2 Investigators: Predatory Teachers Slip Through The Cracks
(CBS) -- Is your child safe from unwanted sexual advances or abuse in school?
CBS 2's Pam Zekman reports offenders may lose their city job but still keep their state teaching license because of a regulatory breakdown.
Experts say the best data available indicates one in 10 students nationally is a target of sexual misconduct by educators.
Robert J. Weaver taught music most recently at Walter Payton College Prep High School. A 2012 investigation found "credible evidence" that between 1993 and 2012 Weaver, "engaged in the practice of establishing relationships with students for purpose of enticing them into sexual relationships."
Weaver denied the allegations.
Barbara Blaine of SNAP has spent her career exposing predators.
"The damage is horrific," Blaine says. "In some ways, it doesn't matter how far over the line the teacher goes."
Under the Freedom of Information Act, Zekman obtained copies of memorandums with the results of investigations since 2012 into complaints with some element of sexual contact or harassment. They describe how as many as 24 teachers have gone over the line, including telling students lewd jokes, sending them nude pictures, showing them porn movies, and even having sex with students—sometimes in a classroom.
Weaver resigned before his dismissal hearings, so there was no formal termination finding by Chicago Public Schools. But he was placed on the CPS "Do not hire" list.
"And that teacher could potentially go on and teach somewhere else," Blaine says.
CPS did notify the state Board of Education about Weaver's case, as legally required. But a state spokeswoman said the agency could find no records indicating any investigation was done. So Weaver still has his state teacher's license.
In other cases, CPS dropped the ball, failing to report to the state when its own investigators found teacher misconduct.
Alisha Smrt is an example. According to the CPS investigative memorandum in her case, an investigator found "credible evidence" that she had a "sexual relationship with a student" in which they "fondled one another," allegations she denied. She was terminated by CPS and placed on its "do not hire" list but still has her state teacher's license.
The National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC) keeps a registry of teachers accused of misconduct that schools can access to check out a teacher before they are hired. But the executive director of NASDTEC says it does not always get the information.
"It primarily is related to clerical error," Phillip Rogers says. "Sometimes, on the other hand, it is just negligence. People in charge don't take responsibility to report those cases, and they allow those teachers to go somewhere else and hurt other children. That's tragic."
Two teachers whose cases were reviewed by the CPS investigators did make it to the NASDTEC registry—but raise other issues.
A CPS investigative memorandum found credible evidence that Hannah Viana had multiple inappropriate student contacts at Jordan Elementary school, including one in which she "kissed a student while she sat on his lap."
Viana denied it, but resigned after dismissal charges were filed. She was placed on the CPS "do not hire" list, and the state board of education suspended her teacher's license in Illinois for two years. The suspension is still in effect. The state reported that suspension to the NASDTEC registry.
But CBS 2 found Viana now teaches at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Maryland, a state that does not require a teacher's license for private schools. The school spokesperson said it has a policy not to comment on teacher personnel matters.
Bridgette Miller also appears on the NASDTEC registry. She was arrested on felony criminal charges of having sex with a 17-year old Chicago vocational high school student. When he refused to testify, the charges were reduced to a misdemeanor count of sexual abuse, and Miller was placed on two years of probation.
CBS 2's Pam Zekman caught up with Miller when she recently had to appear in criminal court for violating a condition of that probation.
"Why did you have sex with that student?" Zekman asked Miller.
"I didn't," Miller responded.
Miller pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of sexual abuse that involved sexual touching but not intercourse. She was terminated by CPS, placed on its "do not hire" list, and her teacher's license has been revoked.
Terri Miller, head of a not-for-profit organization Stop Educators Sexual Abuse Misconduct and Exploitation, (SESAME), says cases like these are a "huge problem."
The organization is pushing for a federal law requiring mandatory reporting to an independent national database.
"If they have a history of sexual offense of any kind against a child," Miller says, "we need to know who those people are and they should not be placed in a classroom ever again."
As for the teachers in this report, Smrt declined to comment. Weaver and Viana did not return CBS 2's phone calls.
A CPS spokesperson said in a written statement that "Chicago Public Schools' top priority is ensuring the safety and well-being of its students. CPS takes allegations of unlawful activity by its employees very seriously."
The school system is "diligent" about conducting "comprehensive investigations when it learns employees may have violated the law or cps policies," the statement said.
But the CPS spokesman conceded that because of staff mistakes, since 2009 misconduct findings on as many as 65 untenured and substitute teachers have not been flagged for the state. As a result of the CBS 2 investigation, they will be now. And the state office of education says it will be looking into those cases as well for license review.
