(NEA) Rights Watch: Big Legal Victories For Gay Students And Teachers

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This group keeps up with the homosexual agenda in the public schools.

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

Just another reason to homeschool.....

I think the kid who was beat up, spat upon, and had a rope hung around his neck had a legitimate beef. School officials have a duty to stop such things no matter what their basis is. I don't think that because it was being done because the kid was gay should give him special status, but the fact that it was being done at all is enough.

The court agreed, ruling that it is "well-established that governmental discrimination against homosexuals...violate[s] the equal protection clause."

News to me. I was unaware that sexual orientation was a protected class under Federal law.

In California last August, a teacher won a $1.1 million settlement from the San Leandro Unified School District, which had disciplined him for speaking to his students about equality and respect for gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons.

Two parents had accused high school teacher Karl Debro of attempting to "brainwash" his students and make them "become gay." In response, school officials reprimanded Debro, who is married with children. Debro sued, claiming a violation of his free speech rights and his obligation under California law to combat all forms of bias, including homophobia.

I was also unaware that teachers enjoyed the right to free speech when addressing students on school property. I certainly don't have the right to free speech at my place of employment. But then, I am not familiar with California law in this respect. I wonder if the school district can/will appeal?

I registered on www.owl.org, but couldn't find a copy of that pamphlet.

OTOH, when you register, you are asked if you are an NEA or affiliate member, and it's enforced by asking for your membership number. Perhaps that pamphlet is not available on-line to non-members.

>>Even after he transferred to two other high schools in the Washoe County School District, the harassment continued.

It looks like he was trolling for a fight and he got one. Follow the money. He is acting this way to get money. He also wants to force the gay agenda on the others. If I went to school with an attitude, I would pe picked on too.
Kids are cruel to everyone not just gays. He just wants press and money for his self-inflicted-by-proxy pain. Sorry I don't buy it. Sadly the schools do. He had to shop around to get the right school that would appease him.

At my daughter's school, the 2 gym/swim teachers are both lesbians. If there was a private school within a reasonable distance I would gladly pay the tuition and get my daughter away from the perverts.

The school even allows these two to take students on the yearly "ultimate field trip" which in some years has been outside the USA.

I would not have as much distain if these were math or science teachers but come on, would the school allow a male gym/swim teacher for the girls? Not on your life.

Home school? I know my strengths and my limitations and the patience to home school my daughter is not one of my strengths. Besides I have to work to pay all these NYS taxes that fund this liberal crap.

In groundbreaking rulings, the courts have sent school boards a clear message: Do more to stop gay bashing or pay the price.

Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 US 186 (1986) BURGER, C.J., Concurring Opinion

As the Court notes, ante at 192 , the proscriptions against sodomy have very "ancient roots." Decisions of individuals relating to homosexual conduct have been subject to state intervention throughout the history of Western civilization. Condemnation of those practices is firmly rooted in Judeo-Christian moral and ethical standards. Homosexual sodomy was a capital crime under Roman law. See Code Theod. 9.7.6; Code Just. 9.9.31. See also D. Bailey, Homosexuality [p*197] and the Western Christian Tradition 70-81 (1975). During the English Reformation, when powers of the ecclesiastical courts were transferred to the King's Courts, the first English statute criminalizing sodomy was passed. 25 Hen. VIII, ch. 6. Blackstone described "the infamous crime against nature" as an offense of "deeper malignity" than rape, a heinous act "the very mention of which is a disgrace to human nature," and "a crime not fit to be named." 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *215. The common law of England, including its prohibition of sodomy, became the received law of Georgia and the other Colonies. In 1816, the Georgia Legislature passed the statute at issue here, and that statute has been continuously in force in one form or another since that time. To hold that the act of homosexual sodomy is somehow protected as a fundamental right would be to cast aside millennia of moral teaching.

