Gee and we thought the schools fired the pedos. here's Mongomery county, one of the richest and most lib county in the country. The poor little child, god help them
School system examines policy on moving teachersReassignment after accusations could be rare
By Lindsay A. Powers Staff Writer
When a teacher has been accused of inappropriate behavior with a student, that teacher could wind up in a new school.
Montgomery County Public Schools is considering new rules that would make such reassignments less likely in cases of “a sexual nature,” said chief operating officer Larry Bowers.
The school system is examining its policy for reassigning teachers and other employees as it works to improve its ability to track incidents of employee behavior, he said.
The school system recently studied several cases involving employees who engaged in inappropriate behavior with students over extended periods of time, leading the school system to make changes to its tracking system for reports on such alleged behavior, according to school system memorandums.
The discussion over the changes comes on the heels of the arrest of Lawrence Joynes, a music teacher who was accused of sexually abusing 14 children at New Hampshire Elementary School in Silver Spring and raping a 15th victim at Eastern Middle School, also in Silver Spring. Joynes taught at 11 schools during 27 years in the school system.
School officials have not said whether Joynes was reassigned to different schools because of accusations at any of the schools.
The new tracking process would aim to help the school system better follow behavioral patterns, the Aug. 28 memo said.
“The review highlighted the need to maintain information centrally from both formal and informal reporting of such behavior whether the reports were or were not substantiated and to assist in establishing patterns of inappropriate behavior to be addressed by [the Office of Human Resources and Development],” the memo said.
School Superintendent Joshua P. Starr sent a June 11 confidential memorandum, supplied by the school system, to members of the school board describing plans for the new system, noting the use of a confidential database for reported allegations and training that principals and supervisors would receive.
In a recent interview, Bowers said that reassignments also will be considered. Bowers said that when it comes to cases in which inappropriate behavior of “a sexual nature” is suspected from an employee, reassignments will be rare if not nonexistent.
“I don’t want to say never, but it will not happen very often in the future,” Bowers said.
Bowers also said that reassignments have occurred “not very often” in the past.
When it comes to behavior of a sexual nature, county Board of Education member Michael Durso said, he would have to “think long and hard” if reassignment is an appropriate action and that there are “many shades” to the issue.
“Now I guess it depends on the severity of maybe what the action is: Was it something that was said? Was it maybe someone touching someone and that was seen as inappropriate and maybe it wasn’t intended to be? All the way up to the most severe of sexual involvement or, you know, actual abuse,” said Durso, a former principal.
“That’s the dilemma; it’s very difficult to lump everything into one category,” he said.
Durso said the school system needs to consider false accusations. According to some people’s perceptions, “just being accused is tantamount to being guilty.”
“It’s a huge gray area, but just because it’s complicated doesn’t mean we shouldn’t address it,” he said.
In the Aug. 28 memo, “transfers” and “reassignments” are listed among a group of seven potential types of disciplinary action, which also includes a written reprimand, demotion, suspension, coursework and termination.
Bowers said, however, that the inclusion of transfers and reassignments — as well as coursework — in the list of potential disciplinary action is a “miswording” in the memorandum.
There are cases in which keeping an employee in the school where a report was made would create a bad working and learning environment, he said.
Generally, a reassignment would happen in a situation “where the principal feels it’s in the best interest of the school to not have that person there,” Bowers said.
Susan Burkinshaw — health and safety committee co-chairwoman of the Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Associations — said she thinks that if an employee is suspected of being a danger to students, they should not be kept where they might continue the alleged behavior.
The school system “should not put them in a position where they have access to children,” she said.
Burkinshaw said she has faith in the school system that they would “know better” than to move a teacher to a different school where they might still pose a danger to students.
While it’s important to keep students protected, she said, she recognizes there’s “a fine line” the school system has to walk when it comes to addressing suspicious behavior.
“There should not be a witch hunt against anyone suspected” of inappropriate behavior, Burkinshaw said.
“They can’t just be willy-nilly putting people on probation based on rumors,” she said.
In Joynes’ case, according to court documents, the principal of New Hampshire Estates Elementary placed a variety of restrictions on him in November 2011, including “activities only in public areas, classroom door to remain open during instruction, stay off playground during recess, no sitting at the cafeteria with students, use of staff restrooms only, don’t be alone with any student in classroom, and no touching of students in any form.”
These restrictions were put in place after a second-grade student told her mother, who then told the school’s principal, that Joynes had “asked her if she wanted to crawl into his lap” and if she dreamed about Joynes; and after a first-grade student told her teacher that Joynes tickled her during instruction, according to court documents.
Not speaking to any specific case, Bowers said that, generally, restrictions placed on a school system employee are “not necessarily disciplinary actions.”
Such restrictions can be put in place following situations in which a teacher’s behavior, though not inappropriate, made a student feel uncomfortable, he said.
“It’s the result of either observations that others have made or concerns that have been raised,” Bowers said.
If a teacher were to have several or “extensive” restrictions placed on them, Bowers said, that doesn’t mean the teacher actually did all the things they are directed not to do.
A principal can choose to be cautious in the restrictions on an employee, he said.
He added he has not seen “a lot of examples” of restrictions placed on employees.
When asked if extensive restrictions were concerning, Bowers responded, “This is my perspective — it’s concerning to place restrictions on a teacher for anything,” he said. “But you have to say that a lot of it is about perceptions.”
A person’s words or actions could be innocent, he said, but another person may perceive them as inappropriate.
Durso said that when a teacher is under extensive restrictions — such as those placed on Joynes — that are starkly different than what the school asks of another teacher or employee, it raises questions.
“If it’s that bad, then I think you have to wonder: Does that person need to remain in that position?” he said. |
