The following blog post presents important information from the online magazine nj.com. Published by Adam Clark, March 5, 2024.
A “creepy” science teacher retired when accused of giving students back rubs and holding a girl’s hand.
An elementary school educator was disciplined for withholding bathroom breaks and grabbing students by the shirt.
And a science teacher was reprimanded on multiple occasions after students complained he called them “cute,” asked girls to bend over in front of him and talked about oral sex.
Each was able to find work in a new school that had no clue about their prior behavior, according to a new state investigation.
The State Commission of Investigation found the law designed to stop schools from “passing the trash” is insufficient and easily manipulated, allowing educators to conceal their past misconduct while school officials ignore, misinterpret or fail to comply with the rules, according to a scathing report issued Tuesday.
“At the end of the day, school officials have to know the law, read the law and enforce the law,” said state Assemblyman Jay Webber, R-Morris, who championed the proposal that was signed into law in 2018. “And here, it looks like they didn’t.”
The law was passed after an NJ Advance Media investigation highlighted how troubled teachers under investigation easily move to other public schools while their administrators remain silent.
It gave school officials sweeping new powers to warn other districts about teachers accused of abuse and sexual misconduct. It required schools to ask previous employers if a teacher was under investigation at the time they resigned. And the law granted districts legal immunity for sharing information and banned separation agreements that lead to destroying or withholding information from their files.
But the State Commission of Investigation found there was no state oversight, no one to enforce the law, no standardized process for reporting or verifying information and too much reliance on educators with histories of inappropriate conduct telling the truth.
The commission reviewed nearly 90 cases of school employees who had been accused or convicted of sexual misconduct or abuse of minors, including a review of personnel records and taking sworn testimony of school administrators. It also sampled records collected for more than 100 recent school hires across seven districts.
Some teachers withheld information, the investigation found. Some school officials didn’t disclose their investigations or failed to complete the paperwork. And parents and students remained in the dark about teachers’ histories.
The commission did not reveal the names of individual teachers or schools in cases in which it believes the law did not work as intended. None of the teachers appear to still be employed in New Jersey.
“The safety of students and the entire school community is paramount,” said Steve Baker, spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. “Districts need to perform careful due diligence on every hire, and the state should provide the resources and information they need to do so.”
The SCI recommended various changes, including requiring the state Department of Education to oversee compliance of the law, standardizing the forms districts use to request information about employees and creating a statewide database to track educators who are the subject of an investigation or have been found to be engaged in child abuse or sexual misconduct.
The agency also suggests raising the $500 fine that educators could face for lying about their history. The fine in Pennsylvania is $10,000, the investigation notes.
Webber called on the SCI to name the schools and individuals it flagged in its investigation. He called the lack of cooperation from schools “tremendously disappointing.”
Gov. Phil Murphy’s office is reviewing the report.
”The governor remains committed to ensuring all students in New Jersey are safe at school,” spokesperson Maggie Garbarino said.