Summary - Oct 26, 2007

TOP STORY
A contract school bus driver in St. Paul, Minnesota, was still missing after an arrest was issued for his arrest for molesting a special education student. Two younger girls also reported that he also touched them inappropriately, but he wasn't investigated in those cases. Apparently, another complaint was investigated but resulted in no disciplinary actions.
This is one of our TRUST US stories that makes you want to march, broom in hand, to a school district office and just vent.

If a parent was this negligent in raising a child and failing to provide safety, the state child welfare agencies would step in.
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SENTENCED - Manufacturing marijuana
Two Michigan teachers, Bret Johnson and Keri Johnson, were sentenced to probation after after pleading guilty in August to manufacturing marijuana. For their personal use, they insist.

They both resigned from their high school teaching jobs, have felony convictions on their records and might lose their house as a drug asset seizure. However, they haven't lost their teaching licenses yet. State authorities couldn't predict it. Each case is decided on a case by case basis.
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SENTENCED - multiple counts of second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor
Richard Cea, 27, a high school math teacher in Connecticut, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for having sex with one student and raising the grade of another who sent him pictures of himself in her underwear. Both girls were 15-years-old.

In a story on his arrest, they said that the mother found a note in her daughter's bedroom about Cea.

"I can't believe I slept with Cea, EW! Lol But I was drunk and horny what can I do? Lol Still you can't say anything cause you slept with him five times now EW! No it was weird to say the least!"

The three-way sex wasn't mentioned in the sentencing story.
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SENTENCED - (sorta) for sex with student
The newspaper described it as "an affair" but Joseph Tucker, 28, was arrested on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct with a female student and suspicion of tampering with a witness. He pleaded to -degree criminal sexual conduct for which it was thought he would get a 90-day sentence. The judge sentenced him 18 months in prison, but the judge stayed the sentence, ordering him to serve 3 months in the "Workhouse." He has to register as a sex offender. He was married with two children, ages 1 and 3.

The real crime? If he hadn't disobeyed the court instruction not to contact the victim, he would have gotten probation. (Minnesota)
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SENTENCED - (almost) for sex with student
Kevin Burns, 24, another high school math teacher, pleaded guilty to charges of criminal sexual contact and official misconduct for which he was sentenced to three years in prison - stayed while Burns appeals. The appeal? His lawyer said the court ignored the wishes of the victim and his father that he not be sent to prison. The judge ignored their recommendation, but stayed the sentenced until the appeal is heard. (New Jersey) Burns will be a sex offender no matter what.
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SENTENCED - 17 sex-related felony charges
Married to another teacher at the same high school with whom he has a 4-year-old son, Philip Sutliff, 34, was sentenced to 12 years, 8 months after pleading to 17 felony charges for having sex with a student. "He discredited his family, his profession and all those who believed in him," said the father of the victim.
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SENTENCING DELAYED
A plea agreement to two counts of attempted aggravated indecent liberties with a child meant dismissing two counts of indecent solicitation of a child, two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, aggravated criminal sodomy and one count aggravated intimidation of a witness. Humberto Gonzalez, 23, an assistant wrestling coach, would have been sentenced but that has been delayed while he is evaluated. Both his attorney and the prosecution recommended five years probation because Gonzalez had no prior criminal history.

He'll have to register as a sex offender, but it's a first offense, so the victim doesn't count. It's a freebie. (New Jersey)
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One of the first reforms that legislators ought to consider is that first offender status should not be considered in sentencing those convicted of offenses against children.

