Summary July 26, 2007Follow 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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