State to Investigate Teacher Misconduct

COLUMBUS — The Ohio Legislature should quickly schedule hearings to look into reports of widespread disciplinary misconduct among teachers in the state’s public schools, House Speaker Jon Husted said on Wednesday.

Husted’s call for meetings to start next week comes after a report by The Columbus Dispatch found that a state and local discipline system allows educators to remain in the classroom, sometimes moving from district to district, despite misconduct that includes abuse of children, assault and theft.

The state Department of Education knew of fewer than 22 percent of the 189 disciplinary investigations conducted last year by Ohio’s 10 largest school districts, even though a new law requires them to report the misconduct, the report found.

Hearings with testimony from educators, administrators and others are expected to begin next week in the House Education Committee, Husted said in a statement.

Lawmakers will examine both the law and the state’s school system bureaucracy to find out where problems lie, said Husted, a Republican from Kettering.

“If we need to utilize subpoena powers to bring people before the committee, we will do so. If a sexual offender can’t live within 1,000 feet of a school, how is it that a sexual offender would be allowed to teach in school?” he asked, referring to a state law that limits where residents convicted of sex crimes can live.

The school reporting law, which took effect March 31, attempted to stop the practice of allowing a problem teacher to move to another district for “personal reasons.”

Several teachers accused of misconduct such as inappropriate touching or, in one case, causing a student’s pregnancy, were allowed to move and begin teaching in another district, the Dispatch report found.

The law also requires districts to keep a complete employment history of each teacher, including investigative records and personnel information, but schools face no penalty if they fail to comply.

Originally published by Associated Press.

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