It seems almost every week, if not every day, another CCSD teacher is arrested for touching, molesting, having sex, seducing, exposing himself or a litany of other things with a student. You can’t get away from the news of CCSD teachers, staff, administrators being complete and absolute perverts. It seems that the #1 place in Las Vegas to get molested, perhaps might be at school!
Despite this, administrators at schools refuse to talk to anyone about these issues. My own personal experience has been met with indifference in some cases, and absolute indignity in others. As I’ve mentioned more than once, even in my local school where my kid goes, the principal has point blank refused to meet with me, denying requests for meetings, throwing away my complaints and in general being absolutely useless with these and other issues.
What are the issues?
Just this past few days:
A 65-year-old man who had been working as a substitute teacher has been arrested on three counts involving sexual acts with a student.
Following a two-month investigation, the Clark County School District Police Department has arrested a math teacher on charges of unlawful contact with a minor.
A 47-year-old teacher in Henderson was arrested for indecent behavior toward three of his students.
A Silverado High School volleyball coach was arrested in October after authorities accused him of sexual misconduct with a 16-year-old student, the Las Vegas Review-Journal has learned.
If you google teachers molesting kids at CCSD, you get what seems to be hundreds of articles on different teachers in the last few years. Teachers arrested for exposing themselves, molesting kids, having affairs with students, sharing nude photos with parents. It’s over and over again.
I’m a veteran of a US Secret Service Task Force, an investigator with a Kings County Child Abuse Unit, before I got into marketing. With years under my belt, I’ve offered to meet with my local school administrators and help them make heads or tales of what is happening, and perhaps even put together an effective background check, questions. They have ignored my mails, said they have had it under control, and as I mentioned at my own kids school: refused to meet me with me these issues.
It’s so bad that one local news station wrote on Facebook: “Another Teacher Arrested…”
Want to change the culture at CCSD and make sure teachers are vetted appropriately, that we can weed out those who are potential abusers? Speak to me on the steps and interviews you can do with teachers, or suspected teachers.
Every week? That’s ridiculous. Perhaps statistics would help you here. Since July 1, 7–only 7–CCSD employees (the volleyball coach was NOT a teacher, and a substitute is not actually ’employed’ by CCSD (no benefits, no insurance). Since there are about 18,300 licensed personnel in CCSD, with the 7 arrested and charged, that equates to: 0.0004%. That’s not exactly every week. That means that 99.9996% of CCSD licensed personnel are doing a pretty good job–including me, a CCSD teacher. As far as “weeding out” potential abusers? A background check cannot determine if someone is a potential abuser. How do you define “effective background check”? Fingerprints are run through the FBI database, and unless the employee has a misdemeanor or felony, they will clear. How do you determine “effective questions”? That will not even determine someone as a potential offender. Most of these teachers that are arrested get too close, personally, with their students, which leads to relationships. Contrary to popular belief, there are students who initiate the relationship. Certainly adults should know better, but it leads to those relationships.
I, in no way, condone or tolerate, as a teacher AND parent, these adults who take advantage of children. It is disturbing and disgusting.
But please, your seriously hyperbolic statement that teachers are arrested “every week” is ludicrous and ignorant. 99.9996%–including me–are still doing are jobs educating our students.
Thanks for being a good teacher and taking care of our kids. You raise a lot of questions, but they are questions that need to be addressed by administrators, the district to our children. The refusal of my kid’s principal for example to even meet with me, to address these issues (and how my child’s arm was broken!) raises a lot of questions about the way the schools are run.
I took my kid out private school for him to better socialize. Its very possible I’m going to change that and put him back at Merryhill. I’m fortunate enough to be able to make those choices, but most parents don’t have these choices, don’t have influence or a voice. That’s why I’m doing this.