Virginia stepping up pace of pulling teacher licenses

The Virginia Board of Education seized the teaching licenses of 19 former educators this month as part of an aggressive campaign to ensure that teachers with criminal records are barred from state classrooms.

Officials have spent months gathering information on teachers who were found guilty of criminal misconduct and left their jobs but whose licenses weren’t revoked, largely because school divisions did not report the convictions – which included collecting and sharing child pornography, child abuse and rape.

Four of the 19 licenses revoked or canceled by the state board in the past two weeks belonged to Hampton Roads educators. Between January 2000 and mid-December 2007, the board took licenses from 35 Virginia educators. About 151,400 Virginians hold active teaching licenses.

“We have a responsibility to protect children from the folks who may commit another crime against children,” board President Mark Emblidge said Thursday. “This is black and white. This is not gray.”

The board voted Thursday to revoke six licenses. The other 13 were surrendered voluntarily after the state informed the educators that their licenses could be revoked .

Kelly K. Bowen was one teacher who lost his license Thursday. He was sentenced in February 2005 to 45 years in prison on two dozen counts of child abuse and exploitation involving more than 20 boys from the Portsmouth area.

A relative of one of his victims said she was pleased with the board’s decision but dismayed that it took three years. The Virginian-Pilot is not publishing her name to protect the identity of the victim.

“I consider teaching to be a most honorable profession,” the relative said. “He was still a teacher even though he was imprisoned for heinous crimes against children.”

The other South Hampton Roads teachers include:

nJerome K. Crawford, a former Suffolk teacher sentenced in March 2007 for using the Internet to solicit sex from a minor.

nDeborah J. Everett, a former Virginia Beach teacher sentenced in August 2003 for raping an 11-year-old former student.

The fourth Hampton Roads teacher to lose a license in the past two weeks was Robert M. Hatcher, a former Hampton educator sentenced in January 2007 for collecting and sharing child pornography.

The state began strengthening its policies against teachers who broke the law after administrators read news reports of educators who had been criminally convicted, and realized they had not been recommended for revocation.

Some of the educators are incarcerated, and some of their licenses eventually expired.

Mandatory criminal and social services background checks could catch misbehaving teachers if they apply to a Virginia public school or state-accredited private school.

Still, state leaders said they want to be sure those individuals are barred from the classroom.

South Hampton Roads school officials have said that teachers often resign or are terminated before their court matters conclude. It can be logistically difficult to follow the cases of former employees through the system, officials in Virginia Beach have said.

A recent Virginian-Pilot analysis identified 13 people – including Bowen, Crawford, Everett and Hatcher – who have worked as Hampton Roads educators and were convicted of crimes before October 2007 but not disciplined by the state until this month.

In the past five years, only one local school division reported notifying the state of a teacher’s misconduct. Virginia Beach officials said they sent the state a copy of a December 2002 letter to Everett, announcing their intent to seek a revocation.

Meeting minutes show that the Virginia Beach School Board later approved the revocation request. Beach leaders said they are searching old files for a letter which reported that vote to the state.

State education officials have said they were unaware of the Everett case until recently.

Lawmakers and education officials also plan to take other steps to make it harder to hide or overlook teacher misconduct.

Legislators are considering a bill that would require court clerks to notify the state if they know that an educator is convicted of a felony related to sex with children or to drugs. Under the legislation, local social services departments would do the same if a teacher is the subject of a founded child abuse or neglect complaint.

The state board has also instituted a new policy that allows it to revoke teachers’ licenses when school divisions don’t report criminally convicted educators.

In addition, officials plan to publish on the education department’s Web site the names of teachers who have been disciplined by the state.

The board of education has already begun revealing the names of teachers whose licenses have been revoked for criminal activity, Emblidge said. In the past, the cases were only publicly identified by a number.

Emblidge said the board may eventually discuss holding its licensure proceedings in open meetings.

“This is an ongoing conversation,” Emblidge said. “Is this enough? Or do we need to continue looking at ways to be transparent?”

 Amy Jeter, (757) 446-2730, amy.jeter@pilotonline.com