THE FOLLOWING TEACHERS WERE ARRESTED

Joseph Bradfield, 45. arrested on a weapons charge for bringing a gun onto school property. No details, but he isn't the first teacher to have done so. How the weapon was found and where wasn't mentioned in the story. (IOWA)
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Monica Marshall, 49. In Alabama, a beer-chugging teacher was arrested when she was spotted in her car hoisting a beer bottle to her mouth at a stop light. The car smelled of marijuana and the residue was on her blouse. A search of her car found a smoldering marijuana cigarette and a plastic baggie containing what the officer suspected to be marijuana. She resigned.
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Umesh Ramjattan, 22, a teacher in a New York school, was arrested for sending sexually explicit emails, including one with a picture of him and his girlfriend having sex to three female students. They were 12-years-olds.
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Holly Anna Hatcher, 25, a high school social studies teacher in Tennesse, was arrested for having sex with a 17-year-old male student. She is charged with six counts of statutory rape by an authority figure. It's a pretty safe bet to make with friends that she will get probation.
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GIVING THE BENEFIT OF DOUBT Part I
A student who twice reported Christina Butler, 33, to school authorities was suspended by the school for spreading rumors. That was before the Tampa, Florida, teacher was arrested for having sex with a ninth grade student in her special education class. And it wasn't the school or school district who contacted police. The police stopped a group of male teenagers in her vehicle and one of them blurted the truth out. The mother of the girl who was suspended doesn't think the school even bothered to investigate. So does a lawyer for the 16-year-old boy and the student who tried to get school authorities to act.
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Lawsuits are sometimes the only way to get schools to say they're sorry. Not that they do feel sorry because it's taxpayer money that goes to payouts and doesn't really hurt them individually or financially. And then those confidentiality clauses guarantee that they don't acknowledge wrongdoing and no one is the wiser to the reason why the school or school district was liable. All bought and paid for by your tax dollars.

GIVING THE BENEFIT DOUBT TO COLLEAGUES Part II
In Urbana, Illinois, the parent of one child who originally reported Jonathon Andrew White, a second grade teacher, to authorites, spoke at an evidentiary hearing that will determine what evidence is allowed into the upcoming trial. She contacted the school principal on Nov 2. Her child wasn't interviewed until five days later. White was not removed from the classroom where he had contact with the victim every day, or with what later would be determined to be nine victims, until January of the next year.

It was pure accident that the parent met a police officer's wife and told her of the "banana game" White played with the blindfolded children. White was previously investigated in 2004 and forced to resign at another school.
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APPEALING her FIRING
In Washington, a special education teacher is appealing the district's decision to fire her. A retired judge will decide the issue. But the school thinks she has boundary problems, showed extremely poor professional judgment, and exhibited serious insubordination. When it gets to the point where a 62-year-old teacher is so emotionally involved with a student that she wants to adopt him, there may be a line in the sand.
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UNDERCOUNT OF TEACHER MISCONDUCT CASES
Is a problem in every state for various reasons. At this blog we estimate that we gather less than 1% or 2% of the teacher abuse cases because most are either dismissed by the school after shoddy investigations or don't hit the newspapers and we don't catch every story out there when it is published. So when an Indiana reporter repeated the statistic that there were 17 cases of sexual misconduct with students in five years, we looked at the cases we have profiled.
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QUOTE of the DAY
The school district spokesman in Tampa, Florida, on their new 45-minute in-service training that didn't, apparently, phase Christina Butler one bit.
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TEACHER STRIKE AND ADVOCACY JOURNALISM
A reporter following the two week Seneca Valley, Pennsylvania, teachers strike epitomizes the kind of lazy reporting that makes functioning in a democracy difficult. Thankfully, there's the Internet for taxpayers and voters who really want to know the facts. It isn't malice on the part of the media but it is lazy journalism, especially in the news rooms where those who oversee reporters and edit their material and should send them back to the field with instructions to tell the damned story, don't do that. Possibly because they are sympathetic to the strikers and unions or because they themselves are lazy. We're betting it's sympathy because newspapers have union concerns in their printing plants, political candidates they support that are funded by union "donations" and what they consider in many cases a bond with other "professionals." Either way, the price of a newspaper is still 25 cents to 50 cents. That's about what it's worth - for a month subscription.
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Summary - October 24, 2007

OUTRAGE OF THE DAY
For something that will send your blood pressure soaring, read the Outrage of the Day. It's a tie with the sentencing case below for disgust.

