Summary - August 30, 2007

Summary

INDICTED
James DeGasperin, 35, a physicial education teacher in West Virginia, was indicted on three counts of murder in the first degree for the brutal death of his girlfriend, her 4-year-old son, and her unborn child.
TT - Link

INDICTED
Julie Petty, 36, a substitute teacher and coach at a middle school, was indicted on a charge of sexual battery by a person in authority and statutory rape by a person in authority for sexual contact with a 14-year-old female student. (Tennessee)
TT - Link

OUT OF PRISON
A judge ordered the early release of Cathy Malone, 32, the New Hampshire teacher's aide who kidnapped a 16-year-old boy and fled to Mexico with him, along with her 8-year-old son. The prison superintendent refused to order an early release because of her stalking charge. She served a total of nine months on the stalking charge. She got a suspended sentence for the kidnapping.
TT - Link

SENTENCED TODAY's STORIES
Christine Marie Johanson, 35, teacher's aide - sex with 15-year old student
Sentenced to six months in jail and faces additional charges.

Jennifer Bagley, 35, substitute teacher - sex with 15-year-old female student
Sentenced to 10 years' probation.
Judge added 6 months in jail and first three years intensive supervision.

Paul Held, 68, possession of 3-4 million picutres -child pornography
Sentenced to 10 years, registration as a sex offender.
Federal monitoring for the rest of his life.

Philip Speers, 36, two counts of molestation of 2 children
Sentenced to 34 years
He has another trial upcoming in October.

Several arrests, including a third-grade teacher who brought possession of heroin, marijuana and associated pararphenlia to school with her.

ANOTHER TEACHER STRIKE
This one in Washington state. Unlike the strike in Rhode Island that is illegal, the Washington state teachers are within the law to strike. Why do parents put up with this? First thing they should do is find alternative schools and vote to eliminate taxes for schools that hold them up for ransom. We had a previous story on this school district.
TT - Link

SUSPENDED
The fiancee of a John McNair, 59, was suspended from her position as a coordinator at Jim Allen Elementary School. Investigators from the FBI and Pensacola Police Department found nearly 160,000 pornographic images, including pictures of nude children, on McNair's home computer. Police also located a nearly two-hour audio recording of McNair describing explicit sexual fantasies that involved children as young as two years old. Parts of the recording were played in court Tuesday. The teacher, Frances Hinely, 58, testified at the hearing.
(Pensacola, Florida)
TT - Link

PARENT PROTESTS WORK
Parents protested having a P.E. teacher at an elementary school return to class with their children after being arrested for masturbating in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Several customers complained before police were called to arrest Anthony Fazzary, 42. He will be on "special assignment."
(Lewiston, New York)
TT - Link

Summary - August 17, 2007

Summary August 17, 2007
Follow links for updated information



CHARGES FILED
A Temecula teacher will have to appear in court to answer charges of 11 misdemeanor counts of annoying and molesting a child under 18. He is accused of making inappropriate comments in class. Eleven students complained. Paul Andrew Rollins, 43, will appear in court in September. He's been under investigation since June.
(California)
TT - Link

CHARGED
Stanley Williams, 55, a special education teacher was charged with using a stolen and forged prescription blank containing a doctor's note to justify his excessive absences to the New Brunswick Board of Education. No definition of excessive absences, but we also look closely at the school district in New Jersey.
TT - Link

CHARGED - Selling Drugs
A substitute teacher in Pennsylvania was charged after selling prescription drugs to an undercover officer. Twice. Ronal F. Austin, 66, looks like such a jolly person, too.
TT - Link

ARRESTED - Sex with two students
When police began investigating Melvin Jerome Fair, 55, a middle school teacher for suspected contact with a 14-year-old girl, they also uncovered a problem from 1999-2000. The youngest is 12-years-old from the 1999-2000 case and the recent charges involve a 14-year-old girl. He's the third teacher from the district arrested for sexual involvement with students.
North Carolina
TT - Link

ARRESTED for Child Pornography
When the Toronto, Canada sex crimes unit contacted the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency about a video file posted on the Internet, federal agents traced the child pornography to a teacher in Las Vegas. Michael Gogerty, 41, was arrested and charged with inappropriate behavior with children. A search of his home revealed 200 CDs and floppy disks and over 200 videos. Gogerty had worked in three different day care centers before being hired as a fifth grade teacher at a middle school.
TT - Link

