Teachers, We Have a Problem

Now, I don’t want to bash the education system totally because I have some friends who are teachers who do a very, very good job. However, for the teaching profession, if this isn’t a wakeup call, they’ve lost all hope.

According to the Smoking Gun, and whether or not you like the site or not, this is what they do, they claim that this woman is the 3,496 teacher to be arrested this year on charges that she had sex with an underage boy.

The story below ran in the Arkansas Democrat on was posted on their website on Saturday, November 19.


Greenwood: Police: Teacher, student had sex

By David Hughes
Posted on November 19, 2005

GREENWOOD — A female Greenwood junior high school teacher was charged Friday with having sex with a 14-year-old male student.

According to Sebastian County Circuit Court records, Deanna Bobo, 37, of Greenwood was charged with one count of firstdegree sexual assault. She was arrested Thursday afternoon and posted a $ 10, 000 bond.

She is scheduled to appear before a circuit court judge Wednesday in Fort Smith to answer the charge.

Greenwood School Superintendent Kay Johnson said Friday that Bobo is a special education teacher at Raymond E. Wells Junior High School and has been on paid suspension since Monday.

The school’s Web site said Bobo, a 1986 Greenwood High School graduate, has been a teacher at the school for the last three years.

Greenwood Police Department reports accuse Bobo of having intercourse with the student twice in February and March. The encounters took place off campus during nonschool hours, reports show.

Police taped a phone conversation between the student and Bobo on Wednesday afternoon, during which she denied having sex with the boy. She said she was his friend who tried to help him and that nothing happened between them.

“My job, my marriage, my whole life is in jeopardy right now,” Bobo told the student according to a transcript of the conversation.

“Why ?” he asked.

“Because I’m going to jail,” she responded.

Police learned of the encounters after the student’s mother checked their home computer and found nine e-mail messages between the boy and Bobo. Two of the messages made reference to sex between the pair.

The student told police that he had sex twice with the teacher. A friend of the student, also interviewed by police, said the boy confided to him that he had had sex with Bobo.

Greenwood investigators interviewed Bobo on Nov. 11 dur- ing which she denied having sex with the student. Reports said the interview ended when she was confronted with the e-mails, and she asked to see a lawyer.

The Web site listed Bobo as a special education / alternative learning environment instructor. Before taking the job at Wells Junior High School, Bobo taught for a year at Lavaca in eastern Sebastian County.

She also spent four years at the OUR Children’s Center in Harrison, taught at the Developmental Day Treatment Service Center in Carroll County and taught kindergarten and first grade in Western Grove in Newton County.

The Web site said she is married and has five children, all of whom attend Greenwood schools.

18-Year Old Mayor

I’m Swiss

Bill Maher went on tour and entitled his show “I’m Swiss.” He is not a hater of America, though I think he’d be the first to admit sometimes he’s a little bit embarrassed by the behavior and actions of our country.

Last week in Hillsdale, MI, their small city elected an 18-year-old high school student as mayor.

Yes, this is not a typo, he’s the mayor. This kid who ran for student council last year and lost – is now a mayor. Yeah, that makes sense.

This story below is from the Detroit News and was posted on their website on Thursday, Nov. 10th.

Now I know this is a small city, he won the vote 732-668, but news like this, it just makes me wonder.


Student council loser wins big as teen mayor
By Brad Heath / The Detroit News

HILLSDALE -- Michael Sessions' political career had an inauspicious start: When he ran for student council this year, he lost.

Now he's about to be mayor.

Sessions, an 18-year-old high school student, won a long-shot write-in campaign this week to oust Hillsdale's 51-year-old mayor.

"I just thought I'd give it a shot," Sessions said with a smile. "I hoped I'd win. But I didn't really know what would happen."

The election swept Sessions -- indeed, all of this usually staid southern Michigan city -- into an intense spotlight Wednesday. So many television stations showed up at the city's high school to interview Sessions that the superintendent pulled him from class. After he got home, a giant satellite truck lumbered up the narrow road in front of his house.

County officials expected to make the results official today. Their unofficial tally had Sessions winning over the incumbent, Douglas Ingles, 732 to 668.

"This is a very exciting time for our community. We need to find ways to generate enthusiasm, and I am 100 percent supportive of any change that makes that happen," said Ingles, who runs a roller skating rink and has served as mayor for four years. "If this helps, I'm happy."

Sessions was too young to put his name on the ballot; he turned 18 after the filing deadline. So he registered to vote on his birthday, and the next week declared he would run a write-in campaign.

"I guess that's all the political obstacles you could really have in an election -- being 18, running against an incumbent and running as a write-in," Sessions' father, Scott Sessions, said.

Sessions started campaigning a month ago. He spent $700 he earned selling caramel apples and other snacks over the summer to pay for business cards and lawn signs. He took friends campaigning door-to-door.

"They'd look at me," he said, scrunching his face, "and say 'How old are you again? How much experience do you have?' And I say 'I'm still in high school.'"

A week before the election, the city's firefighters union threw Sessions its support. That didn't necessarily deliver many votes -- with only three members, it's tied for the distinction of being the state's smallest union. It wasn't a typical endorsement: Before they backed him, firefighters called Sessions' teachers to ask what they thought of him.

