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A Miami Southridge Senior High School teacher is accused of molesting a 14-year-old former student, police said. Frank Matthew Galatas, 28, was arrested Tuesday and charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a minor. Galatas was a first-year history teacher at the Miami-Dade public school, said district spokesman John Schuster. Two years ago, Galatas and the student became friends, Miami police said. The student's mother, a single parent, embraced the mentorship because she thought her son could use a good male role model, police said.

April 17, 2009 The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington , DC 20500 Mr. Obama: I have had it with you and your administration, sir. Your conduct on your recent trip overseas has convinced me that you are not an adequate representative of the United States of America collectively or of me personally. You are so obsessed with appeasing the Europeans and the Muslim world that you have abdicated the responsibilities of the President of the United States of America . You are responsible to the citizens of the United States ... You are not responsible to the peoples...

New York, November 10 (ANI): An English teacher was suspended for providing his students with a graphic short story about masturbation written by “Fight Club” author Chuck Palahniuk. Greg Van Voorhis had given the story to read to students preparing for the English Regents exam at The Bronx School of Law and Finance in Marble Hill. The material written for Playboy magazine told the tale of a teenage boy’s use of a carrot in a sex act on himself and autoerotic asphyxiation. Even though students were made to return the copies of the text at the end of the class,...

Note: The following text is a quote: Philippines: Jihad against school principals This just in from our "This Is Why You're Poor" Department. Allah promised paradise to those who "slay and are slain" in the cause of jihad (Qur'an 9:111), but shooting your own society in the foot is also quite popular as a consequence. "Islamic rebels behead Philippine teacher: police," from Agence France-Presse, November 8: ZAMBOANGA, Philippines -- The severed head of a school principal who was abducted by Islamic militants in the troubled southern Philippines was dumped in a petrol station on Monday, authorities said. The head of...

An Oviedo High School teacher resigned Wednesday after admitting she gave alcohol and her sport-utility vehicle to a student later arrested in a drunken-driving crash, a Seminole County Public Schools spokeswoman said. Meredith Witt, a special education teacher, told the principal of Oviedo High she provided alcohol to "one or more" students at her home Monday, then handed over the keys to a student and let him drive off, according to a school district document. Dylan Ferguson, 18, an Oviedo High senior, was arrested Monday on counts of DUI with damaged property and leaving the scene of a crash. His...

The economic crisis has forced every state to scramble to get its budget in balance. This has meant torturous efforts to preserve essential services and minimize the pain and damage from slashed spending and lost jobs. Every state has sacrificed. But Hawaii has sacrificed its own schoolchildren. The 50th state, the only one with a single statewide school district, has just cut 17 days from the academic year, under a new labor contract with public school teachers that avoids layoffs in favor of pay cuts and furloughs, all to be taken on instructional days.

Jones County teacher sentenced for sexual offensesRajput gets probation, fine and 45-day jail term in DOC Jon Dawson Staff Writer October 28, 2009 12:00 AM On Tuesday, a Jones County physical science teacher who pled no contest to nine felonies was sentenced to 45 days in prison in Lenoir County Superior Court. On June 10, Shebana Rajput, 36, of Aaron Johnson Lane in Kinston, was charged with eight counts of sexual activity with a student and one count of sex offense with a student. She pled no contest to the charges last month. Jones County authorities contacted the Lenoir County...

TAMPA - A judge is set to decide Thursday whether former teacher and convicted sex offender Debra LaFave can have limited contact with children of her family and friends.

Fillmore -- The father looked at Keith Gillins, his daughter's former teacher, and said he would never forgive him. "My daughter's life has been scarred forever by you," the father told Gillins. Then, the father addressed the people in Millard County who suggested his daughter was responsible: "Shame on you." Gillins on Wednesday received three sentences of three years to life in prison for a sexual relationship with a former Millard High School student. Fourth District Court Judge Donald Eyre also sentenced Gillins to two terms of 1 to 15 years in prison. All five counts will run concurrently and...

