Thursday, Jan. 31, 08

F for Conduct

Rapists, attackers, drug dealers and fraudsters are working in our schools. Do you know what your child’s teacher has done?

By Angie Hargot

The Florida Department of Education permanently revoked Jodie Lyn Espinet’s teaching certificate in May 2006 after concluding that the Miami Killian Senior High School physical education teacher engaged in an inappropriate relationship — which included “hugging, kissing and cuddling” — with a minor male student during the 2004-2005 school year. The department found that Espinet “slept with the student twice while on a school-sponsored trip to Gainesville for an athletic swimming competition.”

Eduardo Sacrello, a political science teacher at Miami Edison Middle School, was arrested in May 2002 for possessing 15 grams of cocaine. He pleaded no contest to the charges in September 2002, was given credit for time served and was fined $461. A month later, Sacarello was arrested again for illegally possessing seven grams of cocaine, five MDMA pills and 18 Xanax pills, and purchasing another 31 grams of cocaine. He pleaded no contest in March 2005 to cocaine trafficking and two counts of possession of a controlled substance. The court sentenced him to 18 months in prison, five years of probation and 200 hours of community service. It also ordered him to pay $370 in fines and donate $1,000 to Friends of Drug Court and receive drug treatment. The Department of Education permanently revoked Sacrello’s teaching certificate in January 2007.

These badly behaved teachers no longer teach in Florida public schools, but parents can now find out with the click of a mouse whether those charged with educating their children have been reprimanded for misconduct. Many are still teaching in Florida classrooms.

The Florida Department of Education launched a searchable online database Aug. 20 that allows the public to view punitive actions taken against teachers statewide. To date it lists 974 complaints filed statewide, with offenses ranging from explosions of rage to molestation of students to general ineptitude, and punishments ranging from letters of reprimand to small fines to permanent revocation of teaching certificates. Of those 974 complaints, 143 were in Miami-Dade County and 96 were in Broward County.

Still Teaching

The database includes details of complaints filed against Florida teachers and the Department of Education’s final administrative orders. But receiving a reprimand isn’t necessarily grounds for termination — even if a teacher physically abuses a student.

For example, according to a May 5, 2004 administrative complaint, Pamela Yvonne Williams, a teacher at Highland Oaks Middle School in North Miami Beach, “utilized inappropriate physical force with a minor female student in that she grabbed the student’s arm and forced it behind the student's back. In doing so, [Williams] broke the girl’s arm.”

Williams, who teaches emotionally handicapped students and teaches English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), “failed to make reasonable effort to protect the student from conditions harmful to learning and/or to the student's mental health and/or physical health and/or safety,” and intentionally exposed the student to embarrassment or disparagement, according to state documents.

The Education Practices Commission met in Tampa on May 31, 2007, to evaluate the case, but only levied a letter of reprimand and a $500 fine against the teacher. Williams still works at the school. Her three teaching certifications are valid through June 2010, at which time they can be renewed.

“I don’t have nothing to say. I have to talk to my union,” Williams said.

Parkway Middle School employee Carol R. Jones, who is listed in the database as Carol Jones-Bethel, was found guilty of creating a hostile environment after she “engaged in a verbal argument with another instructional employee,” according to the administrative order. “While doing so, the respondent picked up a wooden chair and swung it at her co-worker in a threatening manner.”

Jones-Bethel received a letter of reprimand and a $300 fine. She is still employed in the Miami Gardens school’s media center.

“That’s an over situation,” Jones-Bethel said. “I’m done with that. Please don’t call me again.”

Florida teachers have been convicted of financial crimes, too.

A jury found school employee Gloria Arnold guilty of grand theft in 2005 for 2004 incidents in which she deposited corporate checks signed by a Spirit Airlines accountant into her personal checking account and withdrew the money. The court ordered Arnold to serve two years of probation and pay $4,145.50 in fees. On July 25, 2007, the Department of Education gave Arnold a letter of reprimand, placed her on two years’ employment probation, and ordered her to complete college level ethics coursework, pay a $500 fine and “refrain from handling school funds.”

Despite her guilty verdict, Arnold currently holds two Florida teaching certifications in the Palm Beach school district.

“If someone is still teaching, their conduct is such that they should be,” said Karen Aronowitz, president of the union United Teachers of Dade. “Parents should feel assured that teachers are capable and able, even if their name is on a list.”

Still, some parents appreciate having a resource to research the past behavior of their children’s teachers and to help them make informed decisions about their children’s futures.

“If I found out my child’s teacher was abusive, I would completely lose it,” said Miami Beach parent Alex Stollenwerck, who said he plans to use the database, talk to other parents and visit the schools before enrolling his 8-month-old son Julien.

“It’s never too early to start researching your child’s education,” he said. “Some [private] schools have three-year waiting lists. You have to make sure a school is safe for your child. The worst part is not all abuse cases are going to be reported.”

Certificates Denied 

The information database also chronicles applicants who have been denied teaching certificates for such troubling reasons as having paltry English skills, cheating on certification exams and lying about their criminal records.

Some applicants have been denied for achieving substandard scores on the Test of English for Speakers of Other Languages (TOEFL), which is required only for those “who have allegedly had some improprieties because English wasn’t their native language,” explained Pamela Stewart, the Florida Department of Education’s deputy chancellor for educator quality. According to the site, the department ordered 18 individuals to take the exam since 2006 — 13 of them in Miami-Dade County and one in Broward County. Those individuals are often allowed to reapply.

Others are denied for plagiarizing the original essay portion of the exam. They also are allowed to reapply.

Many other applicants statewide have been denied teaching certificates for having criminal records and not disclosing them on their applications.

