Four D.C. Public Schools teachers have been charged with abusing students, Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Thursday. The charges were a result of the more than 60 allegations that had been referred to the Metropolitan Police Department from a list of more than 200 incidents, Lanier said on her monthly radio show on WTOP. Four warrants have been issued against the teachers and one teacher has been arrested, Lanier said. Police did not identify the teachers or the charges. A U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman said his office was not able to immediately identify the four cases where Lanier said warrants had been issued, but none of the charges were filed in the past month. The chief downplayed most of the 200 allegations that had been logged by the D.C. schools’ security firm, Hawk One. Most of those incidents did not amount to criminal conduct or could not be proved., Lanier said 67 cases were referred to D.C. police, who then referred more than a dozen to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, but prosecutors ruled that nearly all of those did not rise to the level of criminal charges. “It’s not this huge problem that was portrayed because of this Hawk One Security contractor’s log,” Lanier said. “If you listen to the outcome, four [charges] were made.” D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has been on the defensive after telling Fast Company magazine that a round of 266 firings last fall included teachers who hit students and had sex with students. Rhee has fired dozens of teachers since August 2007 for allegations ranging from sexual misconduct to corporal punishment to missing 78 days of school. 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-flop sandal, according to the documents. Some were threatened with a knife, some were made to stand jacketless in the cold, and one was sexually assaulted, documents said. 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. Staff Writer Leah Fabel contributed to this report.
