A dozen D.C. Public Schools teachers have been fired since August 2007 for sexual misconduct and using corporal punishment, according to data released to the D.C. Council by schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee.
A document of incidents “substantiated and reported to the Metropolitan Police Department” lists 67 offenses, affecting dozens of students. The students were slapped, smacked, pushed, grabbed, scratched, thrown, spanked, yanked, and hit on the head with a flip -lop sandal. Some were threatened with a knife, some were made to stand jacketless in the cold, and one was sexually assaulted.
Half of the incidents did not result in a resignation or the loss of a job, either immediately or by the end of the school year. Instead, employees earned suspensions of one to 10 days, oral and written reprimands, and in seven cases, nothing at all. Punishments are determined based on the “progressive discipline” process in the employee contracts.
“We really have to re-evaluate the progressive discipline and grievance process,” Rhee said recently.
One of the fired employees was reinstated in January after the case spent more than a year before a hearing officer.
Rhee and Washington Teachers’ Union President George Parker rushed to defend the vast majority of the system’s 4,000 teachers who refrain from letting their tempers and hormones dictate their behavior in the classroom.
“I am concerned that media reports may again leave the impression — unfairly and inaccurately — that this is a broader problem in DCPS than it is,” Rhee wrote in a letter to teachers.
Rhee has been on the defensive for the past month after telling Fast Company magazine that a round of 266 firings last fall included teachers who hit students and had sex with students. Five of the teachers terminated had been involved in an incident of corporal punishment, according to Rhee. Another was under investigation for impregnating an 18-year-old student.
Parker cautioned against making the leap from an incident of corporal punishment to an abusive teacher.
“Corporal punishment could be yelling at a child, or placing a child back in line,” Parker said. “Or it could be in high schools, where teachers are sometimes threatened by students. All teachers have the right to defend themselves.”
He said many more accusations exist than actual incidents. A report compiled by D.C. police listed about 220 allegations in one year, Parker said, compared with 67 substantiated incidents over the course of Rhee’s tenure.