SENTENCED to 76 years, 10 years suspended
In Indiana, Jennifer Jacobi, 35, a substitute teacher who had a long-term "relationship" with a known pedophile and major producer of child pornography in Maine she met on the Internet, was sentenced to 66 years for her sexual violation of two children, one was 8-years-old, both were relatives. She also allowed Richard Prado to molest the children. He later committed suicide in a Maine jail. Jacobi is still facing federal child pornography charges. She is married and the mother of two children, ages 2 and 11.

In an interview with a t.v. reporter, the reporter asked if she saw herself as a sex offender and Jacobi replied, “Honestly, no.”
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GUILTY VERDICT - Enticing a minor for immoral purposes
Sharon Rutherford, 30, was found guilty by a jury of of two counts of enticing a minor for immoral purposes. She is alleged to have had sex with four students, two of whom were of the age of consent. The other two were under age 16. The school was notified that she was a problem in 2004 but their investigation "found no evidence." No idea if they called in the police. Rutherford faces further charges of soliciting a student to murder her husband. Those charges are pending, presumably because it will be easier to establish once her sexual involvement was proven. We're betting that it will be a movie of the week in less than a year. The lawsuits will probably be sooner. (Alabama)
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GUILTY PLEA - Public Lewdness
In Lewiston, NY, a P.E. teacher pleaded guilty to public lewdness three months after being arrested in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Several customers complained. Anthony Fazzary, 42, will be sentenced in February. In the meantime, school officials are "discussing a resolution of the Fazzary case with the Addison Teachers Association."
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GUILTY PLEA - possession of heroin in a school
A third grade teacher may avoid a criminal record after all. She was found in possession of heroin, marijuana and associated paraphernalia in the school, some on her person in the classroom. After pleading, the judge held out the possibility of Drug Court where her conviction will be erased after completion of the program. Krista Crosby, 34, will, of course, be eligible to teach elsewhere with a perfectly clean record. Thank you, Nebraska.
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ON TRIAL
Sometimes we only learn of misconduct when the educator is on trial. Such is the case with Jose "Joe" David Soliz, 29, a first grade teacher in Texas accused of molesting four students.
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ARRESTED - Sodomy and sexual abuse
A popular assistant principal in Alabama was arrested on allegations of sexual abuse and sodomy of a 16-year-old male. Cleavon Eason, 36, has been the assistant principal for ten years and his arrest prompted one student to ask, "How can this really be happening?" It isn't the naiive question it sounds like. It's more a cry of pain at the betrayal.
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ARRESTED - sex with student
Christina Butler, 33, a Tampa, Florida teacher was arrested charged with having sex with a ninth grade student. Police were alerted when they stopped a group of teenagers in her car and one of the teenagers revealed the sexual relationship.
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ARRESTED - five counts of rape - of student
In Utah, another female teacher, Cris Morris, 29, was arrested on five counts of rape, a first degree felony, for allegedly having sexual intercourse with a juvenile male student. Criminal charges haven't been filed yet, but if they are and she is convicted, we have a clue to the future. Consulting our Utah Ouija board (and looking at past sentencing in Utah) we predict ... ... ... Probation.
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CATCH UP
Two teachers in Woodland, California were arrested, both on sex charges. We hadn't heard about either one of them before the article that was run in connection with the Associated Press series.
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ARRESTED - sexual conduct by a school employee
Kevin Kegel, 28, a Nevada teacher was charged with sexual conduct by a school employee with a pupil (age 14 or 15) from the same school" and two similar counts including a pupil of age 16 or 17. He was fired in June and arrested in July. A preliminary is scheduled for November.
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CHARGED - Obstruction of justice
Two Oklahoma City school officials were charged in connection with two assaults on students that were allegedly motivated by the students' race. One was the Transportation Director and a school superintendent charged with obstruction of justice for trying to get the investigation stopped.
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ARRESTED - Sexual assault of student
In West Virginia, a 22-year-old computer technician working for a board of education was arrested for having sex with a 15-year-old student he met at one of the schools. Casey Casto, 22, has been charged with third-degree sexual assault and third-degree sexual abuse by a parent, guardian, custodian or person in a position of trust to a child.
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ARRESTED - Domestic violence and burglary
School Board member Manuel “Manny” Hernandez, 29, was arrested domestic violence charges and faces felony counts of assault and burglary stemming from a violent fight with an ex-girlfriend. It's alleged he climbed through her kitchen window at 10:00 a.m. and hit her several times with his fists. The couple have a child together. He's a lawyer and former municipal judge. At 29. (Texas)

