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Database of Predatory Teachers Would Help Keep Students Safe

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 19, 2007

They call it "passing the trash" - the practice that allows teachers accused of sexual misconduct to quietly leave and find a new job in another town with a fresh crop of unsuspecting victims.

In a state like Florida, which recruits thousands of teachers every year, the practice puts your children at risk.

That is why Congress should embrace legislation offered by Rep. Adam Putnam and Sen. Mel Martinez to create a national database that tracks abusive teachers. To make it as effective as possible, state legislatures and local school districts would also have to overhaul the way they handle allegations of sexual abuse.

Districts should start by requiring that allegations of teacher sexual misconduct be reported to police. That would stop the practice of ill-trained principals handling the investigation.

Just weeks ago, the principal of Middleton High School bungled the investigation of allegations that teacher Christina Lin Butler was having an affair with a student. Principal Carl Green dismissed the allegation as a rumor, but when coincidence brought Tampa police into the case, a quick arrest was made.

Similar circumstances played out in the 2005 investigation of Wharton High School teacher Jaymee Wallace, who wasn't found out until police intervened.

The Associated Press recently found that in one five-year period, nearly 2,600 teachers had their credentials revoked, removed or sanctioned for sexually abusing students.

In a separate investigation earlier this year, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune discovered that more than 300 Florida teachers have been punished in recent years for sexual abuse - yet more than half retained their teacher's licenses after negotiations with the state.

Indeed, the number of abusive teachers in classrooms today could be significantly higher because more than 70 percent of claims were dismissed by state investigators, who receive little formal training in how to probe such claims, the Herald-Tribune found.

To its credit, Florida has increased transparency by creating a public database of teacher-discipline cases at myfloridateacher.com. But the site is only as useful as the information it has, which is why schools must treat sexual abuse as the crime that it is.

Some people might be amused by stories of female teachers seducing teenage students, but we should see this behavior for what it is - a crime of power that claims victims. It needs to stop.

A national database and a hotline that allows people to easily report abuses are two good places to start in keeping these bad apples out of our classrooms.

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