This is essentially not a question of personal "preferences," but rather of the legislative authority of the State. I find nothing in the Constitution depriving a State of the power to enact the statute challenged here. ++++"Rejuvenating Blackstone"

Derek Henkle was spit on, beat up, and called names. Simply because he's gay. But the last straw for the Reno, Nevada, high school student came when classmates threw a rope around his neck and threatened to drag him behind a pick-up truck, just like James Byrd Jr.

Jeffrey Curley

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) calls a $200-million lawsuit against the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) a "witch hunt."

The suit is being brought by the family of slain 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley, who was molested and murdered by two men. Police found NAMBLA materials in the home of one of those men, Charles Jaynes.

Attorneys for Robert and Barbara Curley, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, have asked a federal judge to let them sue NAMBLA under Rico laws, which target criminal conspiracies.

NAMBLA is a "criminal" organization "that exists to train pedophiles to rape children," according to the suit.

The Curley lawsuit also demands the names of all NAMBLA members.

"That, more than anything, shows the purpose of this suit and why it should be dismissed," ACLU attorney John Reinstein told the court in his petition to have the case dismissed.

The ACLU is also petitioning the court to gag the attorneys of both sides in an effort to keep the case out of the press.

"I am amazed at the irony of the ACLU, the self-proclaimed guardians of free speech, calling for a gag order," Steve Aiken, director of communications for the Traditional Values Coalition, told C&F Report. The Traditional Values Coalition is helping to fund the Curley lawsuit.

"The ACLU and other defenders of NAMBLA do not want the public to hear the truth about NAMBLA and the role it played in the death of Jeffrey Curley," he added.

Along with general NAMBLA materials, Cambridge police found a manual titled "Rape and Escape" published by the pedophile organization.

"The book literally details how pedophiles can lure, befriend, and rape a child, then avoid detection and prosecution," Aiken said.

According to trial records, the killers of Jeffrey Curley followed one of the manual’s suggestions. The men stole Jeffrey’s bicycle, befriended him as they helped in a fruitless search, then offered to buy Jeffrey a new bike.

The men were on the way to the store with Jeffrey when they offered him money for sexual favors. As Jeffrey rebuffed them, they resorted to force, eventually suffocating the boy. The men then raped the corpse.

Since the death of his son, Robert Curley has been grappling with the inconsistency of his so-called "gay friendly" hometown. Community leaders have virtually ignored the family’s loss. The city of Cambridge has several markers and memorials to murdered homosexuals. Sen. Edward Kennedy(D), despite his vocal outrage at the death of Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard, has declined to comment about the death of Jeffrey Curley.

Derek Henkle was spit on, beat up, and called names. Simply because he's gay. But the last straw for the Reno, Nevada, high school student came when classmates threw a rope around his neck and threatened to drag him behind a pick-up truck, just like James Byrd Jr.

By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) - Logic shows that a 13-year-old boy wasn't a willing participant in a sexual bondage game that led to his death in a gay couple's apartment, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday.

Making a late-night run for more duct tape, picking up only two sandwiches instead of three, and leaving the child unattended all prove that the men weren't concerned about Jesse Dirkhising's welfare, Prosecutor Bob Balfe said.

``Why did they need more duct tape? Was it because he was struggling?'' Balfe asked jurors in his closing argument.

Jesse died Sept. 26, 1999, in the Rogers apartment of Joshua Macabe Brown, 23, and Davis Don Carpenter, 39. Brown's trial is midway through its second week, and jurors could get the case Wednesday afternoon. Carpenter's trial is set to start May 7. Both could face the death penalty.

Prosecutors say Jesse was drugged, bound, raped and sodomized before dying in the apartment. Witnesses said Brown sexually assaulted the boy in an attack Carpenter choreographed.

Derek Henkle was spit on, beat up, and called names. Simply because he's gay. But the last straw for the Reno, Nevada, high school student came when classmates threw a rope around his neck and threatened to drag him behind a pick-up truck, just like James Byrd Jr.

