What happens when faith in teachers is broken? (Sexual abuse in Texas schools)

Grade-school teacher Sarah Ellyn Vincent resigned from the tiny Italy Independent School District in 1996, after her affair with a 16-year-old boy was discovered. State officials didn't think she belonged in the classroom and asked her to surrender her teaching credentials. She did.

For the last three years, she's worked in the Marlin Independent School District outside Waco.

Ms. Vincent is one of at least 600 Texas educators disciplined in the last eight years for sexual misconduct, mostly involving children, according to state records analyzed by The Dallas Morning News. And state regulators warn that the count likely understates the problem because of districts' failure to report incidents.

The teachers' misdeeds translate into hundreds of kids abused by the very people entrusted with their care each day. And long after, the damage lingers.

"Sometimes I still can't believe that it really happened. I can't believe that I let it, but there was nothing I could do," one teenager said in a victim's statement, referring to sexual abuse by her volleyball coach. "Nobody should have to go through what I have. I am now trying to rebuild my life, but this is so difficult. No matter how hard I try, I cannot erase the memories, the pain, heartache, the abuse. It will haunt me for along [sic] time to come."

State and local officials' efforts to keep abusive teachers out of Texas public schools appear spotty at best. Cases at the state level can take years to resolve, and discipline, when meted out, often appears inconsistent, according to The News' study of records from the State Board of Educator Certification, the agency overseeing teacher discipline.

Some registered sex offenders have not lost their licenses but have received lengthy suspensions, allowing them to apply for reinstatement and return to the classroom.

A grand jury declined to indict Ms. Vincent. But the married mother lost her teaching license after admitting the relationship. Other teachers who did the same thing have been suspended for a few years. Even after a teacher loses her license, as Ms. Vincent did, she can move on to a nonteaching position. And a license once revoked may be later reinstated.

"There's a serious breakdown in our system," said Kelt Cooper, an Arizona school superintendent who worked in several Texas school districts and who has testified as an expert witness in educator abuse cases. "It's time people take a position on this thing [and] acknowledge how deep this goes."

Recognizing that a problem exists is difficult. Kids don't want to admit they've been victimized; parents feel guilty that they sent their child to a molester each day; and school officials, haunted by the prospect of sexually abused children or falsely accused teachers, just want it to go away.

"I looked up to her as role model and friend. As time passed, we began to talk more," said the student who was abused by her volleyball coach. "The closer that I became to her, the more I seemed to push my other friends away."

The relationship became increasingly intimate. The coach kissed her. "I didn't know what to think. I was grossed out and confused," the victim said in her statement. Then came "making out," and later, while they were watching a movie at home, the coach caressed her "private area."

"I did not know what to do or say," the girl said. Later, "she told me she was trying to make me orgasm, which I had never heard of in my whole life."

Educators disciplined for sexual misconduct represent only a fraction of the 700,000 licensed teachers in Texas, but the state's count probably understates the problem. The agency's computer system is inefficient, and record keeping has been confused since the oversight function was spun off from the Texas Education Agency seven years ago.

Moreover, said Lisa Patterson, associate general counsel for the state educator board, the state cannot discipline some teachers because local districts are content to let a teacher quietly resign – a practice known as "passing the trash." This is a problem, Ms. Patterson said, recalling one instance in which a district agreed to let an educator "move on down the road" without reporting that he'd abused several children.

"He moved on to another district and left 11 more victims in his wake," she said.

"How can you live with yourself knowing you didn't alert anyone to a sexual predator in your midst, when you knew you had a duty to [report]?" she said. "And how can you look those 11 child victims in the eye and say, 'I didn't protect you.' "

"Passing the trash" most frequently appears among cases involving "situational abusers," adults who justify sex with a teenager in the guise of romance. These are normally not cases involving pedophiles, adults attracted to young children.

For instance, after Ms. Vincent resigned from Italy, 40 miles south of Dallas, nearby Abbott hired her. Harley Johnson, then Abbott Independent School District superintendent, said administrators checked Ms. Vincent's references, but no one mentioned the incident that led to her departure from Italy.

