The following editorial appeared last Wednesday in the Yakima Herald-Republic.

After some 27 years, stretching from Blaine to White Swan, complaints of sexual misconduct with students finally led to James Randy Deming losing his teaching certificate. The obvious question is: Why did it take so long?

The answer is found in a systemic failure that, much like the festering issue of sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Church, allowed moving the perpetrator around, whether from parish to parish or school district to school district, while the problem remained hidden. And sadly, that only opened the door to more potential victims.

Deming was one of several coaches featured in “Coaches who prey,” a December 2003 Seattle Times investigative series about sexual misconduct by coaches and how those charged with protecting students and athletes allowed it to continue. The revealing series … prompted the 2004 Legislature to require school districts to disclose information about sexual-misconduct allegations.

Judge Janice Shave, an administrative law judge, presided over a lengthy hearing earlier this year, after Deming appealed two prior rulings by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction suspending his teaching certificate. The judge finally revoked Deming’s license to teach in May and the Times filed a public-records request to obtain a copy of the ruling. The newspaper’s report of that ruling is an appalling indictment of a system that ignored red flags throughout his teaching and coaching career.

The 32-page court document recounts complaints dating back to 1976, when Deming was a teacher and coach in the Blaine School District, and stretching to 2003, when he taught in the Mt. Adams School District in White Swan. Jurors found Deming innocent of fourth-degree assault charges during a May 2003 trial in Yakima County District Court.

The Seattle newspaper reported that he was criminally charged twice for inappropriately touching students and was warned or reprimanded for his conduct 12 times by school officials before his teaching certificate was revoked. …

While state lawmakers have moved to crack down on the problem of coaches and teachers who prey on children, much more remains to be done.

Individual principals and superintendents around the state had to be complicit in “passing the trash,” ridding themselves of a problem by quietly palming it off on someone else. The Deming case is a stark reminder that districts should be willing to pay higher legal bills to challenge such alleged misconduct, if the result is bringing even one abuser to justice.

There is no acceptable excuse for a systematic pattern of alleged misconduct that could extend over a 27-year period from district to district. The office of state Superintendent of Public Instruction must increase not only its vigilance, but must also move quickly to get those guilty of repeated, improper conduct out of the classroom by taking away the person’s right to teach in this state. …