OGDEN -- The recent spate of cases of teachers being accused of having intimate or sexually abusive relationships with students is alarming law enforcement officials and many in the education profession. Since March, five Top of Utah teachers have been accused of having sex with their current or former students. One investigation concluded without charges. Three teachers have been charged, with dates pending in Second District Court. One investigation is ongoing. And that is just north of Salt Lake City. At least four other teachers have been arrested in other areas around the state in recent months. To the north,...

(DAVIS COUNTY)—Attorneys for a former Bountiful school teacher accused of having sex with a student presented their case in court for the first time Friday. At the conclusion of Friday morning’s preliminary hearing for Valynne Bowers, the judge ruled there’s enough evidence for Bowers to go to trial. The alleged victim, who is now 15 years old, testified Friday morning and gave mostly short “yes” or “no” answers to the attorneys. The teen admitted he initiated the relationship with Bowers, his former math teacher at Bountiful Junior High. After engaging in sex with the boy, Bowers faces first-degree felony charges...

Number of reported child abuse cases increasesThe number of reported child abuse cases within the local school district increased by more than fifty percent. District officials say “heightened awareness” could be attributed to the increase. By Jonathan Friedman / Special to The Malibu Times Wednesday, October 7, 2009 12:15 PM PDT The number of reported cases of child abuse in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District jumped from 77 in the 2007-08 school year to 123 in 2008-09, according to the Annual Child Abuse Report that the Board of Education reviewed at its meeting last week. One of the cases...

INDIANAPOLIS -- The mother of a 7-year-old boy with autism and a severe peanut allergy has filed a lawsuit claiming a teacher tossed her son a peanut-filled Mr. Goodbar candy bar in hopes of sickening him and keeping him from going on a zoo field trip. The boy didn't eat the candy bar, but Anita Young said her son suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his teacher, and filed a lawsuit in Marion County against her son's Indianapolis school. Young also wants criminal charges filed against teacher Trinda Barocas.

MIAMI LAKES — A Miami Lakes special education teacher was sentenced today to two years of probation after she was found guilty of putting hot sauce in an autistic student's soda, WFOR-Ch. 4 reports. Sylvia Tagle also was sentenced to 100 hours of community service. The boy's parents said they were outraged at what they call a "lenient" sentence. "It's really sad and you know what? It really, really sends a bad message to everyone," the father told the judge. Last month, Tagle was convicted of abuse after she gave a soda with hot sauce in it to the Bob...

A massive layoff of teachers and support staff at D.C. public schools triggered chaos outside of McKinley High School Friday afternoon. The melee happened after school let out, as students and parents filled McKinley's parking. Many were upset about the layoffs of 388 school employees, including 229 teachers. "The students were emotional, you know, they were upset to see their teachers being escorted by the police officers, knowing that they did nothing," said Saymendy Lloyd, a parent activist. "Why do you choose to do it at the time the children are out there and you do not expect to have...

It’s hard to get students these days to pay attention in class, so the Rev. William Brooks decided the best way to get their eyes focused on the teacher is to replace them with big-breasted ones. Brooks, the headmaster at St. Mark’s Episcopal School in Fort Lauderdale, is accused of trying to fire all of his old female teachers and replacing them with “buxom ones,” according to a letter to the school from U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The letter will likely be included in a lawsuit from some of the teachers who feel left out in the cold because...

Why I Never Regretted My Affair With A Teacher As a music teacher is jailed this week for having an affair with her 15-year-old pupil, a former student recalls his passionate and loving relationship with his gym mistress. By Harry Green 26 Sep 2009 Helen Goddard, who was jailed this week for her affair with her 15-year-old pupil Photo: STEPHANIE SCHAERER [Pic in URL] I know what a consensual relationship between a pupil and a teacher can feel like. I was the pupil in one such relationship 40 years ago. In fact, the word “consent” barely begins to describe the...