GUILTY PLEA - Selling drugs
The case made NATIONAL HEADLINES. A Bethlehem, Pennsylvania principal was arrested selling methamphetamine out of his office at his middle school. He pleaded guilty to two counts of felony delivery of methamphetamine and one count of felony possession with intent to deliver. The case, however, was notable for the lack of cooperation with staff and teachers at the school who insisted on bringing their lawyers to a meeting with a school investigator who ended up having to claim it was his fault for scaring them. John Acerra, 50, will be sentenced in October.TT - Link

GUILTY PLEA- Soliciting murder
In Massachusetts, a Teacher of the Year solicited the murder of her husband. It turned out that the hitman was a state trooper who video and audio taped the meeting. Caroline M. Kotoski, 43, pleaded guilty to a charge of solicitation to commit murder. We hope she hasn't been on paid leave since her arrest in 2004.
TT - Link

MO MONEY $ $ $ $
In Oregon, the Governor signed a bill giving school districts money for mentoring. It will amount to $5,000 for each new teacher. Given the failure rate of new teachers in schools, mentoring is touted as a way to help them that first year. But isn't that what we pay high-priced principals and superintendents to do: monitor and oversee teachers in the classroom? Why does it cost more to have a co-worker help you out?
TT - Link

WHAT MONEY CAN'T BUY
Besides a decent education. For one, it can't buy a school free from pedophiles. Princess Beatrice's head history teacher at the private school near Windsor admits grooming young girls over the Internet for sex. The girl turned out a Scotland Yard investigator. Richard Findley, 42, is the father of three children, which is scary in itself.
TT - Link

Teacher Discipline Records Online in Florida
Starting Monday you can find teacher discipline records online in Florida. Starting Tuesday unions will aggressively oppose any attempt at discipline of teachers, as if they haven't for decades. If you want to see the extent of the problem in Florida, the Sarasota Tribune had a series on Florida educators. (Look for link in TT - Reading)
TT - Link

Summary - August 21, 2006

Summary - August 21, 2007
Follow links for updated information.


SENTENCED - Sex with student = 12 years
A Russian national who was coaching at an Illinois school has been sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison for engaging in sex with a student. Yuri Ermakov, 27, fled to Moscow the day the jury began deliberations.
TT - Link

SENTENCED - Sex with three students = 4 years
In Louisiana, Joseph Barbee, 34, was sentenced to 10 years on each count, with the time to be served concurrently. Five years were suspended, and Barbee will get credit for time spent in jail. EFFECTIVELY, that's five years in prison (-) jail time = four years for sex with a 14-year-old and two 16-year-old girls. He was also sentenced to five years of supervised probation. But no mention of registration as a sex offender. Go figure.
TT - Link

GUILTY- Sex with 14-year-old girl
A New York principal who traveled four times to Nebraska to have sex with a 14-year-old girl he met on the Internet will be sentenced to 12 years after pleading guilty to two counts of travel with intent to engage in a sexual act with a juvenile.Three additional federal charges were dismissed under the plea bargain. Monetti also told the judge that he understood he had no chance for parole under federal sentencing laws and that his guilty pleas would make it nearly impossible to successfully appeal his sentence. John Monetti, 38, will be sentenced in November.
TT - Link

GUILTY PLEA - Pedophile
Christopher Burton, 25, pleaded guilty to eight counts of second-degree felony sexual abuse of a child. The students were third-graders. The prosecutors have agreed to recommend to the judge that Burton serve five sentences consecutively and three concurrently.
TT - Link

GUILTY PLEA - Sex with student beginning when she was 13
A physicial education teacher at an elementary school pleaded guilty to one count of sexual abuse and lluring a minor for sexual exploitation.He was arrested last year, accused of abusing one of his students beginning when she was just 13. Joshua Jacobsen, 31, faces a whole three months in prison or jail.
TT - Link

ARRESTED
A teacher's assistant was arrested and charged with sexual battery, assault on a female and assault on a handicapped person. The mentally-challenged woman was not a student but described as a friend. (North Carolina)
TT - Link

ARRESTED - Lewd acts with special education students
Another special education teacher, this one in Los Angeles, was arrested. Fred Johnson, 60, was arrested booked on suspicion of lewd acts with a child. The boy's father went to the school to find out exactly what was going on. He says that recently his son had confessed to him that he was being molested by his special education teacher for years. The boy is one of four special education students ages 14-19 who it is alleged have been sexually assaulted by Johnson.
TT - Link

