NYS Education Commissioner Rosa supports added power to suspend accused teachers

With state lawmakers demanding reform, state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa says she’d support legislation giving her department added powers to suspend the teaching licenses of educators accused of sexual misconduct and violence.

In addition, state Sen. James Skoufis, D-Cornwall, said he is drafting legislation to address a weakness in New York education law, detailed in last week’s Tax Watch investigation into the Monroe-Woodbury school district's hiring of a former Lakeland special education teacher accused of sexually abusing one of his students.

Under current law, the state is hamstrung from taking any action to suspend or revoke an educator’s license until there is a criminal conviction or the completion of a hearing process focused on the educator’s moral character. Both processes can take years to complete.

So an educator accused of even raping a student is free to apply to other districts after he or she resigns from the district where the accusation was made.

A Tax Watch investigation of a civil lawsuit filed against the Lakeland schools, and its former special education teacher, Alex Mendoza, discovered that Mendoza resigned soon after the lawyer for a former student told the district in April that a lawsuit was forthcoming. Mendoza resigned by early June and was hired in July to teach special education students at the Monroe-Woodbury district in Orange County.

Monroe-Woodbury removed Mendoza from the classroom, and he resigned, soon after Tax Watch alerted the district about the civil lawsuit.

More: Legislators call on NYS Education Dep't to suspend license of teacher accused of sex abuse

Education commissioner ready to talk

State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa said she’d be open to reform of state law.

“The Department supports legislative reform that would explicitly authorize the Commissioner of Education to suspend the teaching certificates of certified individuals where the Department receives corroborated evidence that a certificate holder engaged in violent or sexual conduct,” State Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa said.

Tim Hathaway, executive director of Prevent Child Abuse New York, welcomed Rosa’s proposal, which he said could help protect school children from sexual predators.

“We’re excited to see that kind of action,” he said.

However, the standard of proof proposed by Rosa could prove difficult to reach, warned Bennett Gershman, distinguished professor at law at Pace University’s Elizabeth Haub School of Law in White Plains. Gershman said the “corroborated evidence” standard is especially difficult to reach in rape cases.

“Corroborated evidence,” Gershman said, is additional, independent evidence gathered by investigators that helps prove an allegation is true.

He recalled his days in the 1970s in New York City when that standard applied to criminal convictions for rape.

“The offense is done in secret, so it’s very, very difficult, if not impossible, to obtain corroborated evidence,” Gershman said.

SED: Standards different than in court

However, the standard of proof in state education administrative hearings is less stringent than in criminal cases.

“Teacher certification hearings are administrative and are not comparable to criminal proceedings,” according to a state Education Department spokesperson. “For example, in an administrative hearing, hearsay evidence is admissible and SED need only prove allegations by a preponderance of the evidence.”

Skoufis, whose district includes the Monroe-Woodbury school district that hired Mendoza, wants to amend state education law to allow the state Education Department to compile a list of allegations against teachers what would be available only to school districts vetting applicants for jobs.

"Since last week, I’ve begun drafting legislation in response to the deeply disturbing discovery of Mendoza’s history of alleged, previously undisclosed abuse,” said Skoufis. “At an absolute minimum, the State Education Department should maintain an internal registry of active allegations against certified individuals, accessible to all school district officials prior to making hiring decisions.“

More: Lakeland teacher resigned after sex abuse allegations, then got hired in Monroe-Woodbury

State Sen. Shelley Mayer, D-Yonkers, who chairs the state Senate Education Committee, said she’s still researching state education law to determine the best path forward to protect children from accused sexual predators, other than by word-of-mouth.

NYSUT supports current system if 'efficient'

Under current law, the state’s dedication to due process for certified teachers accused of sexual misconduct prevents the Department of Education from disclosing any information about the accusations until a hearing process finds the allegations credible. Only at that point would the educator’s license be revoked or suspended.

That process can take years, leaving the accused teacher with valid state certification and able to seek employment in schools across New York.

The powerful New York State United Teachers supports the current process, as long as it runs efficiently, said NYSUT spokeswoman Anna Gronewold.

“No one who hurts children or tarnishes the teaching profession should remain in a classroom, and due process should be afforded to all workers,” said Gronewold. “There are procedures that — if carried out properly and efficiently — aim to ensure both are true.”

Gronewold, however, declined to state whether NYSUT believes that the current procedures are carried out properly and efficiently.

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David McKay Wilson writes about tax issues and government accountability. Follow him on Twitter @davidmckay415 or email him at dwilson3@lohud.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY teachers accused of sexual misconduct suspension supported by Rosa