Zachary Ramsey was murdered and then fed to the neighbors by a homosexual pedophile cannibal

Prosecutors in Great Falls, Mont., accused Nathanial Bar-Jonah, 43, of killing Zachary Ramsay, who disappeared in February 1996 while walking to school. His body was never recovered.
Prosecutors believe Bar-Jonah butchered the child.
Encrypted writings believed to be the work of Bar-Jonah include a list of "dishes" made from the body of a small child, said Cascade County prosecutor Brandt Light.
Acquaintances of the suspect also said he gave them prepared dishes that tasted peculiar, Light said.
"They all talked about how the meat tasted funny," he said.
If convicted of homicide and aggravated assault, Bar-Jonah could face the death penalty.
Bar-Jonah’s lawyer, Larry LaFountain, does not have a listed phone number and could not be reached for comment. In letters to a newspaper earlier this month, Bar-Jonah denied any role in the Ramsay case.
Bar-Jonah appeared in court via closed-circuit television from the county jail today but did not enter pleas to murder and kidnapping charges. He was ordered held on $500,000 bond. Despite not having the victim’s body, prosecutors believe they have enough evidene to convict Bar-Jonah.

‘Fantasies of Cannibalism’
A doctor who performed a psychiatric evaluation of Bar-Jonah said that he had fantasies about cannibalism, said Light. "He talked about dissection and he talked about eating human flesh and cannibalism."
The list of "dishes" made from children’s flesh, which was found in his home, was written in code, and required FBI assistance to decipher. The writings "appear to fit" with the details of the Ramsay case, said Light.
Authorities believe Bar-Jonah is responsible for at least one other death. The bones of a young boy were found buried beneath the dirt floor of his garage.
Tests show that those bones do not belong to Ramsay, or any other boy known to have disappeared in the region. The FBI reportedly is looking to see if the bones match those of any missing children in other states.
According to prosecutors, Bar-Jonah held regular garage sales, selling mostly children’s toys.
Local news reports said that Bar-Jonah’s apartment was filled with newspaper clippings about Zachary, thousands of pictures of young boys, and yearbooks from local elementary and middle schools.

A Sexual Predator
Bar-Jonah has a record of assaulting young boys going back 25 years. He has been in jail since last December, when he was arrested on charges of impersonating a police officer near an elementary school and concealing a stun gun.
In January he will face separate charges that he sexually assaulted children and dangled a 9-year-old from a kitchen ceiling with a rope.
He could be sentenced to up to 300 years in prison if convicted
Bar-Jonah had been convicted in Massachusetts of several previous sex attacks, all on young boys, and served 14 years in Massachusetts prisons, starting in 1977.
Bar-Jonah was released in 1991, reportedly over the objections of the prison doctor. Within months, he was sent back to prison for assaulting a 7-year-old boy, Light said.
Six months later, he was released under the condition he move to Montana and live with his mother.
In Montana, however, he did not register himself as a convicted sex offender, as required by law. And Massachusetts, it appears, never told the state that Bar-Jonah was on the way.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Brown has admitted binding and gagging the boy and raping him with a variety of objects. But his lawyer says he didn't intend for the boy to die.

From the men's apartment, police seized a number of documents that were blown up to poster size for the prosecution closing argument. A diagram on one used stick figures showing how to bind a child; a letter included the line: ``Make him take those drugs.''

Judge David Clinger ruled the documents admissible last week, calling them ``a blueprint for child rape'' outside the presence of jurors.

In his closing argument, Balfe picked up on the theme and said the letters and drawing were his best evidence.

``We have their blueprint, their guide for how he was to be bound up,'' Balfe said.

``In Jesse's last hour on this earth, he was being violently raped by that man,'' Balfe said, pointing to Brown. ``Then he (Brown) goes to eat a sandwich and Jesse dies.''

The sandwiches were bought during Carpenter's late-night run for more duct tape, Balfe said. There was enough food for two.

``Jesse wasn't going to get anything to eat. It wasn't stopping anytime soon,'' Balfe said.

Earlier Wednesday, defense lawyers rested their case after a witness said Brown was dominated by his lover.