ARRESTING DOCUMENTS
A local station in Spokane, Washington obtained copies of the arresting documents for Gordon L. Erickson, the 78-year-old retired teacher who was arrested when he offered to pay $200 each to a mother for sex with a four-year-old girl and an 11-month-old baby. The mother turned out to be an undercover officer. Only read if you have a strong stomach.
TT - Link

INDICTED - Delayed Justice
A 43-year-old Lodi, New Jersey teacher was indicted on rape charges for an indecent assault on a 16-year-old girl on a field trip in 2003. The trip was to Massachusetts where having sex with a victim was too drunk to consent is rape under law.
TT - Link

TRIAL - Murder Trial Starts
It's the start of the murder trial of Jose Alberto Felix, the Texas elementary school teacher who was arrested, along with another man, for the murder of a Dallas restaurateur in Dallas in 2005.
TT - Link

LEGAL DECISION
An elementary school teacher in Hawaii will go on trial in September. A judge ruled that part of his statement would be allowed. Frederick Rames, 66, will appear in court in September to answer charges of sexual assault of a number of boys, including foster children from the Marshall Islands. Police said a 7-year-old boy contracted a veneral disease.
TT - Link

TEACHER DISCIPLINE RECORDS ONLINE
In Florida, you can check on the discipline records for Florida teachers on their new MyFloridaTeacher.com The database includes actions from January 1, 2007, but they plan on adding older records. What should be of note to researchers is the number of teachers whose licenses were permanently revoked for "Conduct- Engaged in inappropriate conduct" whose names can't be found as being prosecuted. We got to do some lookups in one district where a "Behavior therapist" was arrested for drunk driving. Link
TT - Link

Firing and Resignation
In Reed City, Michigan, the school board is trying to fire one tenured teacher for "unprofessional conduct." They also accepted the resignation of an assistant high school principal who pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a 15-year-old girl. He was the teachers union president.
TT - Link

IDIOTIC EDITORIAL
In Florida, a newspaper editorialized that the state of Florida should not have ended the state educators liability insurance without having another program in place. The problem is that there are many alternatives for the teachers to buy low-cost liability insurance for as little as $150 a year for $2 million coverage. It cost the state of Florida over $4 MILLION for insurance that only paid out some $50,000.
BUT the editorial writers ignored the alternative insurance and the fact that state laws limit such law suits and the cost even though those figures were found in another section of the newspaper on the same day.
Made us wonder if they even read their own newspaper. It also made us wonder why they labeled parents as antagonistic and children as "disrespectful children capable of malicious lies or overreactions."
TT - Link

PAROLE? SO SOON?
A New Jersey teacher sentenced in July 2006 to seven years for having sex with a 15-year-old girl is up for parole in October after serving only 13 months.
TT- Link

SEX ABUSERS
Did you ever think you would see the day when someone would say that about sex abusers and "teachers" would be second on the list ?
TT - Link

SCHOOL BOARD WATCH
When a story about a school board comes up, we get a chance to look more closely at the board and schools in the district. We wondered how a Georgia school district with 6 schools and 1203 students could run a $1.5 million deficit last year. Why, with a teacher-student ratio of 13, they didn't determine that they had hired more teachers than they could afford? Why there were no online board minutes or school reports, teacher salaries, or contracts ? When we found a taxpayer site that linked to the teacher salaries, we couldn't believe it.
TT - Link

Summary - August 16, 2007

Summary August 16, 3007
Follow links for updated information.


SENTENCED - Pedophile teacher
Pedophile Ronald Richard Taylor Jr., 38, was sentenced to 10-15 years by a judge who said he wished he could give Taylor more time in prison. A jury convicted Taylor of of 12 counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct against nine young boys. We are talking about 6-year-olds. The judge even called Taylor a pedophile.
(Michigan)
TT -Link

SENTENCED
A coach and teacher pleaded guilty in July to "sexual misconduct" with a minor involving a girl he coached on the school wrestling team. The plea agreement reduced the felony to a misdemeanor. Another one of those married men with children having sex with a high school student. Todd Hoiness, 40, was sentenced to six months in the County Jail, with 30 days converted to 240 hours of community service. He has to register as a sex offender. The judge chastised him.
(Washington)
TT - Link

