Are students safe from their teachers?
I just put the finishing touches on a story about Kirsten Ann Kinley, the former Howard County teacher who was charged with having inappropriate sexual contact with two teenaged boys.
A brief recap: she pleaded guilty today in Circuit Court to one count of third-degree sex offense in connection with incidents involving a 15-year-old boy more than two years ago. Charges of improper sexual conduct with the second boy were dropped after he refused to cooperate with prosecutors.
For the rest, read the online version of the story.
For a more complete story, including quotes from her attorney, read tomorrow's paper.
With all that out of the way, I wanted to pose the question of safety. Kinley was the third teacher in Howard County arrested last school year for having inappropriate sexual contact with minors.
Howard County Public School officials said the new-teacher orientation this month offered a session on appropriate teacher behavior with students. In addition, follow-up sessions will be held at the school level.
Do you think that is enough? What measures would you like to see schools enact to prevent future incidents?
A brief recap: she pleaded guilty today in Circuit Court to one count of third-degree sex offense in connection with incidents involving a 15-year-old boy more than two years ago. Charges of improper sexual conduct with the second boy were dropped after he refused to cooperate with prosecutors.
For the rest, read the online version of the story.
For a more complete story, including quotes from her attorney, read tomorrow's paper.
With all that out of the way, I wanted to pose the question of safety. Kinley was the third teacher in Howard County arrested last school year for having inappropriate sexual contact with minors.
Howard County Public School officials said the new-teacher orientation this month offered a session on appropriate teacher behavior with students. In addition, follow-up sessions will be held at the school level.
Do you think that is enough? What measures would you like to see schools enact to prevent future incidents?
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
What more can be done? What a silly knee jerk reaction to include in the orientation what is appropriate between students and teachers. Is there a teacher who is going to pull a George Castanza and say "gee, I had no idea this was inappropriate"?
The key is to hire good people, monitor them the best you can, and hope for the best. That is the only solution and it is not failsafe for sickos.
Posted by: Ron | August 28, 2007 6:10 PM
If they're going to play CYA tactics like that, they should at least up the ante on punishment as well. Amend the law so that anyone who's been through this orientation and still decides to cross the (really obvious to those with sense) line gets double the punishment -- sort of like when you speed in a work zone.
Posted by: steegness | August 28, 2007 10:15 PM