts of indecent behavior, four counts of computer-aided solicitation for sexual purposes and one count of obscenity. Joel also kept in touch with his students through MySpace. Maybe he should just have avoided buying a computer altogether.
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CHARGED - larceny, third degree
A fifth-grade teacher in Connecticut was charged with larceny for charging personal items to a fire department. In the scheme of things, it isn't a major crime except that how the school and district handle the case will form a life lesson to the students he taught and every other student in the school. TT - LINK

Another trial
In Indiana, convicted teacher Jeffrey B. Baber, 42, is facing another trial for molesting two students. He was convicted in 2006 of molesting a first grader and sentenced to 30 years. He recently lost his appeal of that conviction. The court observed, "This does not speak well of his character or judgment. Nothing about Baber’s character suggests his sentence is inappropriate."
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Bloomberg and the National Urban League
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke about school reform to the National Urban League in -- St. Louis, Missouri, of all places. St. Louis was a particularly poor choice since the city has joined a growing number of cities where the state has taken over the school board functions because of incompetence. There's something equally bizarre about his suggestion to pay teachers more to retain them while complaining that tenure won't allow schools to get rid of bad teachers. Hey, it doesn't have to make sense; it's politics.
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SCHOOL BOARD WATCH
One reason school boards are elected, and not appointed, is that they spend taxpayer money and electing them gives us oversight of their spending. We can elect someone else when they fall down on the job. But what about school board policy? Most of us assume that school boards will adopt policies and procedures that benefit the student. In one Nevada school district, the school board has adopted a 23-page draft of a policy to test employees caught under the influence of drugs or alcohol in the workplace. The ONLY catch is that the union wants the 32-page draft reduced to 8 pages. And IF THEY LIKE the 8 pages, it can come back to the school board.

EXCUSE ME but who elected the teacher's union?
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Summary - July 23, 2007

Summary July 23, 2007
Follow links for updated information.



Investigation
Between their financial scandal and Eubonics Oakland doesn't need more bad publicity for their schools, Which is why the invesigation of school board trustee Chris Dobbins, 35, for his friendship with a 17-year-old student is disheartening for those who hoped they were making progress in reform. Not that anyone had any serious expectations for them. (California)
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ARRESTED - Drugs
Police suspected a drug buy and arrested Kimberly Williams, 41, a special ed teacher after they found marijuana, cocaine and prescription drugs in her car. (Texas)
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New Charge - drugs
Police put a hold on a South Carolina special education after today's bond hearing so they could add a drug possession charge for crack cocaine. It's the second drug offense for Ralph Marcell Hough, 31, who is facing criminal sexual conduct charge.
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GUILTY PLEA - Sex abuse of an 11-year-old
In another case of Delayed Justice, Lois Enden, 55, a school aide pleaded guilty to second-degree rape of an 11-yer-old boy nearly seven years ago. The abuse only ended when he left the fifth grade and the school. (New York) FEMALE
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SENTENCED
In another one of those cases where a teacher's credential appears to have played a major part in plea negotiations, allowing James Lighthizer, 54, to plea bargain four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct down to a single second-degree charge. He got off with a one-year sentence - not in prison, but the county jail - and 5 years' probation. He will also have to register as a sex offender. Back in June they were promising that he would be dismissed, once his license was revoked. They got his license but not by revocation. The D.A. bragged he had it in his possession. Oh, and the school district isn't going to investigate itself any more. (Michigan)
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REFUSED TO SENTENCE
A Muncie, Indiana judge refused to sentence Judith Lynne Straub, 50, a school secretary accused of stealing school funds. The judge would not accept the ridiculously low 60-day sentence that was part of the plea agreement. He ordered an October trial.
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Random Drug Testing for Teachers
Is still being debated by a Charleston, West Virginia school district. Naturally, the teachers union is opposed. "Eight [teachers], that I know of," said board member Pete Thaw when asked how many educators have been in trouble with the law over drugs in the past year."
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NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL
The Record (NJ) sounded very disappointed in a popular Teaneck, New Jersey, principal who pleaded guilty to third-degree charge of official misconduct and fourth-degree child endangerment for sexual conversations with a 17-year-old student that ended with him asking the boy to expose himself for a recommendation. In 2003, Joseph White was acquitted of charges of fondling another boy, one that he and his wife were considering for adoption. White got a standing ovation from colleagues for his victory and the victim was vilified (and probably humiliated) in court.
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BARGAINING FOR THE LICENSE
A teacher got a great deal when the prosecution dropped charges of stalking, simple battery, making harassing phone calls and false imprisonment in exchange for a plea that netted the teacher 60 days that, with time served, let him walk. The agreement included a stipulation that Mark Taylor would drop his appeal of his termination. The only problem is that he has yet to fill his part of the bargain. He had two prior convictions for family violence that the school knew about as well as prior warnings about discussing his personal life with students. (Georgia)
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WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO TO GET FIRED???