SENTENCED
Compare the above with this. A chorus teacher in a Virginia high school, Wendy Wills, 33, had a sexual relationship with at least one of the boys (age 17) last year and provided alcohol to both. She was married at the time. As the Free Lance Star reported, "Neither victim complained." Prosecutors allowed her to plead guilty to child endangerment and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a felony.
She was sentenced to four years in prison - all suspended.
She doesn't have to register as a sex offender either.
That sentence is a remarkable teacher recruitment incentive for Virginia.
(Virginia)
TT - Link

ARRESTED
After a foot chase, police arrested Bret C. Weise, 32, a mathematics teacher for drug possession - a misdemeanor. Two other men were caught with him, one a probation officer who was fired four days later. It's always amazing that schools have zero tolerance for drugs for students but don't expect the same of teachers.
(New York - small town)
TT - Link

NO CONTEST PLEA
An elementary school teacher pleaded no contest (Denies guilt, but concedes likelihood of being convicted.) to attempted first-degree sexual assault, a felony, for sex with a 15-year-old male student. Brandy Reynolds, 24, will be sentenced in September.
(Nebraska)
TT - Link

GUILTY PLEA
A fourth-grade teacher went online to convince two 16-year-old girls to send him pornographic pictures of themselves. Ronald Daniels, 36, pleaded guilty to two child pornography charges. The state of Arkansas is looking into filing state charges.
(Arkansas)
TT - Link

TEST SCORES
Every state about now is receiving results on test score results for the June graduating class and other grades. In Michigan, the Detroit News analyzed the results and created an online interactive database to allow parents to search for results in their local school, the district as a whole, or the state. They found "Detroit schools had some of the worst results in the area, with 14 percent passing math and 22 percent passing science."

Nothing new there; it's pretty much a given in any major urban area with a high percentage of black students. Which is why the No Child Left Behind Act was designed to stop the endless inner city school warehousing of students. The law insists that minorities improve every year until they reach grade level. If they don't, parents who care can opt out of the school and find another academically performing school that does think their child is worth teaching and caring about.
TT - Link

SCHOOL UNIFORMS
You would think instituting a policy on school uniforms for students would be easy and common sense. Not in Napa Valley, California.
TT - Link

THANK GOODNESS it is Canada
In Montreal, an arbitrator later ruled that a teacher's dismissal for killing his wife in 1980 violated Quebec's charter of rights, because his crime did not in any way relate to his work.
TT - Link

BEANIE BABIES
A 16-year-old girl who married her 40-year-old teacher and coach sued her parents for the return of her toys.
(North Carolina)
TT - Link

Apologies for getting behind on the summaries. Again.

A List of teachers sentenced in July is up.

Summary - August 8, 2007

Summary August 8, 2007
Follow links for updated information.


School hasn't started yet and it's been a bad day.

Updated Charges lead to $2 million bail
In Marin, California, elementary school teacher John Hawthorne had his bail increased after 30 new charges were added. The prosecutor said that Hawthorne used Photoshop to paste digital images of female students on pornography he downloaded from the Internet. They found thousands of pornographic images of prepubescent girls.
TT - Link for Hawthorne

Criminal hearing postponed (again)
For a Buffalo school teacher and his son who were arrested in a racial brawl, a hearing was delayed for the second time. (Headline: "Alleged race motivated bar fight case delayed") as the carnival vendors were not responding to the prosecutor's attempt to contact them. The judge agreed to give the prosecution two more weeks, but warned it would be the last continuance he would be granting in the case.

Not mentioned in today's story in Tonawanda News was the fact that the bar fight began with the son, Nicholas Hempel, 22, hurling racial epithets at a black carnival worker. His father, Paul Hempel, 49, a school teacher in Buffalo approached and claimed he was a police officer. (New York)
Both were arrested. TT - Link for Hempel

Paul Hemple is the husband of former North Tonawanda Councilwoman Sue Hempel.