Story Updated: Sep 18, 2009 at 10:15 AM PDT By KBCI Web Staff MERIDIAN - Officials say a southwestern Idaho middle school teacher was caught with a 13-year-old boy in Meridian Thursday night behind some bushes. Police say the 37-year-old teacher at Meridian Middle School, Ashley Jo Beach, has been having a sexual relationship with the 13-year-old for several months. Meridian Police says Beach was arrested for lewd conduct with a child under 16. Officers received a call of suspicious circumstances around 9:30 p.m. Thursday night in the area of Cherry Lane and Vineyards, which is a few blocks away...

BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP -- New Jersey's education commissioner ordered a review after a YouTube video shows school children learning a song celebrating President Barack Obama. The video shows more than a dozen youngsters at B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington Township. The district said the students were participating in Black History Month in February. Education Department spokeswoman Kathryn Forsyth said the commissioner has directed the school superintendent to review what happened. Forsyth said the commissioner wants to ensure that students can celebrate Black History Month without "inappropriate partisan politics in the classroom." Forsyth also said the teacher who directed the...

School kids taught to praise Obama

over the last six years, Buffalo taxpayers have paid millions of dollars to teachers not to teach. Twelve different teachers have collected $2.25 million in salary while under suspension and waiting for disciplinary hearings during that time. And that amount doesn't include the costs for substitutes and the hearings themselves. The average wait for those hearings: three years. The school district doesn't release the names of the teachers, or what they've been charged with, but we've learned that right now there's a Physical Education teacher awaiting a hearing who was suspended four years ago this month and has been paid...

MERIDIAN - A Meridian teacher is behind bars, and police say she had inappropriate contact with one of her students. The teacher, Ashley Jo Beach, 37, has been arrested on a felony charge of lewd conduct with a child under the age of 16 Officers say they caught Beach in the bushes with a 13-year-old boy Thursday night in Meridian. It started with a call from neighbors in the area of Cherry Lane and Vineyards - who say they saw something suspicious about 9:30 p.m. When officers arrived, they say Beach and the boy were between a fence and some...

Various photos of notorious sex scandals between teacher and student Lisa Marinelli, 40, substitute teacher at Mitchell High School, charged with having sex with a 16 year-old boy. Investigators say Marinelli gave the boy a pair of her underwear, called him hundreds of times as well as sent text messages.The young man’sfather called police when he saw him getting out of Marinelli’s car pulling up his pants. Maggie Laughlin, the 23-year-old former Mentor math teacher sentenced to three years in prison for having oral sex with a ninth-grade student, is asking to be released early from prison. Autumn Leathers, 24,...

Jesse Griffin, the Alaska blogger who Saturday claimed in an "exclusive" report that Todd and Sarah Palin were divorcing, will no longer work as an Anchorage kindergarten teaching assistant, school officials confirmed Wednesday. Griffin's resignation followed revelations that the 49-year-old Griffin had posted (under the alias "Gryphen") sexually explicit advocacy of pornography and masturbation on his "Immoral Minority" blog. . . . Griffin blamed "the Palin team and their minions" for discovery of his "Gryphen" online alias, which he says resulted in death threats and harassment. . . .

School districts, state agency blamed in molestation case Indiana child welfare officials and school districts in two states had a responsibility to protect children in Lee N. Tibbetts’ classroom, but a series of miscommunications and missteps among those agencies failed to catch a pattern of problematic behavior over three years. That breakdown allowed Tibbetts to remain in the classroom despite multiple accusations, including one that eventually led to the math teacher being arrested on charges alleging he molested a student while teaching for Indianapolis Public Schools. A review by The Indianapolis Star and The Cincinnati Enquirer shows that red flags...

Genevieve O'Meara was my fifth-grade teacher, in the Sandhills of Nebraska. We had just moved to town, from a peaceful, serene, mellow, laid-back town of similar size alongside the Platte River, further south in Nebraska, and so I was new to her; a phenomenon. I never cared for school, and I cared even less for this elementary school, one of those nouveau hip trendy with-it cool new buildings, all on one level, air-conditioned, and with fish aquariums in the classrooms. I much more preferred the school in our former town, an ancient four-story building with stairways and closets and dead-ends...

