Summary - July 19, 2007Follow link for updated information.
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by two psychologists who treated sex offenders at federal prisons, but the Bureau of Prisons ordered the study to be withdrawn as it didn't meet agency approval.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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