"School board members can only be removed for incompetence, official misconduct, intoxication or conviction on felony charges, according to the state education code. "
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ARRAIGNED
An assistant band director in Mission, Texas, was arraigned on a charge possessing a controlled substance after officers found 1.8 grams of cocaine in his home. The lawyer for Christopher Motes, 42, is confident he can get the evidence found in the search warrant suppressed. In the meantime, police found a good deal of pornography in the home and have sized his computer to look for any illegal material. Motes is on probation from a forgery charge more than four years ago.
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BACKGROUND CHECKS - NOT
Background checks were instituted in every state to keep convicted teachers out of the classroom. Every state and every school district requires such checks and it's the first line of of self-defense in the arsenal of every school administrator when teacher misconduct occurs. "We conducted a background check, " they recite, as if that was the end of their responsibility. Few reporters ask beyond that, like when was the check conducted? Was the teacher allowed into the classroom before the background check was completed? Because that's the case in Alabama, and we assume elsewhere, for those hired on an "temporary emergency basis." And claiming that "principals are going to be honest" in the reference check is really stretching credulity.
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LAWSUIT
A lawsuit backed by the ACLU in another attempt to corrupt the accountability and responsibility process in school hiring has failed. A teacher in Louisiana was fired one week after she was hired when parents and the school found out about her "adult-oriented" artwork on her website. The school district thought that she exhibited poor professional judgement in telling students about the site, "even if she mentioned the site only to warn students not to visit it." She and the ACLU claimed the firing was a violation of her first amendment right of free speech. The lawsuit failed on a technicality and the ACLU hasn't decided yet whether to file another lawsuit. And find a friendlier judge.
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SCHOOL REFORM WITHOUT THE, AH, REFORM
An article in the New York Daily News on Mayor Bloomberg's dealings with the teachers unions gave us a chance to recall his previous, ah, school reform appearance.
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Summary - Oct 23, 2007

