“It will, however, force the vast majority of the 44,000 teachers to attend rather extensive training because of roughly a dozen individuals.”
The Clark County School District experienced a wave of sexual misconduct in the past year, with over 13 individuals from the district arrested and charged. For comparison, other large school districts such as Los Angeles County had two in the same time period. Parents and students are understandably concerned about what seems like rampant misconduct, and the local paper did a three-part expose that highlighted several root causes. But instead of addressing those root causes, the administrators have implanted new and often needless training that ends up placing additional burdens on good teachers while failing to root out the bad ones.
The Las Vegas Journal Review pointed out many factors that have led to this problem. The major issue is what’s called “passing the trash.” Somewhat similar to the problem faced by the Catholic church, teachers under investigation were allowed to resign without a permanent mark on their records.
This allowed the investigated individual to transfer to another school in the large system and still pass the mandatory background check. Attempts to fix this loophole were opposed by the liberal teachers union, which shows that their goal is to protect teachers and not promote a good education.
Another major problem is the lack of clear guidelines concerning social media interactions. It turns out that at least half of the 13 groomed their victims using social media. While texting a teacher can be a valuable means of communication, the lack of clear guidelines gave wiggle room to predators.
In response to these issues, the district has instituted new training that covers social media, adds better record-keeping to avoid passing the trash, and has a new curriculum that is supposed to help teachers notice warning signs. These are a good start, and clearly articulating thoughtful policy is good. Ultimately, these new guidelines miss the mark, as teachers predisposed to commit crimes like this will not stop because of some extra training on Twitter.
It will, however, force the vast majority of the 44,000 teachers to attend rather extensive (and, as one who has participated in similar events, rather mind-numbing) training because of roughly a dozen individuals. Even one abused child is too many, but preventative measures should be effective in rooting out the bad actors and not have the appearance of action and little effect except punishing the good teachers.
Like everybody else, politicians and bureaucrats want to keep their jobs, which in the public sector are often very lucrative. The Clark County board is very active in crafting new training that makes it look like they are solving the problem. But they are doing little to challenge the powerful teaching union, whose rules helped predators to remain hidden from other principles in the Valley, manipulate state regulations to obscure poor performers, and put up regulatory roadblocks in firing the few who are found. The parents of the school district should force their representatives to promote the interests of the children and fight the teachers union.