CAMP AL TAQADDUM, Iraq, July 30, 2009 – Being a high school teacher, a professional soccer player and a firefighter in one’s local town all are great accomplishments. But one woman who has been all three still desired to pursue something more. Marine Corps 2nd Lt. Suzie McKinley, communications operations officer for the 2nd Marine Logistics Group, serves at Camp Al Taqaddum, Iraq. She left teaching high school English in May 2004 and eventually found her calling as a Marine Corps officer. U.S. Marine Corps photo by 1st Lt. Michele Perez  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Most second lieutenants...

Teacher suspended for calling pupils ugly and fat A secondary school teacher called his pupils "ugly" and "fat" in lessons and asked if their mothers were attractive when planning parents' evening, a tribunal heard. By Matthew Moore 22 Jul 2009 James Cairney, who taught food technology, also made "inappropriate physical contact" with students while demonstrating restraint techniques. The General Teaching Council found that Mr Cairney caused distress to his teenage pupils by making public judgements on their appearances. He described three students as "ugly", "fat" and a "scumbag", while praising one's "good looks" and calling another "beautiful". When one student...

Student Awarded $1.25M For Relationship With TeacherUPDATED: 9:50 pm PDT June 26, 2009 SAN DIEGO -- A jury awarded $1.25 million to a former student at the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Paradise Hills because they found that the principal and others failed to report a sexual relationship between the student and her teacher. Teacher John Kyujoon Lee pleaded guilty to statutory rape back in 2007. But now, the San Diego Unified School District must pay for its role in allowing the sexual relationship between Lee and a former student to go on for nearly three years. Attorney...

A high school teacher in Kansas who claimed his contract was not renewed due to his conservative political views has been reinstated. Tim Latham, 44, who was told that his school-affiliated Web site was "too patriotic," will return this fall to the 2,000-student Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Kan., where he'll continue teaching American history and government for a second consecutive year. Since the contract renewal became official late last week, Latham, a teaching veteran of 20 years, said he's received countless well-wishes from students and teachers alike.

LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that GREGG M. CAVALUZZI, 34, a former Pelham middle school teacher, has been arrested for enticement of a minor. According to the Complaint filed yesterday in White Plains federal court and statements at CAVALUZZI’s presentment yesterday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge PAUL E. DAVISON: From approximately May 19 through May 31, 2009, CAVALUZZI had numerous recorded telephone conversations and text message exchanges with a police officer from the Westchester County Police Department who was posing as a 15-year-old girl. During the telephone conversations and...

Board votes to fire teacher charged with having sex with studentJune 2, 2009 By CRAIG A. WHITNEY Maine Township High School District 207 officials voted to terminate the employment of Jennifer Espinosa, the Maine East teacher charged on suspicion of having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old former student. Board members voted 7-0 on the issue during Monday's regular Board of Education meeting in the board room of the Ralph Frost Administration Center, 1131 S. Dee Road. Jennifer Espinosa District spokesman Dave Beery explained the decision Tuesday, which became effective immediately. "They voted to terminate her employment," he said. The...

HIALEAH - When police wanted to question a teacher accused of having an affair with an eighth-grader at a private religious school, she was out of town -- vacationing at Disney World with the student. Upon her return Saturday, 32-year-old Maria Guzman Hernandez, a sixth-grade teacher at Hialeah's Our Lady of Charity, admitted to Hialeah police she'd had sex with the 15-year-old.

A former stripper and former teacher's aide from Harrison accepted a 3- to-6-year jail term yesterday for having sex with a teenage boy and a slew of other charges. In addition to the jail term, Abbie Jane Swogger, 36, of State Street, Natrona Heights, Harrison, must serve an unusually long probation of 36 years. She also will be listed on the Megan's Law sexual offenders site for life. An apologetic Swogger told a county judge Tuesday that she understood and accepted the sentence.