Summary - July 20, 2007

Summary July 20, 2007
Follow links for updated information.


ARRESTED
Two Ohio teachers who also work as coaches were busted in a Kentucky hotel room for drug possession when a hotel wanted them evicted for a loud party. Even after the arrest, according to one report, Russell Fallon, 29, and Daniel Little went on to teach a week long football clinic for Mason students. Aren't they required to notify the school within 24-hours of an arrest? Or do they only have to call for felony arrests? In any case, it's unlikely the school will have sufficient grounds to fire the two, which means those current 7th and 8th graders can always justify using drugs as they recall their middle school.
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PLEADED GUILTY - Child Endangerment
A Teaneck, New Jersey, school principal pleaded guilty to third-degree charge of official misconduct and fourth-degree child endangerment for engaging in sex talk with a teenage boy and asking him to expose himself. The student wore a wire. Joe White, 61, was tried in 2003 on charges of fondling another 17-year-old boy, one that he and his wife were planning to adopt. The trial ended with an acquittal. You wonder if in retrospect those jurors don't feel some shame.
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SENTENCED
A North Carolina teacher was sentenced to two years, suspended, with 45 days in jail, minus the 22-day credit for time in an alcohol treatment center, leaving her 23 days to serve. Her license has been revoked three other times, and she has been involved in two crashes. The latest arrest was while driving to school with a 7-year-old neighbor boy in the car. She had a blood alcohol at 7 am four times the legal limit. She nearly hit two cars. Vickie White Leavitt, 48, got off easy. Considering. The rest of the town has just been - lucky.
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LAWSUIT FALLOUT
As a result of a lawsuit against the Fayette County School Board in Kentucky, two teachers have been arrested. A third teacher who was accused, but not arrested, was located in Las Vegas where he teaches despite a misdemeanor conviction for sex solicitation and a second suspension 1991 for drinking beer on campus. Whether police arrest him or not, the entire investigation has led to some interesting questions about teacher standards in Nevada.
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OOPS - THEIR BAD (only it could have been much worse)
A school district in Alabama only found out about prior arrests of one of their teachers six months after they hired him. They let him go in May before they were notified by the state Department of Education that, despite the arrests, Keaton Lamar Battle, 34, met the suitability criteria for employment. In July he was arrested for enticing a child for immoral purposes for activities with two boys. Score ONE for the school and ZILCH for the judgement of the Alabama Department of Education.
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ANOTHER OOPS
A North Carolina school board quickly backtracked after offering a woman the job of principal of an elementary school before a background check came in. Her husband was never charged with the crime but, nevertheless, the board wavered. Perhaps because they had a superintendent in 1999 who resigned after they found out she was involved in two lawsuits.
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Questionable Judgement
At the request of the school board, a school superintendent sent a letter to the court asking for a local anchorman to speak to Driving Education students. Hard to tell what he could teach them. The anchorman is planning on pleading guilty after killing a pedestrian while drunk driving. The school board and the superintendent might have been merely responding to the request of the anchorman's attorney, but calling drunk driving that resulted in death "misconduct" smacks of insensitivity. And using a celebrity to make a point better made by the victim's family only proves you're celebrity struck. Or dumb.
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RANT OF THE DAY
A recent case illustrates perfectly how the near-impossibility of revoking a teacher's license gives the defendant a bargaining chip in plea negotations with public prosecutors that no other group of citizens is given. Tenure is the gift that keeps on giving.
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LAWSUIT
Another former student is claiming a school board, and a school knew that a teacher was sexually abusing the special education student. The student is now in prison himself for robbery. What is bizarre is that the mother of the boy only found out about the situation when the teacher told her that she loved her son and then told her about the sexual relationship. Maybe the teacher expected a gold star. She got six months in jail instead.
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Summary - July 19, 2007