``Mr. Brown was totally dominated by Mr. Carpenter,'' said Maryanna Aragon, who said Carpenter had been her family's hairdresser. ``He (Brown) was a very mixed-up kid who got lost in the shuffle.''

Two defense witnesses said Tuesday that Jesse had used drugs in the past. A pharmacologist testified that post-death lab work indicated Jesse had previously taken methamphetamine and an anti-depressant. Dr. Jimmy Valentine said Jesse had a near-toxic level of an antidepressant in his system when he died, but said no one could say whether he was forced to take the drug.

Another witness said she had seen Jesse use methamphetamine and that he was known to smoke marijuana.

Dr. Stephen Erickson, a one of the final prosecution witnesses, said Tuesday that Jesse died under his own weight. He said Jesse's overdose and the position he was bound in prevented his chest from expanding enough to breathe.

At my kids' high school, one of the teams that one of my kids was on had two homosexuals as coaches. I went to almost all of the games and a few of the practices. I also questioned my child (who was aware of their orientation after freshman year) closelyj, and spoke to some of the other parents. As far as my wife and I could tell, a) they were good coaches, and b) they kept their opinions and their hands to themselves (and away from each other). I don't recall them leading any field trips. There were no presents or private coaching sessions or special preferences for any of the kids on the team. And the teams achieved to levels commensurate with their talent.

This is terrible and I can only imagine what could go on at one of those trips. Homeschooling is really not as bad as some may think. As I've said many times, you are in control and you choose the curriculum. When my kids were younger, the emphasis was on the 3R's. Once they got that pretty good, we added the history, science, etc.

In Wisconsin, however, a teacher had less success in his lawsuit against the Hamilton School District. Tommy Schroeder claimed that school officials failed to do enough to stop the harassment he suffered because of his sexual orientation.

Dirty Secrets: Why sexually abusive teachers aren't stopped

A small but dangerous contingent of sexual predators lurks among the dedicated teachers in our nation's classrooms

Sunday, October 31, 1999

By Jane Elizabeth Zemel and Steve Twedt, Post-Gazette Staff Writers

First of a three part series.

Justin Kelly, with his mother, Kim Shrum, was 13 years old when his La Porte, Texas, homeroom teacher and football coach molested him. Michael J. Kluck was convicted of felony sex offenses. Justin, now 18, is suing the Nebraska school district that earlier had allowed Kluck to resign quietly after he was accused of misconduct there. (Brett Coomer, Associated Press)

Children are often taught in school to look out for adults who might hurt them. But sometimes, the grown-ups in their own classrooms are the ones who could do the most harm.

Sexual misconduct by educators is a volatile, sensitive subject that's been whispered about in school hallways and behind closed office doors as long as there have been schools. But a lack of public acknowledgment has helped the problem to spread and the bad teachers to circulate.

It's a problem that resonates nationally, but accusations of sexual misconduct also have appeared recently in Pittsburgh-area schools.

Joseph Doherty, an Avonworth School District teacher, was cleared of criminal charges but resigned under pressure after being accused of sexually assaulting a student in 1997. He was able to get a teaching job in Maryland this year even though Avonworth school officials had sent his case to the state Department of Education for review.

Dennis L. Bair, a music teacher in Burgettstown Area School District, Washington County, was convicted in June 1997 on two counts of indecent assault of a female student. However, he was allowed to surrender his license last year rather than have it revoked. That action effectively sealed his records and could enable him to teach again outside the state.

Gary Serlo taught elementary school in Westmoreland County in the early 1970s before being sent to a Greensburg prison in 1974 for child molestion. His license to teach in Pennsylvania wasn't revoked until last year, though, when he was convicted of molesting three boys in his new school district in New York. Because of an incomplete background check, school officials who hired Serlo never knew that he had served prison time for molestation.

Larry Mihalko, an elementary school teacher in Gateway School District, was charged earlier this year with indecent assault and other crimes. The charges stem from allegations brought by former students -- three pre-teen girls -- who have testified that Mihalko had improperly touched them while they were sitting on his lap, including putting his hand under their clothing.