OC Family Grateful Editor: Saturday, April 25, 2009 was a beautiful day, and it was made even more wonderful by the outpouring of affection expressed toward Captain Robert S. Craig at his Beach Memorial Service. The Craig children and family appreciate all that was done to honor our “Pop,” a man so many in Ocean City have known and loved for so many years. The Beach Memorial was truly memorable and more special than we could have possibly imagined. We have many people to thank for their efforts in making it happen. We learned very quickly that organizing such an...

Mary Kay Letourneau and her former sixth-grade student _ the father of her two youngest children _ are hosting a "Hot for Teacher" night at a Seattle nightclub. Letourneau, now 47, served 7 1/2 years in prison after she was convicted of raping Vili Fualaau, now 26. They were married four years ago this week. The bar's owner said Letourneau has served her sentence, she's married her former student, and it's OK for them to have some fun on a Saturday night.

Report Warns of Student Injuries, Even Deaths, at the Hands of TeachersCongress to Decide on Laws Governing Restraint, Seclusion in U.S. Schools By EMILY FRIEDMAN May 19, 2009 Julie Quill said she knew something wasn't right when her son Shawn, 11, came home from his Boston-area school one day last year with a cut lip and a limp. "Shawn isn't verbal so he couldn't tell me what was going on," Quill said of her son, who was diagnosed with autism at age 2. Quill was surprised to find out that her son's injuries were caused by his teacher, who would...

A robot schoolteacher developed by Japanese scientists has taken a class in a Tokyo school. Saya, the female humanoid robot, taught a science and technology lesson to a class of 10-year-old pupils at Kudan Elementary School in Tokyo. With her neat brown hair, pink lipstick and skirt suit, the robot, created by scientists at Tokyo University of Science, has been designed to resemble as human a form as possible. Using a range of programmed movements from eyebrow arching to smiling, her face is capable of expressing six basic emotions in the classroom – surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness and sadness....

(At right) Flanked by friends and family members, a wreath is carried down the beach to be released into the ocean in memory of Craig, "founding father" of the Beach Patrol. Carrying the wreath is the current head of the organization, Capt. Butch Arbin, who is flanked by Craig's son, Robert Craig, and grandson, Christopher Craig. (Above) Sean Williams pushes a surf board, carrying the wreath and the ashes of Capt. Craig, toward a Coast Guard boat, which released the wreath farther from the shore.

The eighth-grade boy held out his wrists for teacher Carlos Polanco to see. He had just explained to Polanco and his history classmates at Virgil Middle School in Central Los Angeles why he had been absent: He had been in the hospital after a failed attempt at suicide. Polanco looked at the cuts and said they "were weak," according to witness accounts in documents filed with the state. "Carve deeper next time," he was said to have told the boy. "Look," Polanco allegedly said, "you can't even kill yourself." The boy's classmates joined in, with one advising how to cut...

A teacher who worked at two Queens yeshivas and a Long Island elementary school was arrested after cops found child pornography on his home computer, cops said yesterday. Two online tipsters told state police that Timothy Holt, 44, of Baldwin, sent child pornography over the Internet last month. Cops seized the divorced father's computer and allegedly found nine videos and pictures depicting sexually explicit images of children. Holt, who pleaded not guilty to felony child-pornography raps on Friday, worked as a third-grade teacher's assistant at the Birch Elementary School in Merrick and taught Earth science at Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim and...

MIDLAND - NewsWest 9 has just learned that a Midland ISD teacher has been arrested and charged with having an Improper Educator/Student Relationship. On Thursday, MISD officials contacted the Midland Police Department after a teacher reported possible inappropriate activity between a student and a teacher. 23-year-old Kenzi Friday was arrested after an investigation. She is accused of having sexual relations with a 17-year-old male student. The relationship took place between the start of the school year through the beginning of April at a Midland home. MISD says that Friday submitted her resignation Friday morning. "These are very serious allegations and...