Summary - July 19, 2007
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ARRESTED - Forcible sex with student
A school guidance counselor was fired in Salt Lake City after being arrested for alleged sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl, without her consent. He also allegedly engaged in forcible sodomy with the girl and touched her inappropriately on multiple occasions. Police believe Marco Rutlelco Herrera, 51, may have abused other girls.
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SENTENCED - Sex with student
In South Carolina, an assistant principal pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year of home detention, two years probation and a $3,000 fine for having sex with the 11th grader in 2003. Lance Diefenderfer, 38, also taught social studies. He has permanently lost his teaching license.
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The Nifong Defense
This was as predictable as a Paris Hilton interview on Larry King. In Arroyo Grande, a defense lawyer for David Eugene Grey, the 70-year-old elementary school teacher accused of French kissing a student, told the jury that jury he doesn't want the case to turn into something like the Duke University lacrosse team rape case, where the public and officials assumed guilt when three rape charges were announced. Cute, huh?
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Child Pornography Study
It isn't even published, but the New York Times thinks there is a controversy there somewhere. The study was conducted by two psychologists who treated sex offenders at federal prisons, but the Bureau of Prisons ordered the study to be withdrawn as it didn't meet agency approval. If and when it is published, would be a good time to analyze the effect on jail sentences and the prospect of rehabilitation.
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Teacher Misconduct Reporting
Better late than never. Nearly twenty years after other states, New Mexico has new laws that require school district officials to report allegations of teacher misconduct to the bureau to prevent the movement of problem teachers around the state. They still have a backlog of teacher misconduct cases, though. And they have an antiquated system that only requires license checks on teachers on the 40th, 80th and 120th day of school. Maybe when Pony Express carried the mail this was necessary, but there is no good reason for allowing 40 days between notifications in an era of instant communications.
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The Legal Tangle
Firing a tenured teacher is a lot like shedding a bad girlfriend. Only worse. She may have a Basic Instinct personality, but give her a union lawyer and you'll be stuck with her for the next 37 years, and you'll have to pay the lawyer's bill as well. Most Fortune 500 corporations can fire a $50 million-a-year CEO with less hassle. The worst part of firing a tenured teacher, however, is that it never serves as warning to other teachers, or alerts parents. It is costly and secretive with every action concealed behind "personnel" and "confidentiality" concerns. Couple that with media disinterest and political collusion with teacher unions, and you have a guarantee that the taxpayer is the only one who doesn't know what happened.

We'd still like to know what that 'unethical behavior" was. (Michigan)
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BABBLE
The president of the New York State United Teachers union spoke to the editorial board of a Glen Falls (NY) newspaper. "Developing the growth of the child" is a ridiculous phrase. Teachers are supposed to teach, or bloody well ought to. You want all-day field trips, buddy, let the union finance it on a weekend. WOW, I feel better for saying that.
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MOVIE OF THE WEEK MATERIAL
It's San Francisco and Wednesday night, his regular sadomasochistic bondage night while his school administrator wife attends Board of Education meetings, only he ends up dead. We kid you not.
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LAWSUIT SUCCESS
In Kentucky, a now-45 year old woman sued the school district for abuse by four teachers, a guidance counselor and an assistant principal at Lafayette High School and Beaumont Junior High School in the late 1970s and early 1980s. If you followed the case, it took a lot of guts on her part to stand up against the school district, but she did. Jurors found in her favor and recommended a $3.7 award. No doubt the school will appeal forever, but we suspect money was never the issue with Carol Maner. Two teachers were arrested just last week in connection with the abuse.
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LAWSUIT TENTATIVE SETTLEMENT
What's interesting about the lawsuit against the state of California is that the agreed settlement will depend upon the legislature passing legislation that will allow students who fail the exit examinations for graduation can go back to school (at taxpayer expense) until they get it right. Well, there might be a limit, but since the legislation hasn't been written yet, we don't know. If you really want to be confounded, look at the difficulty of the graduation standards.
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Summary - July 18, 2007

Summary - July 18, 2007
Follow links for updated information.


NOT GUILTY VERDICT
A jury took just two hours to find Julia Lund not guilty of sex charges involving a 17-year-old male student. She's only the second "not guilty" verdict in the last eight months.
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TRIAL
We bumped this story for most of the day because it brought so much pain and then fury. A Midlands, Texas teacher is on trial charged with four felonies, for sex with a 14-year-old girl. He is alleged to have bought her a necklace, held hands with her during field trips to see a movie, and then had sex with her on the floor of the portable classroom. She liked the music from "Winnie, the Poo" so he bought her a CD. Maybe it was having kids that age with goofy smiles and determined happiness, and unflagging faith in adults that made it so poignant, but her testimony is heart-rendering.
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ARRESTED - Old dude teacher stalking student
A Rockport, Maine teacher was arrested and charged with stalking, violation of a protective order and violating conditions of release after he allegedly tried to text-message a traveling companion of the young woman. The 17-year-old girl has a court-ordered protection from abuse order against former teacher Brian Roberts, 41. We dont' know why he's a former teacher and the newspapers aren't asking.
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ARRESTED
Details are sketchy, but Jeffrey Biglin, 24, a Connetquot High School substitute teacher and coach, was arrested and charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of the student for sending sexually explicit text messaging to a female student and arranging middle-of-the-night meetings outside the girl's home. The Newsday headline that he was accused of stalking appears to be wrong.
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ARRESTED - Voyeurism
Just when you think that you've heard it all -- and voyeurism and teachers isn't all that uncommon -- there's another twist. No toilet camera, but the teacher reportedly had a camera attached to his shoe with a wire running up his pants leg to a recorder in his pocket. The better to take pictures up the skirts of little girls in an amusement park. Luckily, the father of an 8-year-old chased down Christopher Lucero, 24. The sixth-grade teacher was arrested. (New Mexico)
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NOT GUILTY PLEA
In Illinois, Ronald L. Watson Jr., 26, was indicted on criminal sexual assault and criminal sexual abuse for incidents with a 17-year-old female student. He pleaded not guilty.
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GUILTY PLEA
In Indianapolis, Kevin Walsh, 28, pleaded guilty to one count of child solicitation and one count of disseminating matter harmful to a minor for trying to solicit sex from what he thought was a 15-year-old girl. The Internet can be so brutal. It was a good thing it was a police officer.
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SENTENCED
It was the third conviction for drunk driving for a Maryland teacher. He was sentenced to 120 days in jail, with 60 days suspended. Conveniently for him, he was convicted in August 2006, but he was allowed to teach the full school year and report to jail after school let out. Shameful example for students and a disservice to parents who might actually want to discourage drunk driving.
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MRS SOCIOPATH SENTENCED
Really, when a 26-year-old teacher runs away to Mexico with a 14-year-old boy and takes her 3-year-old child with her, pleads guilty, and then claims two days before her sentencing that the boy held her at gunpoint, it's pretty sure she's not quite right in the conscience department. Angela Comer, made a beeline to the AP reporter after her plea agreement as well. She'll have time to refine her interview technique in prison after being sentenced to 10 years. Only thing we can't figure out is why she wasn't required to register as a sex offender for life. (Kentucky)
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FAKE COLLEGE TRANSCRIPT SCANDAL
Lots of people, including three New York City public school teachers have been indicted on charges that they took part in a scheme involving fraudulent transcripts. The teachers paid $3,000 each for transcripts that showed they had master's degrees without ever having to attend the college. Two of the teachers are tenured. It's something you read about in India or Bangladesh or some third-world country. Oh, wait, it's NYC. Nevermind.
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Summary - July 16, 2007

