Loophole lets pedophiles get educator licenses

Throngs of young college education majors enter K-12 classrooms each year as “student teachers” to satisfy a graduation requirement and, apparently, their sexual appetites.

Inappropriate relationships happen “very often” between student teachers and their charges, according to Cerissa Neal of the Mississippi Department of Education.

But a loophole in the student-teacher program prevents the reporting of such incidents to MDE. So even if the agency knows it’s happening, it has no grounds to investigate nor any proof upon which to deny educator licenses to the guilty party upon graduation.

That means known pedophiles work in K-12 public schools throughout the state, and no one can stop them unless they get caught doing it again.

So, here’s how it works: Normally, schools report inappropriate relationship between teachers and students to MDE, which investigates the allegations and can suspend or revoke the educators’ licenses.

But it’s different with student teachers. That’s because colleges — and not MDE — are responsible for them during their practicum experience. And incidents reported to the colleges cannot be reported to MDE because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. What happens in college, apparently, stays in college.

“I’ve had one of the university deans who was heartbroken when a situation happened in her cohort of seniors, and she felt like there was nothing she could do or I could do,” Neal told members of the state Board of Education last week.

“At the end of the day, that person got a license and works in a Mississippi classroom,” Neal said. “I would never place any of my children in that person’s classroom.”

To close the loophole, Neal wants to issue provisional teaching licenses to college students entering the classroom. Doing so would shift K-12 schools’ reporting requirements back to MDE, which could then have a record of the misconduct and prevent such people from getting standard educator licenses upon graduation.

It’s unclear how much extra work this would add to the already “booming operation” that is MDE’s Division of Educator Misconduct, which Neal said already lacks the staff to keep up with the 24-hour-per-day allegations coming in from across the state.

Also unclear is why K-12 schools — even if they can’t report these incidents to MDE — aren’t at least reporting them to local law enforcement. MDE can, and has, denied educator licenses to people found guilty of statutory rape and sexual battery.

Colleges produce about 2,000 student teachers each year. One board member, who challenged Neal’s provisional license plan, said the state needs all the help it can get.

“We don’t need pedophiles in the classroom, though,” Neal replied. “So I would like to exclude them.”

Amen to that.

Contact Emily Le Coz at (601) 961-7249 or elecoz@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @emily_lecoz on Twitter.