Mihalko's attorney has said that hugging, patting and holding students on his lap was part of Mihalko's teaching style. Mihalko's trial is scheduled to begin in January.

Accused teachers represent a small percentage of our nation's educators. But those who do abuse students often abuse more than one, and the damage they do can be devastating.

The Post-Gazette has examined 727 cases across the U.S. in which an educator has lost his or her license for sex offenses during the past five years, and has found some disturbing trends. Among them:

The number of teachers who have lost their licenses because of sex offenses has increased nearly 80 percent since 1994.

Several of those who lost their licenses were caught only after they had been molesting students for many years.

Offending teachers sometimes get help landing another teaching job from a unexpected source -- their former bosses. The practice is so well-known among educators that they refer to it by name. They call it "passing the trash."

Individual states' aggressiveness in detecting and removing predators from the classroom varies widely, and some states do no background checks on teacher applicants at all. There is a private, national clearinghouse that tracks problem teachers but its director admits that states' reporting can be spotty, leaving everyone vulnerable to the so-called "mobile molester."

Even when caught, offending teachers can launch appeals that allow them to retain their teaching certificate for two to three more years. In some cases, those teachers have moved to another state and used that certificate to get a new teaching job until their appeals run out.

Weak communication between the education and criminal branches of state governments means that education officials don't always find out if a teacher has been arrested for sex crimes or other offenses. In one case, Missouri education officials had to send a license-revocation order to a Kansas man who had already begun serving a 90-year sentence for raping a teen-aged girl.

Striking again

Rumors and accusations that William C. Bennett was sexually abusing his male students first surfaced in the early 1980s, when he was teaching in a school in Virginia.

They finally ended at a high school in Akron, Ohio, earlier this year.

Bennett, a guidance counselor, pleaded guilty in May in a case that charged him with having sex with students -- even in his school office.

"If you have ever had a recurring nightmare, then you can probably relate to the last year-and-a-half of my life," one of his victims told the judge at Bennett's trial.

Bennett is now serving a year in jail, has surrendered his teaching certificates, and is registered as a sexual predator. He will never teach again, never devastate another young life.

Or will he?

Kenneth Long did. He was arrested twice in Florida, in 1989 and 1990, for offering students money for sex and was put on three years' probation. Yet he was hired in Alexandria, Va., in 1995 when officials there failed to check for a criminal history; then he moved to Washington, D.C., in February 1998.

In May, a federal grand jury in Washington indicted Long on 35 counts of interstate transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. The victim was a 14-year-old student. Long's trial is currently under way in Washington.

Terrible toll

In Pennsylvania, 38 teachers lost their certificates for sex-related offenses from 1997 through 1998, compared to 21 in the two years before that. But even the growing numbers don't reflect the actual toll, experts say.

The problem is not so much the number of offending teachers, it's the number of students a single bad teacher can victimize.

"When they get caught, it's never a case of one act of bad judgment with one child," said Dr. W. Richard Fossey, associate dean of the college of education at Louisiana State University, who has researched teacher discipline cases.

"If you've caught one, you know that the guy has a history."

And all too often, the victimizing teacher has help from an unlikely source -- administrators in his own school. Examples are plentiful:

A Houston-area family has filed suit against a Nebraska school district for allowing a problem teacher to resign, clean out his personnel file and walk away with a letter of recommendation in 1994. Weeks later, he was hired in Texas where, in the first month of classes, he molested their son.

In South Carolina, a young man molested by his teacher also is suing the teacher's former employer, Porter-Gaud School, and has posted his own web site to bring attention to the issue -- http://www.geocities.com/~shawws.

According to the suit, Edward Fischer was forced to resign from a private school in Charleston in 1982 after being accused of molesting a student. Yet administrators agreed to write a favorable letter of recommendation for him in exchange for that resignation, and he continued teaching. In April, Fischer, 71, was convicted of molesting 13 boys.