Summary July 16, 2007
Follow links for updated information.


FIRED
Three Eastern Michigan University officials were fired for covering up a murder. As outrageous as it seems, university President John Fallon along with the Vice President of Student Affairs, Jim Vick, and the school's public safety director, Cindy Hall, told the family and the media that a 22-year-old student, Laura Dickerson, was asphyxiated and that there was no sign of foul play. When a student was arrested and charged with the crime, the parents and public found out she had been raped and killed. Apparently, though, that would have been bad publicity for the university. And for the school administrators and their careers.
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ARRESTED - Enticing a child
Police in Alabama went to Georgia to arrest Keaton Lamar Battle, 34. He was charged with two counts of enticing a child for immoral purposes for sexual involvement with male students during his first year of teaching in Alabama.
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ARRESTED - Sexual Assault
In March, an Illini social studies teacher was arrested for sex with a student. Now the Principal at Illini Bluffs Elementary School has been arrested on criminal sexual assault charges. John C. Walker, 42, was charged with sexual assault of a 20-year-old woman. (Illinois)
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CASE PENDING - TRIAL DATE SET
Found in a story about the sentencing of her husband, Susan J. Gore, 41, a former teacher’s assistant at Bolivia Elementary School, was charged in April 2005 with second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and solicitation to commit a felony. Her trial is scheduled for August. No other details. (North Carolina)
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SENTENCED
A North Carolina teacher will be serving less than 6 months after pleading guilty to seven charges in connection with sexual involvement with a 16-year-old girl. John Tyler Beatty, 28, will also be on three years' supervised probation.
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SENTENCED - Mommy Sex (When she's old enough to be your mother.)
In Utah, speech and language pathologist Kathryn Louise Parmley, 49, was sentenced to a year for sex with a 17-year-old male student. She'll be on probation for three years. The judge, however, made it a condition of her sentence that she not be around children under the age of 18, including her 4-year-old grandson. Nice, huh?
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SENTENCED - AGAIN
We're willing to bet that Donald Shissler, 74, a teacher's assistant who got a retrial because he wasn't adequately represented, wishes he had stuck with the first lawyer. After conviction in the second trial, he was sentenced to 210 years. Yes. Two centuries. Not, of course, that he will live all that long, but it's good to know that he won't be eligible for parole for 70 years, long past his expiration date. (Colorado)
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Sociopath of the Day
Angela Comer, now 28, the Kentucky teacher who fled to Mexico with her 3-year-old son and a 14-year-old male student, now claims that the student forced her at gunpoint. She wanted her side of the story heard before she was sentenced after pleading guilty one count of third degree sodomy and to custodial interference. Maybe she's hoping for a pych evaluation.
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SINCERE APOLOGIES
Apologies to readers for the delay in daily summaries. We also apologize for what appears to be a lack of consistency in identifying coaches who have sex with students.

We began identifying them on the basis of whether the victims were being coached and the relationship was one of coach-student. However, few coaches are full-time at schools, and there was problem that not all stories identify whether the student was being coached by the accused or the relationship developed through the classroom. We settled on identifying coaches where it was clearly established that the victim was being coached by the perpetrator. It isn't because coaches are more testosterone-driven, but due to the unstructured time that coaches spend with students. The same can be said for band teachers, who thankfully, have dropped off in frequency.