"The guys were a little leery at first because of his age, but he really impressed us with his openness and his energy," said Kevin Pauken, the union's president.

Sessions learned he'd won an hour after the polls closed, when a friend sent him a message over the Internet to tell him he'd heard the results on local radio station WCSR.

"It demonstrates that if you really want to do something, you can get it done," said Gary Wolfram, who teaches political economy at Hillsdale College.

"The mayor didn't run a visible campaign. He didn't really campaign at all. And Mike struck me as somebody who would get a little spark in this city," he said.

Though home to Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, a city of 8,200 people 70 miles southwest of Ann Arbor, has been scarred by the economic storms that have ravaged dozens of small towns in the Midwest. Its factories and mills are disappearing; its people are vanishing, too.

The election had the city buzzing Wednesday -- though not everyone was enthusiastic.

"I don't think it was very intelligent," Clay Fish grumbled as he walked to work on Wednesday afternoon. "But it doesn't really matter who the mayor is. The City Council and the manager have all the power anyway."

Hillsdale's mayor presides over the City Council. The city is run by a city manager.

Sessions is the youngest mayor in the city's history. Sessions said he's anxious to start -- though he said the reality hadn't sunk in. "But I think once I start meeting everybody, I'm going to flow right into it," he said.

He said he got into the race because he'd heard too many people complain about the city's elected leaders repeatedly winning office because no one would oppose them. "There was a lack of motivation in this city," he said. "I was willing to step up and tell them to give me a chance, let me see what I can do."

Sessions said he wants to attend Hillsdale College next year to study political science; he hasn't applied. It could leave college officials in an interesting situation. "If the president of the college wants to get a street re-paved," Wolfram mused, "he'll have to call a freshman."

Down on the Justice System

This article below was reported by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and posted on their website on Wednesday Nov. 16th.

Dr. Charles Momah was convicted of sexually abusing four of his patients. The women testified that Momah either got them hooked on pain killers and sexually assaulted them or simply made indecent remarks and fondled them during exams in his now-closed obstetrics-gynecology clinics in Burien and Federal Way.

The maximum sentence he’s facing is 23 years, hmmm, which is eight years less than the woman from Colorado who just received 31 years in jail (see post below).

I think what the doctor did was 20 times worse.

Doctor convicted of sex charges
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
By JAKE ELLISON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A Seattle jury convicted Charles Momah, a South King County obstetrician and gynecologist, Wednesday of sexually abusing four of his women patients.

Momah sat stoically but with a knotted brow as verdicts of guilty on two counts of rape and two counts of indecent liberties were announced. He now faces a prison sentence of as long as 23 years when King County Superior Judge Michael Trickey sentences him.

A sentencing hearing has not been set. Momah’s attorney, Dave Allen, said he would appeal the verdicts because Trickey allowed testimony from three women whose accusations weren’t part of the criminal charges.

“With today’s verdict,” said Harish Bharti, an attorney representing three of the women Momah was accused of abusing, “for the first time my clients will be sleeping with both eyes closed.”

He said the women, who have also sued the physician, had been living in fear of
Momah since he was released on bail more than a year ago.

“It’s a big release and sense of satisfaction,” Bharti said.

Deputy King County prosecutor Roger Rogoff said the standard sentence for the four counts against Momah is 17 to 23 years. Prosecutors haven’t decided what sentence they will seek.

Rogoff said he was especially pleased that the jury was willing to believe the testimony of the seven women who said Momah had abused them.

“What I think is amazing is the seven women who testified ... had the courage to come forward and explain what had happened to them,” Rogoff said.

The women testified that Momah either got them hooked on pain killers and sexually assaulted them or simply made indecent remarks and fondled them during exams in his now-closed obstetrics-gynecology clinics in Burien and Federal Way.

Momah had his medical license suspended in September 2003 after one of the rape victims complained to the state Department of Health. The victim had gone to a hospital after the rape and had DNA evidence collected that eventually was shown to closely match Momah’s.

Momah was born in Nigeria and has been practicing as a gynecologist in Washington since 1993. Earlier in the trial, he had denied abusing the women and said his sexual relationships with two of them were consensual.

Despite the guilty verdicts, Momah’s legal problems are far from over.

Bharti said he has filed more than 30 lawsuits against Momah and his twin brother,
Dr. Dennis Momah, on behalf of women who claim the men sexually harassed or assaulted them.

Charles Momah is also facing criminal charges that he billed insurance companies for procedures he didn’t do.

However, Rogoff said his office would re-evaluate those other charges in light of the guilty verdict.

Momah’s attorney said he was “very, very concerned” for his client’s well-being in prison because he has health problems related to his large size. Momah is so large officers had to use four sets of handcuffs strung end to end to cuff his hands behind his back when they led him from the courtroom.

“He is feeling a tremendous amount of disappointment,” Allen said.

31 Years in Jail

Now I did a post on this mother a year ago who was holding parties for kids and sleeping with the local boys. Now while I do believe she should be punished, I think 31 years in prison is a bit much.

