Dozens of Miami Teachers Fired or Quit: Scandal Grows Over Payments to Get Credit for Courses

I realize you are or were a teacher but that profession needs to clean itself up like other professions in this country. We put people in jail daily for doing lesser damage to the public welfare than do policemen and teachers. You need to open your eyes at the examples that are being set by leaders in America. First the politicians,the church,the police and teachers then comes athletics's. None are the proud examples they use to be.Four of the five I have just mentioned I have been directly involved in myself and I damn well speak from what I have seen.

Yet you are applying what you have seen in one school of education to every school of education in the nation. How can you possibly justify that?

Believe you me it is more than one school; and one state.On top of that a lot has been reported if you have followed it.I have not made records but I read quite a few news articles every day on the internet. Go to newslink.org and you can read the news from every state in the USA from their major news papers. Also every time you turn the news on there is some teacher or priest messing with a student. A cop on the take or an athelete taking steroids or in trouble.To many people like to stay in their shell and figure if I dont know about it everything is fine and you can bet your government covers up more than they release. Government and the professions have an almost everyday practice of promoting their troubled people or just letting them resign rather than prosecuting. You need to wake up.

You can also bet that the news media hypes stories beyond the attention they should receive. An example: Remember all the coverage about shark attacks a few years ago? In actuality, shark attacks were down, yet the media would have had us believe they were reaching epidemic proportions.

Now, we get a lot of stories about teachers and students, but is is happening any more than it ever has, or any more with teachers, than with anyone else?

Finally, what does this have to do with the standards of performance at educational schools?

COLUMBIA, Mo. - A former oncologist who recently surrendered his license and paid a $1 million fine stemming from accusations of Medicare fraud is now the focus of a class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed last week in Boone County Circuit Court, accuses James Hueser and 22 physicians of shortchanging patients by administering diluted or tainted chemotherapy drugs and charging full price.

The legal action was filed on behalf of Ron Merchant. Hueser treated Merchant's wife, Artie Jean Merchant, who died in 2003 of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, said Tony DeWitt, an attorney with the Jefferson City law firm handling the case.

In a class action lawsuit, any former patient who received treatment from any of the defendants and didn't get what he or she paid for can be part of the settlement or judgment, DeWitt said.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for overbillings and punitive damages to "deter future wrongful conduct" by the defendants. The lawsuit also alleges fraud, breach of contract and civil conspiracy.

Hueser could not be reached for comment.

The list of defendants includes an affiliated company, Medical Network Technologies LLC, and former associates of Hueser in the Boone Clinic medical partnership.

But Columbia attorney David Knight, who represents Medical Network Technologies and two doctors in the partnership, said linking Hueser with the other named physicians is "trolling" for defendants.

"It's just a hell of a stretch on their part," he said. "From our standpoint, there's no partnership or anything else they allege."

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched an investigation into Hueser's medical practice in late 2001 after nurses in Kirksville reported that opened vials of chemotherapy drugs were stored for later use, contrary to manufacturer directions and prescribing guidelines.

The investigation revealed that between at least February 1999 and December 2001, Hueser "routinely billed Medicare for larger doses than were actually given to the patients," according to an affidavit filed by investigator Daniel Coney.

In November, Hueser and federal officials reached a settlement in connection with the overbilling of Medicare patients.

Hueser did not admit wrongdoing under the terms of the agreement reached with the U.S. attorney's office in Kansas City.

Hueser, who was based at Boone Clinic, also practiced at Bothwell Regional Health Center in Sedalia and had "traveling oncology units" in Hermann, Hannibal and Kirksville.

This is another shinning example of what America has become and it is the reason we are going to fall like all great countries in the past. Hide you head under a rock and believe what you wish. Americans need to educated themselves not be brainwashed.All of our professions are lacking but those with their head in the air or the sand doesnt realize it.
Finally what it has to do with standards is shown throughout our country by the aptitude of those our schools are turning out. This country is paying now for the feel good feeling of the sixties. Dont worry be happy!