"We kind of got shafted on that deal," Mr. Johnson said. "It still ticks me off."

A few weeks after she began working in Abbott, Mr. Johnson learned of the allegations in Italy when the state opened an investigation. He had to place Ms. Vincent on paid leave during the yearlong inquiry and hire a replacement teacher.

Officials in Italy, citing turnover among district staff, said they could not confirm Mr. Johnson's account or whether they failed to report Ms. Vincent to the state.

The state board's investigation of the Vincent case, however, appears to have started after the agency received a letter of complaint from state Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, who represents the area and acted after the student's parents sought his intervention.

In cases such as Ms. Vincent's, in which the victim is an older teen, attitudes often are mixed. Society seems unsure where to draw the line in a world where youths are sexualized earlier in life by advertising, music and movies.

The age of consent – when a teen becomes an adult under the law – varies by state. In Texas, it's 17; in some states it's 14. A teacher having sex with a 17-year-old student in Texas may be unethical, but it's not illegal. The lack of criminal sanctions in cases involving older teens disturbs many education experts because a student is never a teacher's equal, even if he or she is old enough to consent.

Some states have addressed the issue by passing "trust laws," making it illegal for a teacher to have sex with a student, even if the student is old enough to consent. Such a measure has been introduced in the Texas House; a previous effort to pass similar legislation failed.

Dr. Robert Shoop, professor of educational law at Kansas State University in Manhattan, favors such statutes because of the power teachers wield over students. "I send my child to you to teach that child," he said, "not turn her into your concubine."

According to The News analysis of state records from 1994 to 2002, most educator abuse victims who come forward are in middle or high school and tend to be female.

Most abusers are men. The News identified 529 men and 77 women disciplined for sexual infractions.

Male abusers frequently have multiple victims; female abusers generally have one. A female abuser usually believes – as in the infamous case of suburban Seattle teacher Mary Kay Letourneau, who gave birth to two children after starting a relationship with a 12-year-old boy – that she has found her "soul mate," though he may be too young to drive, Dr. Shoop said.

Ms. Vincent's actions, as seen through letters on file with the state board, appear typical.

"When I saw you this afternoon, I wanted to reach out and touch you so bad!" she wrote to her victim while asking for "another chance." "I just miss you, and the way we made each other laugh. ... I have also realized how much I want to be a part of your life."

The boy's letters were even more ardent. "I can't wait until I get to hold you, caress you and make love to you," he wrote.

Later, in a jarring note echoing a childlike wistfulness, he added, "I wish you could come to my graduation."

The letters were written after the boy's parents became aware of the relationship and tried to stop it by going to police and school officials.

Ms. Vincent, who was 31 at the time, did not want to leave teaching. "I don't want to lose my teaching certificate, and I am going to fight like hell for it," she wrote to the boy. "... What happened with us had nothing to do with my teaching in the classroom."

Even after she was forced to resign, Ms. Vincent persisted in trying to stay in touch with the boy, his father said. Finally, a year later she admitted the sexual relationship and surrendered her license.

When Mr. Pitts reported the Vincent case to state authorities, he said, "Ms. Vincent should not be allowed a position of contact with students of any age."

Marlin ISD Superintendent Letha Hopkins didn't agree. She knew why Ms. Vincent lost her credentials but hired her anyway – as a vocational nurse, not a teacher. Ms. Vincent counsels pregnant teens and instructs them about parenting skills.

Now 38 and still married, Ms. Vincent hopes to get her certificate reinstated eventually. "I feel I deserve to be back," she said recently in an interview. "I think what I had to go through emotionally was enough."

But the victim's father is wary of her return to the classroom. His son has graduated from college and moved on with his life, he said, but the experience "was an ordeal. I don't wish it on anybody."

In other cases, teachers can move on because of a sometimes-forgiving system aided by sloppy state record keeping.The license of Gary Graves was revoked in 1994, for a relationship with a 17-year-old female student, which included touching genitals outside the clothing and kissing, but not intercourse. The relationship developed in 1986, while he taught in Burleson, but did not come to the attention of state officials until Mr. Graves and his wife filed for divorce in 1992.