Four months after teacher Robert Pannier's conduct resulted in a warning against using vulgarity, profanity or sexual innuendo, two administrators in Mendota Heights, Minn., wrote recommendations for him in June 1995. He was hired by another Minnesota school district and taught until early 1998 -- when police arrested him for having sex with a 15-year-old student.

Doherty, the Avonworth School District teacher who resigned after being accused of sexually assaulting a student in 1997, was able to get a teaching job in Prince George's County, Md., this year even though school officials had sent his case to the state Department of Education for review.

Although Avonworth school officials knew that Doherty had applied for the job, Maryland school officials said they didn't know about Doherty's arrest until a Post-Gazette reporter called to question them about their knowledge of his background. After the PG's call, school administrators removed him from his classroom while they investigated.

Doherty had been secretly videotaped by Avonworth officials who had become suspicious of his behavior. On tape, he was seen engaged in what he called "wrestling moves" with a 12-year-old boy in his locked classroom. Even though prosecutors argued that Doherty was obviously sexually aroused in the videotape, the district justice decided that no crime had been committed. The boy and his mother would not testify.

Pennsylvania officials will not comment on the status of his teaching license.

Doherty, 39, no longer works in the Maryland district. He has filed a civil lawsuit against the Avonworth School Board, claiming they defamed his character.

Attitudes vary

The Post-Gazette study of teacher misconduct also shows that aggressiveness in removing predators from the classroom varies widely from state to state. While Ohio requires state and federal background checks, some states, including West Virginia, conduct no background checks on teacher applicants. Others, including Pennsylvania, perform partial checks. This has implications for all states, because the inconsistency in background checks makes it easier for bad teachers to circulate.

The Post-Gazette also found that it commonly takes two to three years, and sometimes longer, before education officials catch up to a license revocation made in another state. This sometimes gives the person time to find a teaching job in another state -- at least until their past offenses emerge.

In 1996, the Oregon agency that oversees teacher certification separately revoked the licenses of two teachers who were accused of making sexual advances toward students. The incidents had occurred as much as 12 years earlier, when the two men were teaching in different school districts in California. As California officials moved to take away their licenses, the two landed jobs in Oregon by falsely stating on their application that they were not under investigation.

Officials in Oregon learned of the first case when a parent in the teacher's former district tracked his whereabouts, then tipped Oregon officials. They found out about the second teacher when a reporter at a California paper called to ask about his teaching status.

Too often, a bad teacher is quietly relieved of his or her job, only to show up in another unsuspecting school.

In William C. Bennett's case, Akron officials said they weren't aware that Bennett had been dismissed from the Virginia school for what school officials called "inappropriate conduct toward a student."

But after a short time in Akron, he was accused of fondling a 9-year-old boy. The incident was resolved by moving the boy to another elementary school.

More accusations came from students in 1994, 1996 and 1997, but were dismissed as untrue, although Bennett was moved to the high school.

Last September, a college student went to school officials and told them Bennett had molested him in high school, and the investigation began that led to his guilty plea.

Leaving quietly

Hofstra University professor Charol Shakeshaft, in a 1994 national survey of 225 school superintendents, found that 221 teachers accused of sexual abuse quietly resigned or retired from their district.

Of those, superintendents were aware of 22 teachers who then were hired in other districts. While they didn't know the whereabouts of the rest, the superintendents conceded that many of those teachers could be employed in other schools "and that it would be easy for them to get other teaching jobs," Shakeshaft said.

And all but about 1 percent retained their teaching licenses, Shakeshaft said.

In a 1991 survey of 65 superintendents in North Carolina, a Winston-Salem University professor found 26 cases of sex-related offenses by teachers over the past three years. In 12 cases, the teacher was fired or forced to resign, according to the researcher, Dr. Dan Wishnictsky.

In the other cases, the teachers were simply reprimanded. Only one case was marked "charges not proven."

On average, teachers who molest children have worked in two to three school districts before they're stopped, according to Craig Emanuel, an investigator with the Arizona Department of Education. These are the teachers he calls "the mobile molesters."