SENTENCED - first degree sexual assault
In New Rochelle, New York, James J. Nieto, 80, was sentenced to 30 years. He was found guilty of of first-degree sexual assault of a victim under 13 and two counts of risk of injury to a minor by a jury in September. The two girls were relatives.
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GUILTY PLEA - 17 counts of taking indecent liberties with a child
Michael Gates, 33, a Virginia teacher, pleaded guilty to 17 felony counts of sexual offense (taking indecent liberties with a child) against a female student. And he's facing charges in another county.
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GUILTY PLEA - possession with intent to distribute
Also in Virginia, Frank "Chip" Rea, 30, a P.E. teacher and coach pleaded guilty to cocaine possession and marijuana possession with the intent to distribute. He'll be sentenced in January.
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GUILTY PLEA
Former Democratic Assemblyman Alfred E. Steele, pleaded guilty to taking bribes while Democratic state assemblyman and current Orange Mayor Mims Hackett Jr. pleaded not guilty in the Pleasantville School District scandal that netted eleven New Jersey officials.
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NOT GUILTY VERDICT
Deana Luedtke, 31, was found not guilty by a jury. She was accused of criminal sexual conduct involving a 13-year-old boy more than four years ago . The jury didn't buy it.
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ARRESTED - Sexual assault on a child by person in a position of trust
A volunteer and a contract employee who taught music and color-guard for five Jefferson County schools was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault and sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust. The female student is 16-years-old. William Paxton is 42. (Colorado)
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LAWSUIT
The eighth victim has filed a lawsuit against the Beaufort County School District that has already paid out $4.6 million that isn't covered by their insurance carrier. Sometimes a lawsuit is the only way to get people to say they are sorry. So far, no one in the school district seems to understand that concept. (South Carolina)
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Why doesn't this surprise us?
In Brunswick, Maine a 21-year-old Brunswick High School graduate with 18 criminal convictions in the past two years wants to run for the school board.
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Editorial in Hawaii
The Honolulu Star Bulletin responded to the AP series on teacher misconduct that revealed that Hawaii hasn't revoked the credentials of a single teacher for sexual misconduct since 2001. As we noted, they haven't revoked the credentials for any of the drug dealing teachers either. Nor a single teacher for gross incompetence. However, seven teachers lost their licenses because they had stopped paying licensing fees after resigning from their jobs. A little self interest there? The Standards Board is comprised of teachers, administrators and educrats.
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Tougher Penalities
In South Carolina, they're talking about tougher sentencing for teachers and those in authority who molest children. One proposal is to add five years to the sentence that can't be suspended to probation. Must be they finally got around to looking at the number of teachers who got parole or suspended sentences in S.C. courts. It is, however, unlikely that they could add a five-year penalty just because someone was a teacher. Or maybe the purpose is to write a law that won't withstand legal challenges. It's hard to tell.
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Fruit Loops in Maine
A committee school member wants to modify the plan of the Maine middle school that wants to provide birth control pills and patches and abortions to all their students ages 11 to 15. He wants to limit the birth control pills, patches and abortions to those 14 and up. The age of consent in Maine is 14. He also wants parents to have the right to opt out of the program. Of course, an election is next month which ought to be a good indication of how parents feel about the issue.
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Legislative Hearings in Ohio
Have been scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in response to the Columbus Dispatch series "ABCs of Betrayal," a damning portrait of the callous indifference of state education authorities to the rule of law. One immediate result of the series is that the state will put their database of teacher discipline decisions online. That will take care of those cases where a negotiated settlement doesn't include non disclosure clauses. This way, we can see if Ohio teachers who were sentenced have their licenses revoked or not.
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Summary - October 22, 2007

TOP STORY
Pamela Smart is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in the killing of her husband in 1990. She convinced a student to do the dirty deed and he did with the help of two friends. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison. He is petitioning for a reduction in sentence. At the time of the murder, he was 15. Billy Flynn is now 33. Gregory Smart was 24 when Flynn shot and killed him. Pamela's woes in prison make you believe there really is justice. (New Hampshire)
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GUILTY PLEA - first-degree criminal sexual conduct
In Minnesota, Troy Michael Bernard, 35, a middle school teacher, pleaded guilty to a charge of first-degree criminal sexual conduct for having sexual relations with a student for nearly a year, beginning when the girl was 14. He will be sentenced in January.
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ARRESTED - Sexual misconduct with a minor
A Kennewick, Washington teacher who resigned in 1998 and worked as a substitute in Kennewick schools was arrested, accused of two counts of sexual misconduct with a minor for sex with a 16 - 17 year-old male student. William Pickerel, 72, worked in the schools for over 40 years.
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ARRESTED - felony sexual-assault charges
He lives and works in Ohio and teaches in Columbus, but Jason Crary, 36, was arrested for sexual offenses alleged to have been committed in Milwaukee when he worked there in the 1990s. The boy's soccer coach as the school resigned three days ago when his past was revealed.
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RESIGNED
A Smiths Station High School teacher has resigned after being asked to to do so after allegations of inappropriate contact with a student. He has not been charged, but police and the school are investigating.
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VIOLATING TERMS OF HIS PROBATION
He was given probation in order to repay $100,000 he embezzled. He's only paid back $6,000. That puts Wayne Kruse in violation of the terms of his parole. Of course, the money was stolen from the Lawrence Education Association. The union doesn't seem to have minded that the former union president has made no restitution since 2005. (Kansas)
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Background checks are flawed - New Hampshire AP story
Among the findings, "Criminal and education records effectively sanitized through plea-bargains and other negotiations." Yeah. We observed that, too, in just about every state.
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North Jersey teacher sex arrests up
Thoughtful companion piece to the Associated Press series at the the Record.
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Teacher Misconduct Denied
By Herald Bulletin in Indiana. Teacher union officials are quoted extensively. And exclusively. Conclusion: misconduct is rare. We would spell out B.S. but we're family friendly, but it is B.S. We point out a lot of these "rare" misconduct cases.
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Summary - October 19, 2007

