I tell you three times: camera phones are the most significant driver of social change since the early 1960s, when television brought the street battles over civil rights into nearly every American home. We are only just beginning to appreciate the myriad ways in which the constant presence of camera phones is changing our society,…
Marinko Jankovic, a 61-year-old teacher at Berwick Secondary College in Berwick, Australia (just down the road from Melbourne) is facing six months in jail on charges of surreptitiously taking upskirt photographs and videos of female students in his classroom. Although he pleaded guilty to making 106 videos over a four-year period and to possession of…
Earlier this month, I attended the initial roll-out of the proposed Model Code of Ethics for Educators at the annual convention of the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification in Portland, Oregon. The proposed national code — a first for P-12 educators — is the culmination of a multi-year effort by…
A four-month investigation resulted in the arrest and jailing of a 39-year-old elementary school teacher named Eric Shank Van Eenige. According to Van Eenige’s public defender Sandra Bennewitz, he has taught at the Ariel Elementary Community School in Chicago’s North Kenwood neighborhood for the past decade, earning just over $85,000 per year from the Chicago…
It was the pool party seen round the world. On June 5, a number of officers from the McKinney Police Department allegedly responded to a “disturbance” or “reports of possible violence” at a pool party at the Craig Ranch North Community Pool in McKinney. It’s not entirely clear who phoned in a report or why,…
In a press release issued June 2, Acting United States Attorney John E. Kuhn, Jr. (W.D. Kentucky) announced that his office had arrested Patrick Newman, 35, and charged him with violating child exploitation laws. Prior to the announcement by Kuhn, Newman taught Social Studies at Trinity High School, an all-boys Catholic school located in Louisville,…
It’s a pleasure to be back in lovely Portland Oregon for the second time. I spent one night here last year on a drive from Reno to Seattle, but am here a little longer to attend the 2015 Annual Conference of the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification. NASDTEC has been…
School officials in Alameda, California are investigating whether a teacher at Encinal High School actually offered students in his class extra credit if they took a selfie with whatever sex toys and birth control they could find in their parents’ private space. Two mothers of students in the class, Kimberly Cobene and Evangeline Garcia, reported…
On Friday, May 27, the Greenville County School District had the unpleasant task of sending a letter to the parents of 149 students at Mauldin High School and Mauldin Middle School to inform them that a district teacher had traded photographs of their children for child pornography. Meetings were scheduled at Mauldin High School so…
An Oklahoma father’s lawsuit alleges that the Hollis Independent School District in Holland, Oklahoma violated his son’s rights by not preventing sexual activity between him and his teacher, Jennifer Caswell. Some of you may have seen Caswell’s self-serving interview with Dr. Phil McGraw on May 19. The Complaint contains a number of powerful allegations regarding…
