Editorial: Reform how convicted teachers are handled
When a controversial teacher in Lewis County called in sick on the first day of school Monday, one angry mother suggested he do the same on the other 179 days of the school year.
Indeed, Michael Moulton called in sick again on day 2 (and 3 and 4) as a couple of dozen parents marched in protest. Many parents held their kids out of Moulton’s history classes in the Morton School District, and some reportedly transferred their youngsters to other schools.
Folks just aren’t comfortable entrusting their children to a teacher who spent 16 days in jail after pleading guilty to fourth-degree assault for the way he touched four female students in 2008. The district superintendent tried to fire him, but a hearing examiner ruled Moulton couldn’t be punished again, having already been suspended for 12 days without pay.
On Wednesday, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn suspended Moulton’s teaching certificate for three years, but the teacher’s appeal rights could stretch the matter out for the entire school year.
Dorn’s office actually took the matter under investigation a year and a half ago but put it on hold during the criminal investigation and the hearing examiner’s process. Once the OSPI probe resumed – and protest-minded parents stirred up media attention – the state superintendent reached a decision, explaining that “the evidence clearly shows that Mr. Moulton violated our code of professional conduct.”
Dorn explained that he only suspended Moulton’s certificate because outright revocation would have allowed him to apply for a new certificate after only one year. You would think that clear violation of the code of professional conduct would justify denial of such an application, but Dorn isn’t saying any more about the case until sometime next week.
Officially, Moulton entered an Alford plea, denying he did anything wrong (he says he merely gave the girls encouraging pats on the back) but pleading guilty anyway because that’s probably the verdict a jury would render. We’ll save our denouncement of Alford pleas for another time, but the bottom line here is that Moulton pleaded guilty.
He received the protection of due process, as he should have. But he is not the subject of rumors, reckless speculation or unsubstantiated accusations. He stands convicted of a crime, the type of crime that makes students and parents understandably nervous about his presence in a classroom.
We’re puzzled as to why there should be any ambivalence about revoking the certificate of a teacher whose classroom contact with students led to a criminal conviction and a jail sentence. Parents in the Morton School District aren’t just scratching their heads, they’re shaking their fists.
The code of professional conduct is spelled out in OSPI’s regulations, as authorized by statute. It should make revocation both automatic and permanent in situations like this one, but it doesn’t. That is a shortcoming the agency and the Legislature need to correct.