Molestation suspect left trail of promisesUnpaid debts, professions of piety follow molestation-case suspectERIC FRAZIERefrazier@charlotteobserver.comJimmie Grubbs, a former Huntersville teacher accused of molesting students, arrived in the Charlotte area after a string of bad business deals left him bankrupt, court records show.
The picture that emerges from those records and from interviews with former acquaintances is of a man who professed deep religious faith, and who was so adept at winning people's trust that neighbors, relatives and fellow church members loaned him thousands of dollars.
Those records, contained in Grubbs' 2000 federal bankruptcy court filings, show how he cajoled and pleaded with impatient lenders, even telling them he considered it un-Christian to file for bankruptcy not long before he did just that.
He lost his house and his car along the way, leaving a trail of debts and unkept promises from Winston-Salem to Myrtle Beach.
Now, church officials are probing the former Sunday school teacher's past, asking parishioners to report any suspicions about Grubbs' relationships with children in their churches.
Authorities have said they think Grubbs may have been committing sex crimes for years. Police have said they are looking into more than 15 possible victims.
Grubbs, 66, borrowed money as he pursued his dream of lucrative marketing deals, but some of his creditors never got their money back.
"He was pleasant enough," said Beth Witherspoon, an S.C. real estate broker who manages condos where Grubbs once lived. "He was a good talker, ... always on the verge of a big breakthrough (in business).
"I do remember he did not pay his rent. He got way behind and eventually I had to evict him."
Pleas and promises
Grubbs and his wife, Patricia, filed for bankruptcy in 2000 in federal court in Statesville.Grubbs wrote letter after letter to his creditors, updating them on his business deals and pleading for their patience when things went badly.
His letters and business documents suggest he passionately believed he could make himself and his friends wealthy by using contacts he claimed in NASCAR. He hoped to sign deals with a major corporation to market race-related merchandise.
From 1990 to 1998, the bankruptcy court records say, he obtained loans from at least 27 people. One Winston-Salem couple, Eugene and Peggy Dillard, loaned him at least $20,000.
Grubbs wrote that he had contracts and agreements with Chevrolet and other major companies to produce belt buckles and pocket knives with the insignia of NASCAR drivers such as Dale Earnhardt.
He projected his profit for 1990 at $1.2 million, court documents show.
But in October 1990, he wrote the Dillards to say he was having problems. By February 1991, he was blaming the sluggish economy and the first war in Iraq. Five months later, he wrote saying he'd borrowed money from his mother-in-law to keep the business going, and that he doubted things would improve.
He wrote that he was "getting out of this business as fast as I can," but promised again to repay the Dillards. By the next spring, the Dillards still hadn't been paid and wrote Grubbs, threatening to sue him.
Eugene Dillard, reached last week, wouldn't comment on Grubbs.
Grubbs eventually repaid the Dillards most, if not all, of the money, using the estate his mother-in-law left.
But other creditors weren't so lucky. One man who played on a church-league basketball team Grubbs coached in the 1970s in Chicago's suburbs said in an interview that Grubbs never repaid him the more than $1,000 he was owed.
He said Grubbs' wife recently called him to ask for help paying legal bills. Grubbs is in a Mecklenburg jail on state and federal sex-crime charges stemming from allegations made by three students.
Priscilla Grubbs told him her husband was "arrested on indecencies," said the former church-league basketball player, who asked to remain anonymous. "She said of course it's not true."
He didn't loan her any money. Priscilla Grubbs couldn't be reached for comment.
`Deeply depressed'
Letters in the court file show that in 1995, Grubbs told the Dillards he was moving from Winston-Salem to Little River, a community near Myrtle Beach. He said he was closing his company, J. Grubbs Enterprises.
But by February 1997, he was again looking to raise money, this time writing letters to friends about "the hottest product I have ever handled" -- a throw toy.
In a letter to a friend, he said he expected to make deals with McDonald's and the military. But by September, he was writing letters to "Christian friends and relatives" who had given money, begging for trust.
"I am deeply depressed," he wrote, "but have not and will not lose my faith in my God and Jesus."
He didn't get a single order for the throw toy, he disclosed in one letter.
In January 1999, he wrote his backers to say he'd fallen more than $65,000 in debt, and his home and car had been repossessed. He said someone had suggested he declare bankruptcy to dodge his creditors, but he said "we as Christians would never do such a thing."
Grubbs wrote that he had a new job working with NASCAR and large corporations again, and expected to repay everyone by year's end.
"We beg you not to take us to court to settle any of this between us," he wrote. "We would be totally ruined with our manufacturers who supply the products we are selling."
By November 2000, however, he had moved to Cornelius and filed for bankruptcy.
Search for potential victims
Three years later, he began working as a teacher at Bradley Middle School in Huntersville. He taught there until May, when he resigned as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools investigated allegations that he'd had improper contact with students.
As the criminal investigation continues, Huntersville police say they are working with officials in Myrtle Beach and Winston-Salem to determine whether more potential victims exist.
Two Methodist churches in Winston-Salem that Grubbs attended in the 1980s -- Maple Springs and Mount Tabor -- have sent letters to their congregations saying that anyone with information about Grubbs should come forward.
It is unclear whether the search includes other public school systems where Grubbs may have worked. Officials in Illinois, where Grubbs lived in the 1970s, say he completed his degree at an Illinois college and was issued a teaching certificate in 1977.
The Illinois State Board of Education said it had no information about him teaching after he received the certificate.
Officials with the Winston-Salem area's school system said he never worked as a teacher there. Myrtle Beach-area school officials couldn't be reached Friday.
An N.C. Board of Education attorney said Grubbs was issued a provisional N.C. license in 2003.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools reiterated Friday that it felt it handled the Grubbs situation appropriately, and plans to ask for his certificate to be revoked if he's found guilty.
-- Staff writer Aimee Juarez contributed.

“You all get A's!”

Sadly, it is late in the year to replace teachers, especially with the FCATs around the corner. They probably should finish out the last weeks of the year.

But I wouldn't hire a single one for next year. They deserve to be fired, prosecuted and make restitution for fraud.

This is the type of thing that give us honest teachers a bad name. I hope the judge throws the book at them.