SENTENCED (sorta)
If you consider 3 years probation and sex offender treatment and a $1,000 fine for three counts of forcible sexual abuse, all second-degree felonies for sex with a 17-year-old boy punishment, then Christy Brown, 33, was sentenced. (Utah)
As we said, "Three years probation, a $1,000 fine and sex offender treatment. Why not just give her a Teacher of the Year Who Violates a Student Achievement award?"
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SENTENCED (sorta)
Joshua Jacobsen, 31, got 9 months in jail - not prison - and lifetime probation. He will also have to register as a sex offender. He was arrested last year, accused of abusing one of his students beginning when she was just 13. He wants to "move forward." (Arizona)
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GUILTY VERDICT - felony first-degree sexual abuse and misdemeanor child endangerment
We were outraged when he was arrested. The mother was told that David Heil, 43, would never teach again by the school district. However, school administrators and the teachers union negotiated a deal that eventually sent him to another school. When the mother found out in 2006, she went to police. A jury found David Heil guilty. Assistant District Attorney Douglas Randall, who told jurors during his summation that school officials double-crossed the boy's mother and lied to her. But you absolutely won't believe what the school district says.
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ARRESTED - firearms on school property
The story is so incomplete that you are left with more questions than answers. Danny Hoover, Jr., 36, principal of Wirt County Middle School, was arrested for bringing firearms to the school. It didn't make sense to us either. We're looking for more stories.
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ARRESTED - Sex with 14-year-old student
In Van Nuys, California, Merideth Vincent, 40, a teacher of a private home schooling group, was arrested, accused of having sex with a 14-year-old male student. You got to be desperate to hit on kids.
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ARRESTED - giving students pain prescription drugs
Barbara Trotta, 38, a special education teacher in Oregon, was arrested, accused of giving three students students prescription pain pills and allegedly excused at least one student from class and allowed that student to use her personal vehicle to pick up additional drugs.
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CHARGED - domestic violence
Every time we post a story about a teacher who is arrested and accused of drunk driving or domestic violence we get e-mail protesting that it doesn't affect his job. Our reply is that he can be the greatest teacher in the world, but students know about the arrest. And what they will learn from how school authorities respond will constitute an important life lesson. (Pennsylvania)
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JUDGE REJECTS PLEA AGREEMENT
There are good judges in this country. In Indiana, a judge rejected a plea agreement that would have allowed John Watts, 28, to plead guilty to one count of sexual misconduct with a minor, a felony, and receive a sentence of six years in prison with all suspended, be placed on probation for six years and serve one year of home confinement. He had been charged with 23 counts of sexual misconduct with a minor and they have his confession on tape as well as an admission to having sex with another student. Did we mention the girl was 14-years-old?
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SPECIAL PAY PLAN for TEACHERS - doing their job
In Iowa, the state Supreme Court ruled that that school districts will have to bargain with teachers who work "a full load of classes." That means anyone who actually teaches over -- a whole five hours a day -- must be given extra compensation. Absolutely absurd.
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WATCHING THE WATCHERS who definitely need watching
In Virginia, the Associated Press is pleased to report, the state Department of Education is, based on an Associated Press investigation, going to look to tighten teacher licensing system. Looking at the system, apparently, doesn't include looking at the one place responsible for license revocation - the state Department of Education.
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SCHOOL BOARD WATCH
A grand jury indictment has led to the arrest of former school-board president, Keith Crego, 37, and the former superintendent, Leslye Abrutyn, 58, on a combined 22 felony charges and 21 misdemeanors. It's a great story of sex, corruption, disgraceful inaction, and the reporter seemed kinda fascinated by what these people wore to court.
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Summary - September 18, 2007

