A Defeat for Students

What does it take to change state laws, simplify the current complex system, and allow a district to sanction and fire a teacher accused or suspected of criminal activity?

The serious problems presently plaguing the system was laid bare, as just one example, by the events at the Viramonte school. That is why Sacramento has attempted on two different occasions to change the legal framework. Nonetheless, these initiatives have fallen victim to special interests.

Last year Senator Alex Padilla (D-Los Angeles), watched his very reasonable legislative bill die in committee under pressure from the teachers’ union.

Now, Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed a similar bill, AB375, introduced by Assemblyman Joan Buchanan. This measure was backed by Padilla and by the California Teachers Association (CTA) —which had opposed the prior bill— thanks to concessions to win support from educators, just to keep it from the fate of dying in committee as had occurred with Padilla’s legislation.

Nonetheless, the price of this support was to eliminate the provision under which an administrative law judge would have the last word in a case against a teacher. That was changed to leaving the final decision up to a commission comprised by one administrative law judge, one teacher representing the accused, and another teacher representing the accuser.

At the time, we stated that this new clause should be amended, because it cast doubt on the independence of the process, but it wasn’t. In the end, that was one of the reasons why the bill was vetoed by Governor Brown, who argued that it hampered the flexibility of school authorities.

As a result, everything remains the same.

The great majority of teachers are honest people devoted to their profession. But like anything else, there are bad apples who, rather than teach, abuse and harm children. Somehow, they currently enjoy greater protections than their victims.

It is disgraceful that after so many cases of child abuse in the schools have emerged, Sacramento is incapable of passing legislation allowing a sexual pervert to be justly removed, —with due process and in a reasonable period— after such a person has abused the trust of society and of parents who left their children with them at school.