For example, the state determined Ryan W. Hamilton was “not entitled” to a Florida teacher’s certificate once it discovered that he had been arrested on April 23, 2005, for possession of a stolen vehicle, according to the Department of Education’s administrative order. The state attorney removed the case from the court calendar in late 2006, pending the applicant’s completion of a pretrial intervention program. The Oct. 31, 2007, final order placed Hamilton on employment probation for one year (after which time he can reapply) and levied against him a letter of reprimand and a $250 fine.

It is not clear how many of 283,172 teachers in the state database gained employment after initially being denied.

Permanently Barred

However, the state can permanently ban applicants and teachers from reapplying.

A 17-member panel of educators, school administrators and others statewide determine whether a teacher or an applicant should be barred from reapplication. Five “actually make the final action” at the hearing, Stewart said, adding that denials, reprimands and fines are weighed on a “case-by-case basis.”

Those who are banned, according to Stewart, “are not going to hold an educator’s certificate.”

Janella Devine Buckner, a language arts teacher at Jackson Senior High School in Miami, was found guilty by the education commission of engaging in “an ongoing inappropriate relationship” with a minor female student in 2002, including “hugging and kissing” the girl, providing her alcohol, taking her to nightclubs and buying her clothing and other gifts. Buckner’s teaching certificate was permanently revoked on Dec.1, 2006, and she was permanently barred from reapplying to the school system. County records do not indicate that prosectors charged Buckner with a crime.

COPE Center North School social sciences teacher Ariston Jordan was charged in November 2002 with one count of sexual battery and one count of unlawful sexual activity with a minor after being accused of having sexual intercourse with a female student on two separate occasions. In 2003, police charged him with lewd and lascivious molestation for allegedly kissing and touching the breast of another female minor student. The Department of Education found Jordan guilty of “an act involving moral turpitude.” He resigned from his teaching position at the Miami school on Sept. 10, 2003, in lieu of termination, and his teaching certificate has been permanently revoked. (His court hearing for the 2002 incidents is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 31.)

Although new files are added to the database as hearings occur, the department is currently working backward, posting the most serious cases — those involving teachers who “should not be in a classroom anywhere” — to the database first, Stewart said.

The database information also is fed into the national clearinghouse NASDTEC, so disciplinary records will follow teachers even if they apply for certificates in other states.

“The school districts have access to that information,” Stewart said. “As an individual goes to seek a job,” school or district administrators can log on to a secured site and search the database. “They are the first line of defense.”

Special Tactics

According to Quintin Taylor, spokesperson for Miami-Dade County Schools, the county now uses special tactics for dealing with badly behaved teachers: Miami-Dade County Public Schools implemented the Personnel Investigative Model during the 2006-2007 school year, in which the Civilian Investigative Unit has 45 days to investigate non-criminal complaints.

“The model outlines the specific procedures used regarding district-initiated investigations,” Taylor said. The county’s Office of Professional Standards investigates more serious complaints.

In general, it takes about 64 days from the time a non-criminal incident occurs until disciplinary action is taken, Taylor said, though that timeframe often depends on the speed of action within the school itself.

Although Florida statutes require school superintendents to report school incidents to the Department of Education within 30 days, “we usually get a call” soon after the event, Stewart said.

The 30-day window allows schools time to “substantiate that the incident occurred,” said Marian Lambeth, chief of the Florida Department of Education’s Bureau of Professional Practices Services. Individual schools can take separate action.

Still, that doesn’t mean parents will be notified when a teacher at their child’s school is accused or cited for such incidents.

“Parents are notified by the school site administrator regarding any incident that directly involves their child,” Taylor said. “If a situation exists that involves the safety of students and others, the individual could potentially be removed immediately from the worksite.”

While some Miami-Dade teachers are removed from their classrooms, others receive “verbal or written reprimands, suspensions, non-reappointments or dismissals,” Taylor said. The Department of Education can later add fines or completely revoke teacher certifications. The money collected from department fines is invested in educators’ certification trust funds.

“Certification in Florida is self-supported,” Stewart said. “The fees and fines that are collected fund what we would call the overseeing of that.”

The state can also require reprimanded teachers to get help from the Recovery Network Program, an infrastructure of support services for teachers with mental issues.

“What is unique about Florida is [treatment] can be a part of the final order,” Stewart said. “Teachers can say, for example, ‘I’m having trouble with anger management.’”

Immorality Immortalized

Still, some are concerned that the database immortalizes minor offenses.

“We have concerns about it,” said Aronowitz, of the United Teachers of Dade. “Records that are criminal appear on the same list as a parking ticket — less serious incidents are mixed in with something that is truly a concern.”

After the site launched in August, the union successfully lobbied Tallahassee lawmakers for changes. Originally, the site listed the teacher’s name and offense, but did not link to the documents explaining the details of the offense. Thus, a teacher who was reprimanded for holding on to field trip funds for too long was listed the same as one who molested a child. Changes to the site appeared in October.

Once a parent or student discovers that their teacher is on the list, it could have a “chilling effect” on the teacher’s authority, regardless of the offense, Aronowitz said. It also could become a tool for vengeful students.

“We don’t think it’s very clear when someone scans the list, they might not see the details,” Aronowitz said. “People’s reputations can be tarnished. I’m not saying it’s not important to have access to the information. But it’s enough to say ‘so and so is on the list,’” to destroy someone’s reputation.

View all of the complaints against Florida teachers at www.myfloridateacher.com. If you believe a child is being abused, call the Florida Abuse Hotline at 800-962-2873 or the Department of Children and Family Services at 800-96-ABUSE.

Comments? E-mail angie@miamisunpost.com