Summary June 12, 2007
ARRESTED
Fairfield, California art teacher Kenneth Neubert, 34, was arrested on suspicion of furnishing marijuana to two 17-year-old students. It is, naturally, the most read story of the day at the local newspaper. TT - Link
BAILED OUT WITH BIG BUCKS
Jon Andrew White, 26, the teacher accused of molesting 11 children is out after posting $175,000 bail. (Bail is 10% of a bond which is, in his case, $1.75 million.) That prompted posters to start wondering, "Teaching must pay better than anyone ever realized... " and "what 26-year-old has $175,000?" Good question. If he shows up on on breakfast t.v., we'll know. TT - Link
SENTENCED (sorta)
One of our Mommy Sex stories ("When she's old enough to be your mother.") is particularly sad when the 39-year-old teacher had a child with the 17-year-old student. She already had two children and a husband. Christine Scarlett, 39, was sentenced three days in jail, followed by 180 days of house arrest and five years' probation. (Ohio) TT - Link
Ohio, we point out, doesn't have a good track record when it comes to punishing teachers. TT - Link
SENTENCED
After pleading "no contest" (You can prove it, but I won't admit it.) a 30-year-old elementary school teacher was given a suspended sentence of -- it doesn't matter because he'll won't serve it. Jonathan "Mark" McClain was also placed on 11 months and 29 days of supervised probation and ordered to have no contact with the female juvenile. The mother had to picket protest for weeks to get the school to do something about the inappropriate contact with her daughter. (Tennessee) TT - Link
SENTENCED (sorta)
A principal at a middle school who arranged a drug buy at his school and then had to be dissuaded from using the stuff immediately was sentenced. To drug treatment. Tony Giancola, 41, has to forfeit his teaching license which is one thing to cheer about. (Florida) TT - Link
SENTENCED
The Feds don't play around with sexual predators who use the Internet to meet 13-year-olds. Randy Hutto, a special education aide, was sentenced to 120 months (yes, 10 years) as well as five years supervised release and ordered to register as a sex offender. There is, happily, no parole for federal sentences. TT - Link
FIELD TRIP to where????????
Forty at-risk middle schoolers in New Hampshire got a trip to social service agencies in Manchester, including the library, the Boys and Girls' Club, ... Planned Parenthood... It was a joint program of the public schools and the YMCA. (Go figure.) The media is focusing on the anti-abortion protest at the time of the class visit. Planned Parenthood said they called to advise there was a protest before the trip. No one in the media asked if other at-risk 12-year-olds have been taken on the Planned Parenthood tour. TT - Link
Standardized Test Tampering Hearing
A board of education is hearing the case for dismissal of a third-grade teacher who is accused of tampering with standardized tests. Under advise of her lawyer, she refused to cooperate with an internal investigation, hence the hearing. She wants to keep her job and so does a Sarasota Tribune columnist who doesn't know a lot more about the case than you or we do. He's sure though that filling in those bubbles isn't important. (Florida) TT - Link
Bad Schools, not Hopeless Students
Afrocentric education is being planned in San Bernardino as a means of raising test scores. The problem is nearly everyone in the San Bernardino Unified School District tests poorly. So do the three other districts the newspaper points to. There are darn few whites in any of the schools, but that's California. Afrocentric education is just another attempt to blame black test scores for dragging down district scores while hoping to create a black-white divide. It's just lousy politics and shabby education. And indecent. TT - Link
Teacher Strikes
In Pennsylvania, there are two bills that are aimed at eliminating teacher strikes. One is a genuine effort. Only 9 states allow teachers to strike. TT - Link On the other hand, Massachusetts is one of those states that does not allow public employee strikes, but that (or a court order) isn't preventing Quincy teachers from striking. TT - Link
Taking Over Bad Schools
In Missouri, the Board of Education is taking control of St. Louis schools. Writing in Education Week, a Los Angeles Times education blogger, thinks it's a bad idea, not the least because the taxpayers are hostile to the takeover. But, frankly, they're the people who voted in the crooks in the first place. So we suspect hostility is spelled
P-A-T-R-O-N-A-G-E.
TT - Link
