USA Today Network Study: Despite background checks, troubled teachers slip past system

NC gets an F for failing to screen for problem teachers

The March text messages between a ninth-grader and a 34-year-old teacher were lurid enough to merit a call to Atlanta police. Alexander Michael Stormer, then a Georgia public school math teacher, and the student exchanged late-night messages and in one, he wrote, “hey baby, I love you, say you love me, when are you gonna give me some [slang],” investigators found after reviewing the girl’s phone. Stormer and the girl also exchanged photos of their genitals, according to the findings of the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, which investigates teacher misconduct allegations. Just days earlier at the same school, Stormer had ...

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http://www.citizen-times.com/story/...s-an-f-on-spotting-problem-teachers/80292170/

 

Despite background checks, troubled teachers slip past system

Highly effective teacher. Dedicates time after school to work with students. Superb at his job. With this glowing recommendation from his former principal in Ohio, Jeffrey Holsclaw seemed to be everything the Hendry County school district would want in a new teacher. But just 15 months after his 2006 hiring, the Clewiston Middle School teacher wound up in handcuffs — and eventually prison — as part of a child predator sting. The then-49-year-old was nabbed for cruising Craigslist during the school day on his district-issued laptop to solicit oral sex with what he thought was a 15-year-old girl.

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http://www.news-press.com/story/new...ite-comprehensive-background-checks/80225822/

 

Schools use contracts to cut loose teachers

Park Tudor is not the only Indiana school that has allowed a teacher to quietly resign rather than be fired. A number of Indiana schools have employed the tactic, which can be used to get rid of a problematic employee without risking a costly lawsuit or public embarrassment. Not all cases necessarily involve allegations of criminal conduct. In the most troubling examples, though, schools allowed teachers to quietly resign after they were accused of criminal sexual behavior with a child. A 2009 IndyStar investigation revealed that in four instances, Lawrence Township Schools officials allowed teachers who faced allegations of sexual ...

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http://www.indystar.com/story/news/...ls-use-contracts-cut-loose-teachers/80245318/

 

CMCSS teachers go through multiple background checks

Teachers applying to Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools these days have to go through a stringent vetting process before they can be hired, officials said. The goal is not only to keep students safe but to prevent teachers who have had disciplinary issues in other states from obtaining a job with CMCSS. According to a USA Today investigation, "fundamental defects" were found in teacher screening systems across the country. Teachers in some schools were even able to get licenses and jobs despite having documented issues in another state, the investigation found. Two former teachers for CMCSS — Bryan Farmer in 2008 and ...

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http://www.theleafchronicle.com/sto...-through-multiple-background-checks/80301272/

 

Iowa launches teacher disciplinary audit

Educators with serious criminal convictions or records of professional misconduct are making their way into Iowa classrooms or have mistakenly been omitted from a national database of disciplined teachers used to warn schools in other states of their wrongdoing, a USA TODAY NETWORK/Des Moines Register investigation has found. At least 103 Iowa teacher disciplinary actions since 1990 were not listed in the database, the investigation found. And there were other errors found in the data, including information about Brent Michael Romer, a teacher in Iowa's CAM School District, who was convicted and sentenced in 2010 to 30 years in prison ...

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http://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...launches-teacher-disciplinary-audit/80087584/

 

Tracking system lets teachers flee troubled pasts

Georgia officials revoked a teacher’s license after finding he exchanged sexual texts and naked photos with a female student and was involved in physical altercations with two others. A central Florida teacher’s credentials were suspended after she was charged with battery for allegedly shoving and yelling at a 6-year-old student. In Texas, a middle school math teacher lost his job and teaching license after he was caught on camera allegedly trying to meet a teenage boy in a sting set up by NBC’s nationally aired TV program To Catch a Predator. All three of those teachers found their way back ...

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http://www.elpasotimes.com/story/ne...m-lets-teachers-flee-troubled-pasts/80359888/

 

Tracking disciplined teachers across states is difficult

A few days before Scott Atchison was arrested on suspicion of videotaping a 17-year-old female student changing in a private room, the band director resigned from his position at Hanford High School in Hanford, Calif. That was in October 2003. A jury found Atchison guilty of the misdemeanor in June 2004, sentencing him to 30 days in jail and three years’ probation, according to court records from Kings County, Calif. In 2006, the state of California denied a substitute permit application filed in 2003 due to "misconduct by an applicant." Yet more than a decade later, after bouncing around from ...