After his license was revoked, Mr. Graves worked as a bus driver and substitute teacher in the Wylie Independent School District, outside Abilene. In 1996, with support from Wylie officials and residents, he successfully applied for reinstatement of his credentials and he joined the staff at Wylie full time.

He has been an assistant football and track coach at Duncanville High School since 2001.

As a condition of Mr. Graves' reinstatement, state officials had ordered that his teaching certificate be inscribed with the notation that it had been previously revoked for "engaging in a romantic physical relationship with a student."

That notation wasn't entered. As a result, when Mr. Graves applied to work in Duncanville, school district officials hired him without knowing about his conduct in Burleson or that he had lost his license for a time. His paperwork was corrected after a News inquiry to the State Board of Educator Certification.

The girl involved with Mr. Graves, now an adult, said she is "uncomfortable" with the idea of him teaching high school. "Proven that he has a lack of restraint, it's probably not a good idea to put him in a situation like that time and time again."

The botched paperwork in Mr. Graves' case is not unique. Other districts have encountered similar problems. Reynaldo Medina resigned from the Southwest Independent School District in San Antonio in 1994 after putting his arms around a girl's waist and pulling her toward him. No action was taken by the Texas Education Agency, then in charge of teacher discipline, and Mr. Medina was hired by the Somerset Independent School District a couple of years later.

According to state files, Somerset officials, after hiring him and later learning of the incident, asked state officials about it but were told the file was missing. "This man is now in my employment," an irritated superintendent wrote. "Do you plan to investigate the previous report from a school district? Am I to continue this man's appointment pending your investigation?"

Mr. Medina resigned, and the state completed its investigation in 1997. A one-year backdated suspension was imposed – allowing Mr. Medina to remain in the classroom.

Mr. Medina got in trouble again in the Edgewood Independent School District in San Antonio, this time for touching female students on the rear and massaging one's shoulders.

Mr. Medina adamantly denied wrongdoing in the second incident, but the newly created educator certification board suspended him a second time in 2001.

State overseers have cut the investigative case backlog from as much as 13 months to an average of 94 days for resolution, Ms. Patterson with the certification board said. But the agency, which operates with a budget of about $20 million, has only three investigators and four lawyers to handle about 500 cases annually, 29 percent of which involve sexual charges, the most time-intensive type to resolve. Like all state agencies, the board is under pressure to cut costs.

By comparison, the State Board of Medical Examiners, which considers about 1,200 cases annually, has 18 investigators and nine lawyers. They monitor about 52,000 physicians with Texas licenses – a considerably smaller professional group.

With such limited resources, even routine proceedings prove difficult. Last year, the board began action to remove the credentials of 67 registered sex offenders, people convicted of sex crimes, though not necessarily involving children. This year they discovered 28 more. Other registered sex offenders probably escape the board's detection and retain their credentials, but the agency checks the sex offender registry only once a year. State Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, was so disturbed by those numbers she introduced a bill this year requiring court clerks to notify the Board of Educator Certification if an educator is convicted or receives deferred adjudication for a sexual offense involving victims younger than 18. Another pending measure would mandate background checks by using fingerprints for licensing applicants.

"There is currently a disconnect between the courts who convict criminals, the State Board of Educator Certification, who licenses educators, and local districts," Ms. Shapiro said.

Some victims of teacher assault say establishing their personal credibility is particularly difficult.

Mr. Graves' victim said she was depressed for months afterward; relationships were difficult for years.

"When I hear about it going on with girls and people point fingers at them, I can sympathize with them and think, 'These girls have done nothing,' " she said in an interview. "It's something I've always wanted to share with young girls – that it's not your fault."

And there was nothing romantic about it, despite the notation on Mr. Graves' teaching certificate, she said. "That implies I was a willing participant and I knew exactly what I was doing and had some sort of fault in it – he molested me at a time I felt vulnerable."

The Dallas Morning News examined 606 cases of educator sexual abuse from records about disciplined educators maintained by the State Board of Educator Certification. Information was compiled through searching criminal records, civil suits, public databases, published accounts and disciplinary files available by request from the board.