Summary - July 16, 2007

Summary July 16, 2007
Follow links for updated information.


FIRED
Three Eastern Michigan University officials were fired for covering up a murder. As outrageous as it seems, university President John Fallon along with the Vice President of Student Affairs, Jim Vick, and the school's public safety director, Cindy Hall, told the family and the media that a 22-year-old student, Laura Dickerson, was asphyxiated and that there was no sign of foul play. When a student was arrested and charged with the crime, the parents and public found out she had been raped and killed. Apparently, though, that would have been bad publicity for the university. And for the school administrators and their careers.
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ARRESTED - Enticing a child
Police in Alabama went to Georgia to arrest Keaton Lamar Battle, 34. He was charged with two counts of enticing a child for immoral purposes for sexual involvement with male students during his first year of teaching in Alabama.
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ARRESTED - Sexual Assault
In March, an Illini social studies teacher was arrested for sex with a student. Now the Principal at Illini Bluffs Elementary School has been arrested on criminal sexual assault charges. John C. Walker, 42, was charged with sexual assault of a 20-year-old woman. (Illinois)
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CASE PENDING - TRIAL DATE SET
Found in a story about the sentencing of her husband, Susan J. Gore, 41, a former teacher’s assistant at Bolivia Elementary School, was charged in April 2005 with second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and solicitation to commit a felony. Her trial is scheduled for August. No other details. (North Carolina)
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SENTENCED
A North Carolina teacher will be serving less than 6 months after pleading guilty to seven charges in connection with sexual involvement with a 16-year-old girl. John Tyler Beatty, 28, will also be on three years' supervised probation.
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SENTENCED - Mommy Sex (When she's old enough to be your mother.)
In Utah, speech and language pathologist Kathryn Louise Parmley, 49, was sentenced to a year for sex with a 17-year-old male student. She'll be on probation for three years. The judge, however, made it a condition of her sentence that she not be around children under the age of 18, including her 4-year-old grandson. Nice, huh?
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SENTENCED - AGAIN
We're willing to bet that Donald Shissler, 74, a teacher's assistant who got a retrial because he wasn't adequately represented, wishes he had stuck with the first lawyer. After conviction in the second trial, he was sentenced to 210 years. Yes. Two centuries. Not, of course, that he will live all that long, but it's good to know that he won't be eligible for parole for 70 years, long past his expiration date. (Colorado)
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Sociopath of the Day
Angela Comer, now 28, the Kentucky teacher who fled to Mexico with her 3-year-old son and a 14-year-old male student, now claims that the student forced her at gunpoint. She wanted her side of the story heard before she was sentenced after pleading guilty one count of third degree sodomy and to custodial interference. Maybe she's hoping for a pych evaluation.
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SINCERE APOLOGIES
Apologies to readers for the delay in daily summaries. We also apologize for what appears to be a lack of consistency in identifying coaches who have sex with students.

We began identifying them on the basis of whether the victims were being coached and the relationship was one of coach-student. However, few coaches are full-time at schools, and there was problem that not all stories identify whether the student was being coached by the accused or the relationship developed through the classroom. We settled on identifying coaches where it was clearly established that the victim was being coached by the perpetrator. It isn't because coaches are more testosterone-driven, but due to the unstructured time that coaches spend with students. The same can be said for band teachers, who thankfully, have dropped off in frequency.

Summary - July 14, 2007

SUMMARY JULY 14, 2007
Follow links for updated information.


ARRESTED - possession of child pornography
School is out so you would think children would be safe. But in North Texas, the third teacher was arrested this week. The arrested included Craig Andrew Simon, 54. He was arrested for child pornography shortly after he posted bail on solicitation of sex from a minor for internet solicitation. They searched the middle school teacher's computer after his first arrest and found the child pornography.
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SENTENCED
In Florida, Daniel Zdrodowski, 29, was sentenced to 5 and a half years for sex with a student. He pleaded no contest in May to a felony charge of engaging in unlawful sexual activity with a minor. The student refused to testify against him. Shamefully, a teacher testified, hoping for a lighter sentence. "I believe those two people fell in love," testified Joyce Ostrom, a 61-year-old elementary school teacher who has known Zdrodowski since he was young. "This is a case where every law doesn't fit every crime." The judge thought otherwise. "There's is no rule that says you are excused from having sex with a student as long as you are a nice person," the judge said.
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SENTENCED - Sex with a 13-year-old girl
It's Baltimore, so you have to expect leniency in sentencing, but 18 months for having sex with a 13-year-old child we are willing to bet was poor and black, is not leniency; it's permission to abuse children. He'll have to register as a sex offender, but Timothy Nicholas Gounaris, 50, will likely be released on work release in less than 9 months. What is worse is that Gounaris was recommended to be fired by another district, but was hired to work in the middle school in Baltimore. Why they accepted the plea agreement is anyone's guess, but prosecutors dropped five other charges, including second-degree rape and perverted practice.
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SENTENCED - Child pornography with pictures as young as 5-year olds having sex
A Waterford, Maine volunteer was arrested after an online conversation. He admitted to having 100 pictures of girls as young as 5 years old performing sex acts. He admitted to an online police officer that he got "very excited" from working around children, and touched his granddaughter's buttocks when her mother was not looking. He sent a picture of a 9-year-old girl at his school to the undercover officer. The little girl was an apparent favorite.
Richard Beebe, 68 was sentenced to 60 days.
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Summary - July 13, 2007