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http://www.tennessean.com/story/new...ed-teachers-across-states-difficult/80082200/

 

Delaware isn't transparent in reporting bad teachers

A nationwide survey that tracks how states handle teacher discipline – and how they share those records with other states – showed that while Delaware participates fully in a national indexing system, it does not make its records available for public scrutiny. The USA Today Network requested information about public teacher screening systems from all 50 states and the findings suggest a patchwork system of regulations and transparency issues regarding backgrounds. Delaware has suspended or revoked the licenses of dozens of educators over the last two decades and has given that information to an organization, the National Association of State ...

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http://www.delawareonline.com/story...-transparent-reporting-bad-teachers/80219492/

 

Teachers lose certificates, but not classroom access

Losing a teaching certificate does not necessarily mean the end of a person's days leading a classroom. During a nationwide investigation, the USA TODAY NETWORK surveyed state education officials about how they do background checks on teachers and share information from state-to-state about disciplinary actions. But college instructors, as well as non-public school teachers, do not typically need to be certified; K-12 public school educators do. At least four educators with Dutchess County ties lost their teaching certificates and are adjunct instructors at area colleges Three of the adjunct instructors — Peter Helion, Gary Palmieri and Eric Diorio — surrendered ...

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http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/...rtificates-but-not-classroom-access/80258708/

 

New York among best states for teacher checks

How thoroughly are Dutchess County teachers screened before they enter your child's classroom? New York's strong state-level screening before issuing certificates and robust mandatory reporting of teacher misconduct makes it among the 15 safest states in the nation when it comes to background checks, according to an investigation by the USA TODAY NETWORK. But the same investigation found New York has failed to share nearly 100 reports of teacher misconduct with other states since 1990. In almost every state, the USA TODAY NETWORK found fundamental defects in the teacher screening systems used to ensure the safety of children in schools. ...

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http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/...rk-among-best-states-teacher-checks/80020828/

 

Broken discipline tracking systems lets teachers flee troubled pasts

Georgia officials revoked a teacher’s license after finding he exchanged sexual texts and naked photos with a female student and was involved in physical altercations with two others. A central Florida teacher’s credentials were suspended after she was charged with battery for allegedly shoving and yelling at a 6-year-old student. In Texas, a middle school math teacher lost his job and teaching license after he was caught on camera allegedly trying to meet a teenage boy in a sting set up by NBC’s nationally aired TV program To Catch a Predator. All three of those teachers found their way back ...

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...isconduct-records-back-in-classroom/79999634/

 

How PSD background checks new hires

Three teachers who applied to Poudre School District were prevented from getting licenses and two others had licenses revoked, according to an analysis of K-12 hiring practices. The Coloradoan, in partnership with the USA TODAY Network, reviewed PSD's hiring practices, which have successfully weeded out potential bad apples compared to districts both in Colorado and across the U.S. The USA TODAY Network discovered fundamental defects in teacher screening systems used to ensure the safety of children in the nation's more than 15,000 school districts. “We feel really good about the process we have in place,” said Vicki Thompson, PSD’s executive ...

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http://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2016/02/14/how-psd-background-checks-new-hires/80301678/

 

System lets teachers flee troubled pasts

Georgia officials revoked a teacher’s license after finding he exchanged inappropriate texts and photos with one female student and was involved in a physical altercation with two others. A Florida teacher’s credentials were suspended after she was charged with battery for allegedly shoving a 6-year-old student. In Texas, a middle school math teacher lost his job and teaching license after he admitted on camera trying to meet a young boy for sex in a sting set up by NBC’s nationally aired TV program To Catch a Predator. All three teachers found their way back to school classrooms, simply by crossing ...

