School is back in session, or more to the point, courts are up and running after the holidays. In any case, we have a scary collection of arrests and sentences.SENTENCED - Molestation of five pre-teen children
In Florida, Charles L. Barton III, 62, a retired elementary school teacher pleaded guilty to five counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a minor for molesting the five girls. He got four - count em - four years house arrest. He lives 2500 feet from the school.
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SENTENCED - Sex with three boys, ages 15,16, and 17
Magnolia, Texas teacher Lisa Minchew, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault of a child. She was sentenced to five years deferred adjudication (the judge will revisit if she screws up but otherwise she will have a clear record.) She'll have to register as a sex offender for 15 years.
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SENTENCED - Indecent battery on a child under 14
Finally, a teacher who is going to prison. A jury found James Houlihan, 43, guilty of indecent assault and battery on a student under 14. He was sentenced to two years, the maximum sentence allowable. (Massachusetts)
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SENTENCED - Lesbian sex with 17-year-old female student
High school teacher Shelly Shaw, 30, was sentenced to deferred adjudication of 60 days - followed by 10 years' probation - for sex with a 17-year-old female student in 2004. (Texas)
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SENTENCED - Inappropriate sex with a student
An eighth grade teacher in Illinois was sentenced to four years No details or age of victim. Jason R. Francis, 36, will have to register as a sex offender.
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SENTENCED - Sexual relationship with student
A teacher at the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts was sentenced to 16 months for a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old female student. John Kyujoon Lee, 39, pleaded guilty.
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SENTENCED - Child pornography, including a video of an infant being raped
Leland Easterling, 60, a geometry teacher at a Texas high school, was sentenced to eight years and one month for possession of child pornography. He will be under supervised release for seven years after prison. And a registered sex offender for life. Because the Feds do not screw around. (And there is no parole for Federal time, either.)
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SENTENCED - Accessing child pornography at a public library
An Oklahoma elementary school teacher was sentenced to 4 years of supervised probation but no prison time. William Lee Hunter Jr, 41, won't have to register as a sex offender. The felony conviction will, however, keep him out of any classroom.
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SENTENCED - "disorderly conduct" (in car with a student)
In what can only be called gross, Stephanie Gross, 24, was arrested in May for having sexual contact with a 16-year-old boy in her car parked behind a restaurant. In an extraordinary act of generosity the D.A. let her plead to disorderly conduct. She agreed to pay a $300 fine. Oh, and give up her teaching certificate for a whole year. She was a first-year teacher making over $53,000. A year. For 8.5 months work. Go figure. She also thought she would be the first female president. (Not delusions. With her extraordinary luck with the law, she just might.)
Police did ticket her for driving with a suspended license.
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GUILTY PLEA - Sex with five boys
Allenna Ward, 23, who just might be the winner in our Teacher Trash of 2007, pleaded guilty to to having sex with at least five students. In cars, parks, a hotel and at the school. She pleaded guilty to three second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and three lewd acts on a minor. The victims were three 14-year-olds, and two 15-year-olds. (South Carolina)
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CONVICTED - of murder
Better late than never. John Racz, 61, was convicted of murdering his wife in 1991. It was a Cold Case file re-opened in 2006. Despite never finding the body, the jury found him guilty. He was a Compton school teacher. (California)
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ARRESTS
Lots of arrests - in New Jersey where 11 - count em - 11 officials were arrested. Including two mayors, two Assemblymen, a school board president, two board members, three former board members. In connection with a corruption probe centered around bribes relating to contracts awarded by the Pleasantville school board.
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EDITORIAL
When Dustin Powers, 36, got five years' probation for a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl, one newspaper was disgusted - the Mansfield News Journal. (We just swore a lot.) One Ohio newspaper - OWNED BY THE GANNETT CHAIN that owns USA TODAY - headlined the story "Former Mansfield teacher gets probation for sexual indiscretions with 14-year-old". That really, really annoyed us.
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UNREST IN CINCINNATI
People in Greater Cincinnati and northern Kentucky are waiting for the West Clermont School Board to meet on Monday to find out if they will fire the assistant principal at a middle school who left her two-year-old daughter in a hot, baking car at the school for eight hours. The little girl died, but mom wants to go on as if nothing happened. The school board probably does too, but there's an election in November and people are just kinda ticked off. They figure if she can't care for her own child, how can she be trusted with theirs.
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You'll have to scroll down for the two lawsuits.