Stories in this series
5/04: Abuse cases show threat in classroom
5/04: New job offered clean slate for disciplined educator
5/05: Passing the trash
5/06: Lessons learned

606: Educators with Texas credentials have been disciplined for sexual infractions in the last eight years
514: Infractions involving students 17 or younger
25: Percent of offenders were coaches or music teachers
780: Students listed in public records as having been victims of teacher sexual abuse in the last eight years.
65: Percent of victims who were female
53: Percent of victims who were older than 14

These cases are clearly abuse... but I remember back in Jr. High and High school there were girls who threw themselves at male teachers. One girl would walk up behind the teacher and rub and massage his neck in 8th grade. It was inappropriate, she kept hittin on him, and he didn't stop her. I don't think it went further than that, I don't know. In high school we had a VERY YOUNG male teacher whom many girls hit on. I know he dated one of them, but she was an 18 year old senior. It was still tabu to date students back then. So many girls had crushes on the male teachers and found every excuse to go to their room and flirt with them. I don't know how innocent those cases were back then. People didn't press charges back then, in a small town..... No tellin'

I'm familiar with the Marlin, Texas, of 10 years ago. The town is dying and impoverished, it has no tax base because everyone with any intelligence and ability left ASAP. The majority of the population is umarried women with multiple children by multiple fathers. The Marlin school district and others like it are s-t-u-c-k. For the most part, the only personnel they can hire are rejects from all of the more prosperous districts in Texas where personnel are better paid. [Marlin ISD was one of the most impoverished schoold districts in Texas.] The superintendent in Marlin, last time I visited, had a Ph. D. from Lower Podunk. [Given NEA's infiltration, you might think that a blessing-- but think again.] It's a sad situation.

I listen to NPR sometimes. The other day they had a teachers' union president on touting the amazing successes of the public school system. I felt like I had entered an alternate universe. She stated that the school system was doing a fantastic job and that many failures could be attributed to the parents. I look at the content and message of our local "conservative" curriculum and I shudder. There are some positives, but the negatives are very corrosive to our society as a whole. I wish that I would have exposed my four kids to a better educational environment. My oldest is 29 and my youngest is 18. I did, in fact, fail my progeny in this one important area. Moving 20 times in 30 years probably contributed.

Now 38 and still married, Ms. Vincent hopes to get her certificate reinstated eventually. "I feel I deserve to be back," she said recently in an interview. "I think what I had to go through emotionally was enough."

This makes me want to scream. *She's* been through enough?? THIS is the legacy of the NEA: the teacher who molested a child and lost/gave-up her credentials thinks that she's a victim and has been through enough emotionally and "deserves" to be back. There is not enough emotionally that she can go through for harming a child, not to even mention what she "deserves".

It strikes me as interesting that when it was reported that this sort of practice of "passing the trash" was going on within the Roman Catholic church, there was nationwide outrage. Will this happen now that it's been reported that this is happening in the educational establishment? Anyone have a bridge for sale??

but I remember back in Jr. High and High school there were girls who threw themselves at male teachers

Still, it's the adult's responsiblity to control him/herself. They are put in charge of children and teens with the expectation that they WILL control themselves.

I had a friend in high school who did sleep with at least one teacher. She came from a family where her father was a child molestor. She was looking for a father figure and one of the teachers took advantage of it. Yes, she knew it was wrong, BUT so should he. I still say the onus is on the teacher, not the student, to put a stop to inappropriate situations.

Every parent has at least one regret from raising his children. The public school system has millions. Never has an institution so failed its believers and so betrayed an entire society.

All 5 of mine are homeschooled. Its awesome.It actually takes half the time we spent doing there enviro,cultural,revisionist history and "anti reality math" homework every night. Plus anytime we decide to take a trip or make any plans the last thing we think about is what about school.
Its already done this year.

Yours is a typical homeschool success story. It should be on the front page of every newspaper in the country. Instead, it's ridiculed and scorned by the same media who perpetuate the mediocrity of the status quo.

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