Oregon House panel bans deals to hide teacher sexual misconduct

House panel bans deals to hide teacher sexual misconduct
by The Oregonian
Friday March 06, 2009, 3:54 PM

The House Education Committee unanimously approved a bill this afternoon that will bar school administrators from concealing the sexual misconduct of educators from prospective employers.

The committee also approved House Bill 2063, which makes the investigative staff of the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission, the agency that licenses and disciplines teachers, mandatory reporters of child abuse. That means the investigators must report any suspicion of child abuse to the police or the Department of Human Resources as teachers are required to do.

The two bills, which now go to the full House, are part of a batch of bills aimed at improving school defenses against educators who sexually abuse children. The legislation emerged from the work of two interim education committees in response to a two-part series in The Oregonian on teacher sexual misconduct.

The series documented 47 secret agreements in which school districts agreed to conceal an educator's misconduct in exchange for his or her resignation, a practice known among educators as passing the trash. The bill passed today, House Bill 2062, would ban such deals.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/committee_backs_ban_on_deals_t.html