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http://www.thetimesherald.com/story...system-teachers-flee-troubled-pasts/80325668/

 

Indiana gets 'F' for failing to screen out problematic teachers

Indiana's decision to delegate the screening of prospective teachers to local school districts is full of holes that sometimes allow sexual predators and other problematic instructors into the classroom. An analysis by USA TODAY Network with IndyStar shows the policy remains in place even though school districts don’t have direct access to NASDTEC, a national clearinghouse of teacher discipline cases. Only states can gain direct access to that data. Also, teachers can receive a license in Indiana before a detailed vetting of their background is completed. School districts aren't required to complete a deep background check until after teachers have ...

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http://www.indystar.com/story/news/...ing-screen-out-problematic-teachers/80230870/

 

Broken discipline tracking systems lets teachers flee troubled pasts

Georgia officials revoked a teacher’s license after finding he exchanged sexual texts and naked photos with a female student and was involved in physical altercations with two others. A central Florida teacher’s credentials were suspended after she was charged with battery for allegedly shoving and yelling at a 6-year-old student. In Texas, a middle school math teacher lost his job and teaching license after he was caught on camera allegedly trying to meet a teenage boy in a sting set up by NBC’s nationally aired TV program To Catch a Predator. All three of those teachers found their way back ...

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http://www.ktvb.com/news/nation-now...ms-lets-teachers-flee-troubled-pasts/43163497

 

State gets ‘F’ for tracking teachers

A name, a list of approved teaching subjects and verification of a teacher’s license. That’s all the information available on the Michigan Department of Education’s credential verification website for parents who want to know the background of their child’s teacher. Discipline records aren't available, even for teachers who’ve had their licenses challenged or revoked because of criminal convictions. And Michigan only challenges the licenses of teachers for certain types of crimes. In Michigan, the burden of backgrounding teachers falls on local school districts. These practices, among others, resulted in Michigan being ranked among the worst states nationally at keeping misbehaving ...

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http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/02/14/michigan-rating-teachers/80371992/

 

Pa.: Increased efforts to track teacher backgrounds

In 2011, a teacher who had taught at Northern York High School surrendered his teaching certification. Craig Yoder had failed to admit on his 2005 employment application, and on his 2010 application for the next level of teaching certification, that he had given up a Virginia teaching license in 2003 after allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a student. Pennsylvania Department of Education officials couldn't say how the Virginia action was caught, but it happened sometime around the time of his application for a Level II certification. His Pennsylvania employment record notes an "alert" next to an entry about that ...

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http://www.ydr.com/story/news/educa...d-efforts-track-teacher-backgrounds/79756740/

 

Broken discipline tracking systems lets teachers flee troubled pasts

Georgia officials revoked a teacher’s license after finding he exchanged sexual texts and naked photos with a female student and was involved in physical altercations with two others. A central Florida teacher’s credentials were suspended after she was charged with battery for allegedly shoving and yelling at a 6-year-old student. In Texas, a middle school math teacher lost his job and teaching license after he was caught on camera allegedly trying to meet a teenage boy in a sting set up by NBC’s nationally aired TV program To Catch a Predator. All three of those teachers found their way back ...

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http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/2016...s-lets-teachers-flee-troubled-pasts/80371904/

 

Tracking disciplined teachers across states is difficult

A few days before Scott Atchison was arrested on suspicion of videotaping a 17-year-old female student changing in a private room, the band director resigned from his position at Hanford High School in Hanford, Calif. That was in October 2003. A jury found Atchison guilty of the misdemeanor in June 2004, sentencing him to 30 days in jail and three years’ probation, according to court records from Kings County, Calif. In 2006, the state of California denied a substitute permit application filed in 2003 due to "misconduct by an applicant." Yet more than a decade later, after bouncing around from ...

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http://www.courier-journal.com/stor...ed-teachers-across-states-difficult/80082200/

 

Broken discipline-tracking systems let teachers flee troubled pasts

Georgia officials revoked a teacher’s license after finding he exchanged sexual texts and naked photos with a female student and was involved in physical altercations with two others. A central Florida teacher’s credentials were suspended after she was charged with battery for allegedly shoving and yelling at a 6-year-old student. In Texas, a middle school math teacher lost his job and teaching license after he admitted trying to meet a young boy for sex in a sting set up by NBC’s nationally aired TV program To Catch a Predator. All three teachers found their way back to the front of ...

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http://www.wlbz2.com/news/broken-di...ems-let-teachers-flee-troubled-pasts/43330650