People who kill people in the US get off with a sentence less than 31 years. I just don’t understand our justice system at times.

This story below is from AP and was posted on CNN.com yesterday.


'Cool mom' gets 30 years for sex parties
Woman gave high school boys drugs, booze at weekly parties

GOLDEN, Colorado (AP) -- A woman who authorities said had sex with high school boys during alcohol- and drug-fueled parties has been sentenced to 30 years in prison, officials said.

Silvia Johnson, 41, described herself to investigators as a "cool mom" who "was never popular with classmates in high school" and who was beginning to feel like one of the group.

She pleaded guilty in July to two misdemeanor counts of sexual assault and nine felony counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

She also was sentenced for additional charges of third-degree assault, violation of a restraining order and harassment for unrelated cases involving her husband and children, prosecution spokesman Carl Blesch said.

Authorities said Johnson held parties for the boys almost weekly between October 2003 and October 2004. They said Johnson provided drugs and alcohol to eight boys and had sex with five of them.

Johnson was to be sentenced on September 26, but the hearing was postponed after she was injured the day before while riding in an SUV that veered off an interstate.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Love Teachers

So recently there have been numerous cases of older female teachers who have been allegedly sleeping with their younger male students (school was never that fun when I attended). Anyway, the Tampa area has once again been hit as Jaymee Lane Wallace has been allegedly sleeping with one of her female students.

She is currently 29 years-old and she is married. Yet another ex-husband who is probably going to kill himself shortly.

This story is from the Tampa Tribune and their website on November 3rd.


District Pursued Coach Sex Complaint
By MARILYN BROWN

TAMPA - Monday's arrest of a Wharton High School basketball coach accused of having a sexual relationship with one of her players raises the question: How can such serious allegations take months from a parent's complaint to an arrest?

The bottom line, Hillsborough County school officials say, is the school district never really investigated the claim made in March that Jaymee Lane Wallace, 28, had the relationship.

Nor did the district report possible child abuse to law enforcement, said Linda Kipley, general manager of Hillsborough schools' office of professional standards.
"This is very unusual," Kipley said Wednesday. "We opened an investigation, but we could not follow through."

Wallace, who is married to a fellow math teacher at Wharton, is accused of having an 18-month sexual relationship with the student, now 17.

Wallace coached at Wharton since 1999. She led the girls varsity basketball team to two district titles.

Several of Wallace's players told police they knew about a relationship, but the district never uncovered the secret.

Here is how Kipley outlined the events leading to Wallace's surrender to police Monday:

In late February or early March, a mother complained to Wharton Principal George Gaffney about Wallace's treatment of her daughter concerning grades, as well as rumors that Wallace was having an inappropriate relationship with another female student.

Gaffney then talked to the student the woman named and her mother. Both denied the claim. He also contacted Kipley's office, which investigates accusations of misconduct by employees.

Soon after, the mother who made the original complaint again contacted Gaffney, who called Kipley again.

Kipley's office began an investigation by contacting the woman who made the complaint. The woman said she could document the affair but didn't show for a March 30 appointment with the investigator. He called her to reschedule, but she never did.
On April 5, the investigator wrote the woman, telling her he would "inactivate the investigation" if he did not hear from her by April 15.

Kipley "chose not to close the case -- we left it open so that we could monitor it."
In late June or early July, Gaffney called Kipley to say he heard someone was going to be contacting law enforcement about the issue. Kipley's office then called Tampa police and confirmed they received a complaint.

Who made the complaint to police is not clear.

"Once law enforcement is involved, we back out," Kipley said. "That is our district practice. We don't want to impede their investigation."
State law requires school personnel who know of or have reasonable cause to suspect child abuse to report it to the proper authorities. In this case, that would be law enforcement, Kipley said.

Tampa police stopped short of criticizing the district for not reporting the alleged abuse.

"The sooner we know about the possibility of suspicious behavior, the sooner we can investigate and prevent a child from being victimized further or prevent another child from being victimized," said Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy.

School board attorney Tom Gonzales said, "The district did the right thing."
The original complaint was based on secondhand information, he said. "When the principal talked to the parent and the kid, they said, 'No way.' I think you've got to have a victim."

"Without a victim, it wouldn't be reasonable to start asking other students questions," Gonzalez said. "That's unfair to the teacher, and it might spread more slander."

The district questioned the motive behind the original complaint -- the woman's daughter was believed to be dating the alleged victim, Kipley said.

Kipley wrote Wallace on July 12, notifying her the district was aware she was under investigation by Tampa police and told her not to report to work when teachers returned July 27.

Wallace was told to make an appointment with Kipley, which she did.
On July 19, correspondence shows Wallace, her husband and attorney Jose Concepcion met with Kipley, and Wallace was reassigned to work in Kipley's office.

Wallace did general clerical work in the employee processing area until she surrendered on an arrest warrant charging her with lewd and lascivious battery, a second-degree felony. If convicted, she faces up to 15 years in prison.

The next step for Wallace would be a recommendation to the board for suspension pending the outcome of her case, Kipley said. The next board meeting is Tuesday.