The night deputies said Delores Laster shot her husband in the back of the head, she recruited his two young children to help move his near-lifeless body, according to newly released discovery in the case. Laster, 61, who was an Orange County Public School teacher for 40 years, was indicted on a first-degree murder charge last month for the shooting death of her husband, Clarence Laster, in March 1988.

(Butler County, Ohio) A 37-year-old marketing teacher and cheerleading coach at Butler Tech, Lori Epperson, resigned her position last Thursday after being investigated for taking four Edgewood High School cheerleaders to a gay male strip club in Dayton. Butler Tech spokesman, Bill Solazzo, said the female students were all 17 or 18 years old. According to Solazzo, the girls -- all cheerleaders at Edgewood High School -- had approached the teacher about the strip club idea. The girls were students in Epperson's marketing class offered in the Edgewood schools through the Butler Tech program. Epperson also previously served as a...

CHANDLER, Ariz. – An 18-year-old high school student caught with his 48-year-old math teacher in her bedroom was stabbed to death by her boyfriend, who was himself a former student of hers, police said Tuesday. Chandler police said 20-year-old Sixto Balbuena told them he never meant to kill Samuel Valdivia. He allegedly told police "the blade went in like going into butter" and that he just wanted to show Valdivia how much he hurt him by sleeping with Tamara Hofmann. Balbuena, a Navy sailor on leave from California, was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder after police found him...

Erin Cummings couldn't find a teaching job in Pennsylvania when she graduated from Penn State University in 2003, so she went to Maryland and taught third grade. "I knew I always wanted to come back to Pittsburgh. I was born and raised here," said Cummings, who returned to Carlynton School District in 2006 as a long-term substitute before becoming a full-time first-grade teacher. It took Chris Fox a little longer to return home after landing his first teaching job in Virginia in 1996. He came back in 2006 to take a job in Riverview School District in Oakmont. "It takes...

A Sunday school teacher was booked early today on suspicion of murder and kidnapping in the slaying of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, whose body was found in a suitcase in an irrigation pond. Melissa Huckaby, 28, was arrested at 11:55 p.m. Friday after she drove to the Tracy Police Department to be interviewed. She was booked at 3:25 a.m. today at San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp, where she is being held without bail. "She revealed enough information that we had probable cause to arrest her for both kidnapping and murder," Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman told reporters. During her...

Prosecutor: Illegal aliens killed teacherBy ARTEMIS COUGHLAN Staff Writer Published: Friday, April 10, 2009 MOUNT HOLLY — Two illegal alien brothers from Mexico were arrested several hours after their pickup truck broad sided a car, killing a beloved teacher on her way to school. Jose Luis Galindo-Sanchez, the 26-year-old driver, was charged with hindering apprehension, obstruction of justice and witness tampering, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office said yesterday. Lucio Garcia-Sanchez, the 19-year-old younger brother and passenger, was charged as a material witness. The brothers live on the 900 block of 19th Street in Camden. They were on their way to...

News Release: April 8, 2009 Memorial Service planned to honor Captain Robert S. Craig Ocean City, MD – A memorial service for Captain Robert (Bob) S. Craig will be held 3 p.m. Saturday, April 25 on the beach at North Division Street. Captain Craig passed away on Saturday, March 28 at the age of 90. Captain Craig joined the Ocean City Beach Patrol in 1935 and served as its captain from 1946 until retiring in 1987. Captain Craig is credited with building the Ocean City Beach Patrol into the professional organization it is known as today. When Captain Craig turned...

(April 3, 2009) The man who not only epitomized the Ocean City Beach Patrol, but also built it into a serious and professional organization, passed away Saturday. When Capt. Robert (Bob) S. Craig turned 90 last July, a competition, dinner and slide show honored him for his 52 years as a town employee and member of the Beach Patrol. Thousands knew Craig from his years guiding the Beach Patrol and taking it from a small, relatively unskilled group of young men to a large group of highly skilled young men and women. Capt. Butch Arbin, the current head of the...