The typical mobile molester case goes like this, he said:

A teacher who's a sex offender works in a school district "living a double life, until he gets out of control." School officials then learn about the abuse, and ask the teacher to leave quietly, dodging bad publicity and expensive legal proceedings.

The teacher then moves to another district where he molests more children, and then possibly to yet another district.

By that time, according to Emanuel's observations, the teacher's victims from the first district get older, wiser, and report the abuse to the police.

The molester may then be prosecuted, but by that time he could have harmed dozens of children.

In Pennsylvania, local school districts are encouraged -- but not required -- to report teachers who are forced to resign "for cause." But it doesn't happen often.

"If a teacher is arrested, convicted, sent to jail, and resigns from his job, and the district doesn't tell us, and it's not in the newspapers, we may never know about it," said education department spokeswoman Michele Haskins. In that case, the teacher's certification would remain intact, allowing them to continue working in classrooms.

Tide is turning

When a teacher who has resigned under pressure applies for a job in another school district, often his previous school district will not reveal the problems to the new employer. That's because previous employers -- not only in school districts but in any profession -- are skittish about providing unfavorable references and possibly being sued by the employee.

However, the legal tide is turning. Previously, said Thomas W. Pickrell, director of legal services for the Arizona School Boards Association, lawyers told clients not to reveal any information about former employees.

"Now, people are questioning that, and focusing on the social costs of this practice," he said. "The no-comment policy is turning into a more common-sense policy."

Adding fuel to the "common sense" approach undoubtedly is the fact that more and more abuse victims are suing the school districts that allowed the bad teachers to resign and move to another school.

One of the most notorious cases involves former band teacher George Crear III, who was featured this month on ABC's "20/20." In 1987, two of Crear's former students in Flint, Mich., went to the Michigan Board of Education and told officials that they had been molested by Crear many years previously.

But the statute of limitations had expired in their cases, and no criminal charges could be filed. The board simply allowed Crear to resign, and his personnel file was purged.

Crear then obtained a job as a band teacher at Palmetto High School in Florida, where officials knew nothing of his background. Soon, Crear was facing sexual abuse allegations from at least three girls. One of those students committed suicide.

In a verdict that surprised even his attorneys, Crear was acquitted in Florida. But almost immediately, another Michigan victim came forward with charges that Crear abused her. Crear now is serving life in prison in Michigan. And a former Florida student who said she was molested by Crear was awarded $720,000 last year in a civil suit against the school district.

In a California case, a student complained to officials in the Pasadena Unified School District in 1983 about inappropriate advances by track coach Clyde Ezra Turner. The information went into a secret memorandum that didn't surface again until this year, when Turner was sentenced for molesting a 15-year-old boy.

The teen-ager testified that Turner had invited him to his home, showed him a pornographic video, and then molested him.

At Turner's trial, three other students testified that Turner molested them more than 15 years ago.

Until the secret memo was uncovered by prosecutors, school officials denied they knew about any previous incidents involving Turner, who led the track team to five state championships.

Such teacher misconduct is far from common, acknowledged Bart Zabin, an investigator with the New York State Department of Education. "There are only a small number of bad apples in this wonderful orchard. But saving even one child from an abusive teacher is important," he said.

One way to prevent abuse, said Arizona's Emanuel, is to stop accepting quiet resignations from teachers "when you yourself would not rehire this person" and to constantly be on the lookout for signs of teacher misconduct.

A few states even have laws that sanction administrators if they knowingly write a favorable recommendation to get rid of a problem teacher.

Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia are not among those states.

"We have to recognize," Emanuel said, "in this profession there are people, child molesters, who will go to any lengths to be with children."

It looks like he was trolling for a fight and he got one. Follow the money.