Trial and unanswered questions
A Piano, Texas teacher is on trial for sexual assault of a child and sexual performance of a child. He is accused of fondling and photographing a 15-year-old girl at Williams High School and showing sexually explicit photos to two other girls. Not previously reported was that Jason Joel Pearce, 33, was banned in one school district for communicating inappropriately with students was allowed to teach at another school district where he worked four more years.
TT - Link for Pearce

Search Warrant Details
A local newspaper is providing details from the arrest warrant for Councilman and substitute teacher Lonnie Jones III and his brother. The house where they allegedly sold cocaine a number of times to undercover officers is across the street and around the block from the police department. Lonnie was hired this year and "worked in a very limited capacity," Anita Alpenfels, the executive director of human resources for the schools. said. (North Carolina)
TT - Link for Jones

In a story about Background Checks... we found
In any other state but Colorado parents would be incensed to know that the state education department only sends school districts an updated list of teacher license revocations and/or suspensions twice a year. (Earlier this month a CBS 4 investigation discovered that Colorado Department of Education does not report 2,000 to 3,000 teacher arrests EACH YEAR to the schools that employ them. Their rationale is that the information is personal and confidential, despite the fact that arrest information is public.)
We just aren't too certain how B-R-I-G-H-T they are in C-O-L-O-R-A-D-O. Or maybe it's all that Colorado high.
TT - Link

GUILTY PLEA - sex with two ninth-grade students
In Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Jeffrey Anderson, 23, pleaded guilty to charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children, corruption of minors and criminal use of communications devices. He was arrested because conscientious parents monitored their children's Internet use, and we sincerely hope the smarmy little *&^%! goes away for a long time.
TT - Link

SENTENCED - for fraud
It shouldn't have surprised anyone that Tiffany Yglesias, 31, was sentenced for theft. What they should be asking is "How was she hired in the first place to help write a 2006 guide on ways for parent-teacher organizations to avoid theft after her 2004 conviction for theft?" No one at the Toledo public schools for whom she helped write the guide seems to be asking that question.
TT - Link

SENTENCED for Child Pornography
In a case that will cause you to shake your head before you go, "DOH It's Baltimore!" a judge sentenced David Riley, 59, to three years probation (only one of which will be supervised.) Riley had 8,000 child pornography photos, some of which were 'sadomasochistic' with boys 8 to 10 years old tied up and tortured. BUT WAIT, the probation isn't the worst part. Parents asked that Riley be prohibited from working with children during his probation, and the judge refused. "I'm willing to give (Riley) the benefit of the doubt that he just looks at pictures and keeps his hands to himself," Lamdin said.
TT - Link

ARRESTED - for trying to have sex with 4-year-old and a baby
Gordon Erickson, 78, a retired Spokane teacher, was arrested after police wire tapped his conversations as he tried to rent the children for sex. An undercover officer asked him to bring candy, popcorn, and $100 for each child. They arrested him at the house.
TT - Link

Arrested - Sex with a 13-year-old student
A Bronx teacher, Anthony Casey, Jr., 22, was arrested, accused of having sex with a 13-year-old student.
TT - Link

Arrested - Child Pornography
A teacher at PS 10 was arrested possession of child pornography. Chris Moriarty, 40, also happens to be a cab driver whose sexually charged conversations are taped for entertainment and air on HBO's "Taxicab Confessions."
TT - Link

Arrested - Sexual abuse of 13-year-old boy
A West Seneca, NY middle school teacher was arrested for what the newspaper calls "an alleged relationship" with a 13-year-old boy. Anthony Harper, 33, faces a number of charges.
TT - Link

Arrested - Lesbian sex with a 16-year-old student
A North Carolina teacher was arrested after the father of a 16-year-old student taped the conversations. Amanda Maria Athey, 27, was arrested, charged with three counts of indecent liberties and one count of sexual activity between a teacher and student.
TT - Link

ON TRIAL
IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE, the start of the trial of Mark Zana, 39, will infuriate you.
TT - Link

SORDID
It's the only way to describe the murder of an Orlando, Florida teacher who was in the middle of a messy divorce with her husband. Investigators reported that they were both involved in extramarital affairs, which doesn't justify the shooting. But how do you tell elementary school children what happened to Mrs. Walker? Or him. He worked at a technician at another elementary school.
TT - Link

School Board Watch
An Arkansas school board voted to allow a teacher back into the classroom. The Arkansas Department of Human Resources lists her on their Child Maltreatment Central Registry for abuse. Her husband used to be the Superintendent of the school district, but they fired him after some board members said he tried to hide the department'ss investigation of his wife’s conduct along with the $ 1, 200 in district money he spent on her legal bills. Now she will be an elementary literacy coach.
TT - Link