NOT GUILTY VERDICT
David Janssen, 55, an Appleton, Wisconsin teacher was found not guilty of all counts by a jury. The charges were from an alleged 1996-2000 encounter with two former students.
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SENTENCED -possession of and prepared to sell crystal methamphetamine
His arrest made headlines at the time. It's not every day that a school principal is arrested for selling drugs out of his office. John Acerra, 50, was sentenced to 2-4 years in prison, followed by five years probation. (Pennsylvania)
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GUILTY PLEA -lewd acts on a child
Charged with 12 counts in an indictment, a San Bernardino School District Administrator was allowed to plead to two felony counts of lewd acts on a child. The No Contest plea provides for - get ready - 180 days in jail (not prison) and she can serve her time on the weekends or at home with a monitoring device. It's a generous settlement with Michelle Rossi, 36, who had a year-long affair with a 14-year-old girl when Rossi was a middle school teacher. She'll permanently lose her teaching and administrative credentials and must register as a sex offender, but it's a good reminder that without sex offender registration, a lot of sexual predators are barely punished for their crimes.
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HEADED FOR TRIAL - child endangerment, assault, harassment
A judge ruled there was sufficient evidence to hold Heather M. Spriggle, 38, for trial for felony count of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor count of simple assault and a summary charge of harassment. The classroom abuse of the 13-year-old developmentally disabled child was witnessed by aides. (Pennsylvania)
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HEADED FOR TRIAL - Solicitation of murder
In Alabama, Sharon Rutherford, 30, will go on trial Oct 20. She is accused of having sex (we refuse to call it "an affair") with a student and convinced him to kill her husband. She was indicted for making advances to two other students in her classroom. The husband was unharmed, although we will have to wait for the trial to find out the circumstances.
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ARRESTED - Solicitation of sex from a minor
Charles Hadley, 39, a North Carolina teacher, was arrested for soliciting sex from a minor in an online chatroom. Police suspected him of improper online chats and investigators posed as a 15-year-old.
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ARRESTED - Contributing to the delinquency of a minor
In South Carolina, Janet Fackovec, 25, is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor for allegedly having sex with a teenage student. Detectives arrested her at the school. She's been suspended with pay.
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ARRESTED - sexual battery by an authority figure
An assistant football coach and also teaches in-school suspension, was arrested after a grand jury indicted him on sexual battery charges. Huana Jennings, 36, has been suspended with pay. A teacher at the high school passed along the information to school authorities. (Tennessee)
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COACH DISMISSED
A coach was dismissed in Maryland after a reporter made inquiries about revocation of teaching licenses and it turned out that the coach had lost his New Jersey license to teach after an "incident." He claims he never went to court on the charges and that he doesn't need a teaching license to coach. He's hiring an attorney. It sent us on another rant about how some teachers are able to bargain with their licenses and avoid harsher sentencing or avoid court altogether.

We don't know that that's the case here, but anyoen who loses their license to teach in one state shouldn't be in any school in any state.
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A TRAIL OF MISCONDUCT
A teacher was hired in Florida after having had an inappropriate relationship with a female student in Oklahoma and a sexual relationship with one in Georgia for which he was tried. The result of the 2001 trial was a mistrial. Bizarrely, the superintendent of the school district where he taught in Georgia not only failed to disclose to other schools this teacher's problems, but later resigned because she failed to report her daughter's - a school counselor - misconduct.