SUMMARY JULY 13, 2007

Follow links for updated information.

ARRESTED - sexual abuse
In Alabama, a a Beulah High School job coach, was arrested and charged with first degree sexual abuse after a former student alleges he fell asleep to find Charles Bochette, 45, on top of him.
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ARRESTED - possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia
Methamphetamine arrests used to be confined to inner city adults, mostly male adults. Not any more. Amy Hill-Tabor, an elementary school teacher in Kentucky was arrested and charged with possession.
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ARRESTED - Internet solicitation of sex from a minor
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Scott Hovey, 26, was arrested when he went to a mall to meet with what he thought was a minor. He was charged with internet solicitation of a child for sexual activity. He's been suspended with pay. In February, the assistant principal of the school was arrested for sexual abuse of a boy.
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ARRESTED - Child Pornography

David D. Koepp, 40, a Wisconsin teacher was arrested for trying to download a video file via his computer that depicted a four-year-old girl engaging in sexual activity with an adult male. The indictment also charges that Koepp knew he had two images on his computer that depicted young girls engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

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ARRESTED

An Ohio teacher, Victoria A. Cramer, 27, was arrested for petty theft and receiving stolen property. Bizarrely, she attended weddings and stole gift cards from two different weddings.

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INDICTED

By a federal grand jury on on a felony count of interference with a flight attendant and two misdemeanor assault charges, Valjean Marguriet, 55, a Pompano Beach, Florida, teacher had to physcially restrained on the plane. She was teaching despite a 1998 arrest for driving under the influence and being in the company of a juvenile at the time. She was placed on six month's probation and fined at that time.

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SENTENCED

“I believe that I must send a message to every person who walks in that school as a teacher, as a coach, as a mentor, as whatever it may be, you do not lay a hand on a child," said the judge.

There's one judge who ought to run for public office. He sentenced Loral “Cassie” Hall, 32, to 60 days years probation on a misdemeanor unlawful sexual contact charge involving a 17-year-old female. In addition, Hall will have to register as a sex offender. Those were the requirements of the charges. The judge also ordered 50 hours community service, substance abuse evaluation, fine, costs and sex offender fees and surcharges and said Hall would pay for counseling if the victim required it.

Gonzales added there would be no exceptions to the no-child-contact prohibition including family members such as nieces, nephews and cousins. “You will be that conspicuous absent family member at family gatherings,” Gonzales told Hall. “You will miss the baptisms, you will miss the confirmations, the birthdays, Christmases, the reunions."

(California)
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SENTENCED
In North Carolina, Cornelius White, 25, a substitute teacher, was sentenced to 60 days (after credit for time in jail before he posted bail, it means 16 days in jail) for sex with a 17-year-old female student. He will also be on probation to two years and be required to register as a sex offender.
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SENTENCEDIn Wisconsin, Nathan E. Cox, 38, was sentenced to 1 year in jail for sexual assault of a 13-year-old female student. How a 38-year-old man could kiss and pet a 13-year-old is a mystery. Why the heck newspaper would refer to the sordid groping as "Barron teacher sentenced for affair with student" is beyond us.
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NO SEX OFFENDERS WANTED
Not everyone is happy to have Christine Scarlett living so close to a school. She's the teacher who had sex with a student and got a wrist slap of three days in jail. They want the 39-year-old former teacher to move away from their children. You would think the real question is whether a registered sex offender should even allowed access to her own children. TT - LINK
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ST. LOUIS SCHOOL BOARD
The state appointed an administratie school board to take over St. Louis Schools. But the elected school board refuses to cede authority to the administrative board. At issue is who is to write the checks. A judge intervened to rule on behalf of the appointed school board.
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OAKLAND SCHOOL BOARD
St. Louis and Oakland have just about the same demographics and much of the same problems. In Oakland, Isaac Haaq, founder and principal of a charter school finally resigned. The state invalidated the test scores for the school for a second straight year due to "adult testing irregularities," or, in other words, cheating. And not by students. The big question is why anyone with half a brain would trust someone with Haaq's past to run a school in the first place.
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Summary - July 12, 2007

Summary July 12, 2007
Follow links for updated information.