I disagree. As a Scouter, I'm familiar with kids who don't fit in for one reason or another at school; I was one myself. Kids end up as a favorite target, and if they're not physically or mentally capable of putting up a fight, transferring to a different school rather than fighting it out in the current one is an option that's occasionally exercised. "He was acting this way to get money" could be true, but there's insufficient evidence here to make that conclusion, and I don't think it's likely; kids' first desire is to fit in, not to file lawsuits.

"When my kids were younger, the emphasis was on the 3R's"

Those 3R's would be rafting, racing(auto), remotes(tv)at my house.

"This is terrible and I can only imagine what could go on at one of those trips"

Well on one of them one of the girls came back pregnant (obviously not the lesbos direct fault but their supervision sucked)

I can also assure you that it does not take 6-7 hours each day to teach them. There's plenty of time for other things such as piano, art, playing outdoors.........

Two parents had accused high school teacher Karl Debro of attempting to "brainwash" his students and make them "become gay." In response, school officials reprimanded Debro, who is married with children. Debro sued, claiming a violation of his free speech rights and his obligation under California law to combat all forms of bias, including homophobia.

Gay Activists Training Teachers in Special Curriculum

Gay School Teacher Initially Booked with Almost 400 Counts of Molestation

NEA And GLSEN Seek To Stifle Free Speech

Schools Could Be Sued For Teaching About Homosexuality, Report Claims

Schools Could Be Sued For Teaching About Homosexuality, Report Claims
By Robert B. Bluey
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
September 06, 2002

(CNSNews.com) - Two California parental-rights groups say schools that address homosexuality in their curriculum or in after-school programs face an increasing risk of being sued by parents.

The Pro-Family Law Center (PFLC) and the United States Justice Foundation released a report Wednesday that will be distributed to parents, school districts and the state education department. The 15-page document cites court decisions, which the groups claim could be used in lawsuits to challenge schools that seek to "normalize homosexuality."

"We're in the early stages of a national campaign to homosexualize American schools," PFLC attorney Scott Lively said. "Ten years ago this was not happening. We have a generation of school kids who are the official guinea pigs in a social experiment that we believe is going to have dramatically harmful effects."

Lively, who called the report "groundbreaking," said it gives parents an avenue to challenge schools. Once parents have the document in their hands, he wants them to distribute it to teachers and administrators.

The report highlights what it claims are liabilities associated with incorporating homosexuality into a student's education. It encourages schools to abandon any discussion of homosexuality.

Lively said lawsuits could arise from any number of factors, but overlooking parental concern is chief among the risks that schools take.

"Parental rights are some of the most fundamental of all rights recognized under the Constitution," he said. "Using the general principles of law and looking at the facts as we see them unfold, it's very easy to predict what's happening here. We are going to see some of these things being decided over the next few years."

But requiring parental permission for all discussions about sexuality, as the report suggests, carries parents' rights too far, especially when it involves after-school programs, said Wayne Besen, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual advocacy organization.

"Parents don't have the right to stop young men and women from receiving the help they need," Besen said. "The parents themselves are often the threat. These [homosexual student] groups are there to help vulnerable people who are subject to humiliation and harassment get the services they need."

The Human Rights Campaign was mentioned in the report as an organization that promotes such practices in schools along with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG).

Officials at GLSEN declined to comment on the report and calls to PFLAG were not returned.

Besen said the report is the latest attempt by anti-homosexual groups to advance their political agenda. Besides, he said schools are not doing nearly enough to protect students from classmates who harass them.

"[Schools] should have a zero-tolerance policy," he said. "Any student who gets caught harassing a gay or lesbian student should be punished appropriately. [Schools] need to teach people they are entitled to their beliefs, but they should be tolerant to all minorities, including gay and lesbian students."

Lively countered Besen's arguments by claiming homosexuals exaggerate concerns about school safety to advance their own political cause.

"There is no problem with school safety," Lively said. "Schools have the authority to stop harassment by students, but you don't solve that problem by dividing them up into groups."

He suggested the best way to address the liability problems would be for schools to stop addressing homosexuality in the classroom and in after-school activities and instead to concentrate on the more traditional subjects of reading, writing and arithmetic.