Last spring, Dallas school investigators found that Skyline High School teacher Leslie Michel Finch behaved inappropriately with her 17 year old student for over a year. Despite that fact, ten months after the district concluded its investigation, Finch was still working at the school before resigning in January. It gets worse. Finch is now a substitute teacher in another Texas school district.

The really bad behavior in this one goes so deep, it’s difficult to know where to begin. But lets start with the obvious. Teachers are not supposed to be having “sexual relations” with their students. Period. The fact that school officials determined that inappropriate behavior took place, yet Finch was allowed to continue teaching in the same school is baffling? If this had been a male teacher involved in a sexual relationship with a female student, would he have been allowed to continue teaching? I doubt it. Furthermore, I’m guessing criminal charges would have been filed against him.

The story is being reported by the Dallas Morning News who reviewed 20 cases involving sex allegations against teachers between 2005 and 2009. The review found that in half of the cases, educators suspected of having inappropriate relationships with students were allowed to resign and maintain clean criminal records, allowing them to pursue other jobs working around children.

Sex offenders are not limited to scary men lurking in the dark at children’s playgrounds. When adults placed in a position of authority, abuse that authority by behaving inappropriately with children – no matter how old those children are – they should be punished, severely. The other guilty party in this scenario? The school system that allowed Finch to continue teaching at the school and left the door open for her to keep working with children. Really bad all around.

As a result of the theft, the charter school was left in “shambles” said school board chair Mickey Allweiss. Langston Hughes Academy was the first new public school building to open in New Orleans post-Katrina and houses both elementary and middle school programs.

There’s a special place in really bad boss hell for people who steal from children – particularly those who steal from children who’ve been through the sort of tragedy that followed Katrina. Read the full story about the academy and the thieving CFO here.

Photo: First graders at Langston Hughes Academy Charter School – Photograph by Amanda Wiles.

Both administrators plead guilty to altering public documents and last week, DeKalb County District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming said that Berry will serve two years’ probation and pay a $1,000 fine. His sentence could have been as long as ten years. The state’s teacher licensing commission banned Berry from Georgia schools for two years. Alexander was banned for a year.

I don’t understand why the principal was only banned for two years. What do you have to do to get banned for life? Isn’t altering student test scores a good enough reason to get you banned from administrating at any public school for life? We’re sending the wrong message to the students here and we’re certainly not putting their well being first. Worse yet, other metro Atlanta schools are also being investigated including Deerwood Academy in Atlanta, and Parklane Elementary in Fulton County. Bad principles indeed. (Image – James Berry)

Source: WSBTV