ARRESTED for sex with a 13-year-old boy
Lauren Cosgrove, 28, a Texas teacher was arrested on two counts of aggravated sexual assault to a child. The boy was a former student and she was babysitting the boy and his brothers. The boys reported that the teacher and boy spent a lot of time in a locked bedroom, it turns out - for oral sex on each other. She is married and has two children. The boy told police she was afraid of losing her children if anyone found out about their relationship. Nice burden to put on a child, isn't it? FEMALE
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PLEA - no contest to sex with student
San Bruno, California band teacher Adam Albrecht, 29, pleaded no contest to to one felony count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, one felony count of oral copulation with a minor, and one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, for providing the 17-year-old girl with alcohol and marijuana. He'll be sentenced in August.
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SENTENCED (Again) - Sex with boys
A sixth-grade teacher in Florida was sentenced to 70 years after pleading no contest to 16 counts of sexual offenses against three children during 2003. He pleaded guilty in 2006 to 13 counts of sexual battery and child molestation on a 12-year-old male student and was sentenced to 70 years and lifelong probation. Both sentences to run concurrently for Daniel Cliatt, 29.
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SENTENCED - Sex with student
It's bad enough that the victim had to testify, she also had to listen while two teachers testified for the teacher who pleaded no contest to single count of statutory sexual assault for sex with the 15-year-old girl. David Costanza, 28, was sentenced to six whole months and five years' probation. His father was the school board president who resigned when his son was arrested.
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FAVORITE STORY OF THE DAY
Is the Oregon elementary school principal who was caught with marijuana who has the "full support" of the district superintendent and, the superintendent claims, the school board. Only problem is that the school district is famous for a 1989 crackdown on "drugs" that includes mandatory testing for athletes. They took that battle to the U.S. Supreme Court. That was then. Now it's "Pot for me, but not for thee." Bless the little children. They got their lesson early on the reality of politics and education in Oregon.
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BEST E-MAIL QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I personally believe that this website is ridiculous. Teachers are people too, and everyone makes mistakes. It's not fair to have these stories on here. It on causes unfair judgements to be made." Well, frankly, sir, parents are people too. And they have a right to expect that when they send their children to school, it isn't to learn how to smoke dope and have sex in classroom closets with teachers who are most frequently nearly twice their age. (or more)

CONNECTICUT TO ALLOW CONVICTED DRUG DEALER TO TEACH
The Connecticut Board of Education has decided to reinstate a teacher who was convicted of selling drugs to an undercover police officer. He will be allowed to teach at a school with minority populations (if you can call 54% black and 42% Hispanic "minority populations.") Low-income students or parents don't deserve teachers who are role models, apparently. Or maybe the nearly all-white school board thinks all blacks and hispanics are drug dealers.
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Follow the links for updated information.

Summary - July 10, 2007

Summary July 10, 2007
Follow links for updated information.


Pleaded Guilty - Sex obsessed teacher
In Texas, Kumi Houston, 48, pleaded guilty to improper acts with a student for allowing a 12-year-old boy to, ah, act improperly. It's pathetic when a woman that age acts like a sex-obsessed teenager. FEMALE
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Pleaded Guilty - Lesbian sex
Idaho teacher Lauren Palmer, 22, pleaded guilty to injury to a child. She was found in a car with female student. She'll be sentenced in August. FEMALE
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Pleaded Guilty
Renee Smith, 36, pleaded guilty to two counts of corrupting another with drugs and two counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor. She agreed to give up her teaching license and will be classified as a sexual offender. She AGREED to give up her teaching license, which prompted one poster at the news site to remark that it should be mandatory. However, it's Ohio, and there's no guarantee. She'll be classed as a sex offender. FEMALE
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Pleaded Guilty to Importuning
For asking a neighborhood boy for sex, Titus Wayne Loux, 71, isn't going to find it easy to find anyone to mow his lawn again. (Ohio)
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Another Trial
Our ever-favorite Ann Greenberg, 34, the Kentucky teacher who called a state trooper to buy drugs and then pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and conspiracy to obtain marijuana (less than 8 ounces) has another court date. This one is for perjury for her testimony to the grand jury. No doubt, after that, she'll STILL go back to her teaching job. FEMALE
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ARRESTED - Manslaughter
A horrible tragedy resulted in the arrest of Mirenda Frazier, 30, a teacher's aide who was charged with manslaughter by culpable negligence in the death of a 19-month-old child who was left on a transportation van for more than seven hours. (Mississippi)
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ARRESTED - Sex with Student
Forty times. At least that's what the student remembered and he ought to know. Christy Brown, 33, was arrested for sex with the 17-year-old boy after being found in a parked car with the boy. She was his English teacher. FEMALE
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SENTENCED - Mail fraud
A one-time USC Marshall School of Business lecturer, Barry Landreth, 37, was sentenced after pleading to mail fraud in connection with a real estate scheme that victimized several of his students. The judge - bless him - rejected the 41 months plea time and sentenced Landreth to six years.
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SENTENCED (Sorta)
If you consider six years' probation for having sex with two boys, serious sentencing. Sadly, it is something of the norm for Indiana where Amber Marshall, 25, was a teacher's aide. There's hope though that since charges are still pending in another county, the prosecutor there wouldn't think to drop four class B felony charges of sexual intercourse with a minor. FEMALE
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COLORADO COVERUP
How else can you explain why the Colorado Department of Education receives 2,000 - 3,000 reports of arrested teachers EACH YEAR in Colorado, but doesn't inform the schools where the teachers are employed? The rationale is that the information is personal and confidential. They do, however, notify the school when the teacher is convicted, which can take months (or years as we have found out.)
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Part II of the Investigation - Link