We're still wondering how a background check failed to turn up the 2001 court case and whether any school district should have taken a chance on the teacher. (Naturally, the reporter points to a national registry as a solution. It doesn't work in Canada, and how someone could think that districts that don't even report to the state would think that they would report to some national registry? Not when reporting might subject them to lawsuits.)
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BALTIMORE SUN EDUCATION BLOG
More and more newspapers are creating education blogs. We found the length of the teacher's school year and day gleaned from contracts at one of the Baltimore Sun blog entries. Talk about UNDERWORKED. We haven't been able to find a Part I and have no idea what that contained, but this was fascinating as well as the link to negotiated contracts from a Maryland Superintendent's Association.
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BEST READING OF THE DAY
Even if you don't live in Illinois, you'll want to read the new series, "Hidden Violations." It's the second series by Scott Reeder and the Small Family Newspaper Group. His award-winning 2005 series, "The Hidden Costs of Tenure" will bolster every argument you've ever had about bad tenure is. In "Hidden Violations" you find out just how casual Illinois is toward teacher misconduct. We kind of guessed it from the cases we see, but they contacted all 50 state education departments and built a database of revocations and suspensions. And it will confirm your suspicions about revocations.
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Summary - September 17, 2007

SENTENCED (Sorta)
After pleading guilty to two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault and tampering with a witness last month, Matthew Glasser, 31, a Catholic school music teacher, was sentenced to seven years SUSPENDED and five years of probation.
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SENTENCED to 20 years
In North Carolina, Jimmie Grubbs, 66, a teacher and mentor to children lauded by local newspapers, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He pleaded guilty in September to federal charges for taking students to Columbia, S.C. and Myrtle Beach, S.C. and molesting them. The newspaper named the six boys who stepped forward as The Herald’s 2006 Man of the Year.
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ARRESTED - third time
Queens teacher Julio Benavides, 28, was arrested - again. He was arrested in June, accused of engaging in sexual intercourse with a then 14-year-old female student. A condition of his release was to have no contact with the victim. He was arrested in September for violating that order. This latest arrest is for trying to contact the victim again.
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STILL WAITING - Child Pornography
David Cameron was arrested in 2004 for child pornography. He was one of six men accused of taking part in a child porn ring operating out of a Mt. Vernon home in Illinois. He will have a pretrial hearing in February on two different dates, one for each county that has filed charges.

Note: One of the things we have observed here that child pornography cases are lengthy. The reason seems to be that the investigating agencies make a great effort to identify the children in case any of them are local. This is a long process but is crucial to understanding the charges that should be filed. Then, there seems to be a connecting web between child pornographers that investigators want to know about while they might have a potential testifying witness.
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RELEASE FROM PRISON
For the second time this week, a community has scheduled a public safety meeting to notify residents that a sex offender will be moving into the community. Both are teachers. Robert Pannier, now age 40, was sentenced in 1998 for having sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old student. Released in 2007, he violated conditions of his parole. He has been classified as a Level III offenders show traits of high public risk to re-offend, according to the Department of Corrections
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CONVICTED but still licensed to teach
In Illinois, they are, like Ohio, coming to an awareness that even when teachers are convicted and are in prison, they remain licensed to teach. They pointed to a New Mexico law that passed last year that means that they now no longer require a guilty verdict before revoking a teacher's credentials. An arrest now is enough to warrant pulling an accused teacher's state license.
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BEST READING * * * * *
The Columbus Dispatch concludes their four-part series on problems with disciplining teachers in Ohio. It's a first-rate series that was the result of a 10-month investigation, collecting records (like pulling teeth) from the state's Office of Professional Conduct. They're a newspaper with clout so you can imagine what a parent could find out. Absolutely nothing. Because even with the power of the press, they found 246 cases that the Office of Professional Conduct wouldn't release even when ordered to do so by the state's Attorney General.

How's that for hubris? Ohio, however, isn't an exception to the belief of the Educational Establishment that they are above the law.
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