Just say ‘no’ to sex-offender teachers

Published on September 2, 2008 in Education. 8 Comments By Joanne

California teachers who plead “no contest” to a sex offense may continue teaching until their case can be reviewed by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. That can take two years. On Right on the Left Coast, Darren is amazed that the “no-brainers” at the California Teachers Association oppose a bill that would close the no-contest loophole because they claim it discriminates against gays and lesbians. I see nothing in the bill that refers to gays and lesbians.

8 Responses to “Just say ‘no’ to sex-offender teachers”

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  • george
    September 2, 2008 at 4:22 am

    I fully support removing child molesters from the classroom.

    I don’t see why people should be barred from teaching for attempting to pick up men in an airport bathroom, for example.

    If we want only saints to be our teachers we better pay a whole lot better.

  • jason
    September 2, 2008 at 10:11 am

    This is happening too much. teachers are arrested EVERY day for sex crimes against students.

    http://www.TeacherCrime.com

  • Richard Aubrey
    September 2, 2008 at 10:22 am

    Well, the thing about the discrimination is pre-emptive. Proactive.
    Just in case.
    On account of, oh, I dunno. Something.
    Maybe the Association knows something the rest of us don’t.
    It’s their idea, this thingy about discrimination.
    Maybe somebody should ask them.

  • wahoofive
    September 2, 2008 at 3:00 pm

    Jason, I’m sure you mean well, but there’s a world of difference between a “sex offense” and a “sex crime against students”.

  • Darren
    September 2, 2008 at 3:58 pm

    As I wrote in my blog post, there are different/harsher penalties for pulling a Larry Craig than for pulling an Eliot Spitzer–so this bill could have a “disparate impact” on gays and lesbians, in CTA’s opinion. I don’t agree with them on that, but that’s their position.

  • pm
    September 3, 2008 at 8:21 am

    Is it really that hard to find teachers that don’t have criminal records?

  • Andy Freeman
    September 3, 2008 at 8:46 am

    > As I wrote in my blog post, there are different/harsher penalties for pulling a Larry Craig than for pulling an Eliot Spitzer–so this bill could have a “disparate impact” on gays and lesbians

    Huh? Adultery isn’t a crime and gays and lesbians can marry in CA, so how is there “disparate impact”?

    Also, one can reasonably believe that sex crime convictions have some predictive power wrt crimes against children while adultery does not. While I’m perfectly willing to believe that some sex crimes have more predictive power and relevance than others, let’s see the data.

    Of course, given the CTA’s actual behavior, it’s more reasonable to conclude that cares about sexual abuse of children about as much as my local grocery store. There are only two differences – the grocery store doesn’t claim to care and I don’t pay it to care.

  • Darren
    September 3, 2008 at 2:16 pm

    To demonstrate how out of touch CTA is, I heard from a reliable source (but haven’t researched it myself) that this bill passed the Assembly unanimously, and the only “nay” vote in the Senate was from Sheila Kuehl.

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