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

Area teachers in discipline database

A review of three years of disciplinary data from the Minnesota Board of Teaching shows one teacher with a connection to the St. Cloud area has been disciplined and yet remains licensed to teach, and three others have licenses that either have been revoked, suspended or expired. The effort was part of a nationwide investigation in recent months by reporters with the USA Today Network, which probed teacher licensing procedures in all 50 states through open records requests and data analysis. The project identified more than 9,000 educators disciplined by state agencies since 1990 who aren’t included in a national ...

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http://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2016/02/14/area-teachers-discipline-database/80243146/

 

Broken backgrounding 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 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.kare11.com/news/investig...em-lets-teachers-flee-troubled-pasts/43380506

 

Nevada at both ends of systemic teacher-vetting problems

Sixth-grade teacher Terry Rauh hid a video camera in the unisex staff bathroom at Hall Elementary School in Sparks. Las Vegas elementary school teacher Noel Lardeo was the driver in a DUI collision that forced doctors to amputate a teenage boy's leg. Middle school substitute Tamika Queen had sex with a 15-year-old Las Vegas student. Las Vegas teacher Raymond Elgin was caught with methamphetamine. Longtime department head Priscilla Rocha embezzled thousands of dollars from Clark County School District. All of these educators had their teaching licenses revoked by the state in the last two years, and for the same reason. ...

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http://www.rgj.com/story/news/educa...s-systemic-teacher-vetting-problems/80320138/

 

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 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.9news.com/news/broken-di...ems-let-teachers-flee-troubled-pasts/43458662

 

Broken backgrounding 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 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.12news.com/news/broken-backgrounding-system-lets-teachers-flee-troubled-pasts/43885178

 

Broken backgrounding 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 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.krem.com/news/broken-backgrounding-system-lets-teachers-flee-troubled-pasts/44040545

 

Broken discipline tracking systems let 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 reportedly shoving a 6-year-old student. She'd later find employment in the local Webster Parish School District. 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 ...

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http://www.shreveporttimes.com/stor...ms-let-teachers-flee-troubled-pasts/80406380/

 

Banned Oregon teacher has valid teaching certificate in Arizona

A 12 News review of Arizona teachers’ disciplinary records show that there are at least 15 teachers who were disciplined in other states over the past five years who currently hold valid teaching certificates in Arizona. Vanessa Cardoso, 29, managed to get a teaching certificate in Arizona two months before she was charged with 10 felonies in Oregon, for allegedly having sex with a student. Cardoso pleaded guilty to lesser charges in a plea bargain. She was banned from teaching in Oregon, but she can still teach in Arizona. A nationwide investigation by USA Today and Tegna Media shows that ...

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http://www.12news.com/news/banned-oregon-teacher-has-valid-teaching-certificate-in-az/43975784

 

Study: Heartland scored low on teacher hiring practices

Most of the Heartland states received bad grades when it comes to hiring teachers. A new investigation from USA Today found some teacher's work history may be falling through the cracks. The study took more than a year, and sorted through each of the 50 states. The news organization said their audit sparked three internal investigations so far. The standards for hiring teachers varies from state to state. If a teacher is disciplined in one state they could easily move to another state and leave that behind them. There is a private database through The National Association of State Directors ...

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http://www.kfvs12.com/story/31226245/study-heartland-scored-low-on-teacher-hiring-practices

 

Broken 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 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 four of those teachers found their way back ...

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http://www.kgw.com/news/investigati...ems-let-teachers-flee-troubled-pasts/44181258

 

National teacher discipline database needed

The background checks that schools conduct to ensure that prospective teachers aren't sexual predators are pretty stringent. Schools research criminal records. Teachers are fingerprinted. References and former employers are checked and questioned in many cases. Yet some teachers with checkered pasts do slip through the cracks. For example, a teacher at Northern York High School named Craig Yoder surrendered his Pennsylvania teaching certification in 2011 after it was revealed that he failed to admit in his employment and other applications that he had given up his Virginia teaching license in 2003 amid allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a student. ...

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http://www.ydr.com/story/opinion/ed...-teacher-discipline-database-needed/80405286/

 

Lawmaker: Make info on revoked teacher licenses public

A USA Today investigation revealed that the so-called national clearinghouse, a privately run database used by schools to conduct background checks, is not exactly reliable because reporting standards vary from state to state – often permitting teachers who have been disciplined for inappropriate conduct to move to another state unnoticed. The report featured some harrowing stories. One teacher was caught on camera allegedly trying to meet a teenage boy on NBC's "To Catch a Predator." He was arrested but not prosecuted, the charges dropped for unknown reasons. His teaching certification in Texas was revoked. That teacher later turned up in ...

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http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/education/2016/02/15/lawmaker-teacher-licenses/80406548/

 

NC promises to change teacher screening system after NBC Charlotte investigation

They are supposed to be role models. But NBC Charlotte spent months investigating local teachers and found everything from allegations of assaulting students to sexting with students and more. We uncovered things that now have the state promising to change the system that screens our classroom leaders. What we found will shock you, including sordid details on a police report filed against Alexander Stormer, a math teacher at Charlotte Mecklenburg’s Phillip O. Berry magnet school. According to an Atlanta police report and South Carolina school board documents, Stormer is accused of “dragging” one student, ”pushing” another, and sexting a third, ...

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http://www.wcnc.com/story/news/educ...m-after-nbc-charlotte-investigation/80415698/

 

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 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.msn.com/en-us/news/us/br...s-let-teachers-flee-troubled-pasts/ar-BBptved

 

Exclusive: Flaws found in Iowa teacher background checks

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.13newsnow.com/story/news...launches-teacher-disciplinary-audit/80087584/

 

Exclusive: Flaws found in Iowa teacher background checks

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.freep.com/story/news/inv...launches-teacher-disciplinary-audit/80087584/

 

System lets teachers flee troubled pasts

Oregon officials revoked a teacher’s license after finding he had sexual contact with a high school student and had exchanged more than 2,600 text messages with her. 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 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 state lines. They’re ...

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http://www.dailyrecord.com/story/ne...system-teachers-flee-troubled-pasts/80450872/

 

Exclusive: Flaws found in Iowa teacher background checks

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.khou.com/story/news/inve...launches-teacher-disciplinary-audit/80087584/

 

Indiana receives F grade for how the state screens its teachers

Just days after a former Park Tudor basketball coach was arrested for allegedly sending inappropriate messages to a 15-year-old student, Indiana was given an "F" grade for how the state reports problematic teachers. USA Today ranked all 50 states based on how they do background checks on teachers and if that state reports to a national database of teacher discipline cases. On both counts, according to the report, Indiana failed in keeping troubled teachers out of classrooms. “USA Today concluded Indiana scored an 'F,'” said IndyStar state education reporter Chelsea Schneider. The USA Today report claims Indiana didn’t provide every ...

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http://fox59.com/2016/02/16/indiana-receives-f-grade-for-how-the-state-screens-its-teachers/

 

Indiana gets F grade for how it vets teachers

Just days after a former Park Tudor basketball coach was arrested for allegedly sending inappropriate messages to a 15-year-old student, Indiana was given an "F" grade for how the state reports problematic teachers. USA Today ranked all 50 states based on how they do background checks on teachers and if that state reports to a national database of teacher discipline cases. On both counts, according to the report, Indiana failed in keeping troubled teachers out of classrooms. “USA Today concluded Indiana scored an 'F,'” said IndyStar state education reporter Chelsea Schneider. The USA Today report claims Indiana didn’t provide every ...

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https://cbs4indy.com/2016/02/16/indiana-gets-f-grade-for-how-it-vets-teachers/