ANOTHER COURT DATE
For Tammie "Liberty" Lee Reed - the Colorado teacher who was arrested five times for drugs but still managed to get probation and - don't laugh outloud - community service. (As if a methamphetamine-addicted woman will be welcome at the local hospital fund raiser.) She'll be going back to court for lying to a judge about traveling to an out-of-state wedding. Once the lawyer, prosector and judge finish trying to dismiss each other from the new trial. FEMALE
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BAD HIRING DECISIONS $$$$$
Tenure not only keeps incompetents in classrooms for decades, cheating children out an education, it also costs taxpayers millions for those Bad Hiring Decisions when districts pay out millions in buyouts. At Missouri State University, they've spent $700,000 alone in the last five years to buy out nine employees. Including this one. LINK
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Other Bad Hiring Decisions - Link

IT'S JUST MONEY $$$$$
Taxpayer money, which makes you wonder why taxpayers in an Arkansas school district would tolerate plans for a $6 million tax increase for a new middle school when enrollment has dropped to the extent that they aren't rehiring to replace four teachers? But it's the $1.9 million "athletic facilities" that ought to ring someone's bell. Just because you're low-income, doesn't mean you should pay for the education of non-citizens, or what looks like imported students. The demographic just doesn't fit.
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Summary - July 3, 2007

Summary July 3, 2007
Follow links for updated information.


SENTENCED
Four months - and alternate sentencing - will make sure that Kelly Spaich, 28, won't be seeing any jail time. The Roseville, California teacher pleaded no contest to a six-month sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy. She received 2002-03 Association of California School Administrators "Teachers who Make a Difference Award." YEAH.

Had she been a man, she'd do the time. The really insane aspect of the sentencing is that the judge inflicted her on the community to do 400 hours of community service. What community in their right minds WANTS the services of an admitted sexual predator?
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SENTENCED
David Watt, an engineering professor at the University of New Hampshire, was sentenced to one year in jail and five years' probation for soliciting sex from what he thought was a 14-year-old girl. (New Hampsire)
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SENTENCED (again)
After pleading guilty in 2006 to sex crimes with a 12-year-old girl, Acea Pickens, was sentenced to 16 years. He appealed and got a jury trial where jurors weren't particularly swayed by his defense that he made a mistake and hoped they'd see past it. He was convicted and a judge sentenced him to 24 years. (Oklahoma)
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PLEADED No Contest
Tiffany Yglesias, 31, pleaded no contest to one count of theft from an elderly or disabled adult who happened to be her mother-in-law. Yglesias helped author a a 2006 guide on ways for parent-teacher organizations to avoid theft. She had some knowledge of how to steal money. In 2004, she pleaded no contest to one count of grand theft and two counts of theft. (Ohio)
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Retrial
Gregory Hernandez, sentenced in 2005 to two years and eight months in state prison and ordered to register as a sex offender, will get a new trial on charges of lewd acts with a 14-year-old female student. (California)
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INDICTED - Lewd acts on two students
John Asher, 37, was extradicted from North Carolina to face charges that he committed forcible lewd acts on two students when he was principal in 2000 - 2003 of Charisma Academy School. (California)
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TRIAL DELAYED
The trial of Nicole Belonga, 26, on related to the death of her 22-month-old child. The delay is while prosecutors ask for a new indictment. The child had minor facial injuries in November 2005. The 2006 injuries were fatal. Belonga, apparently, had anger problems in the classroom as well.
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What's with those headlines?
While most newspapers are responsible, a few still refer to teacher-student sex as a "romance" or "an affair." It's stupid. It's irresponsible and it's, thankfully, limited to large chain newspapers who ought to be able to afford better editors. Or maybe that's what big money buys - the Harlequin Romance wannabes.
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The Grade Integrity Act of 2007
In Georgia, a new law goes into effect that makes it an ethics violation for a principal to coerce or intimidate a teacher into changing a grade. The law is a result of a well-known case in Georgia. A principal, central office administrator, superintendent, or local school administrator can still change grades, but they have to document it.
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