Wednesday, April 11, 2001
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Wednesday, April 11, 2001 |
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School board ponders policies in wake of Internet incident By MONROE
ROARK
In the wake of recent criminal charges brought against a substitute teacher at a county middle school, officials may take a look at age guidelines regarding substitutes in general. Charlie Sheets, 19, allegedly showed indecent pictures from the Internet to a class of seventh- and eighth-graders at Whitewater Middle School three weeks ago. He turned himself in March 30 and was released on bond, and the case remains in Fayette County State Court. State law requires that substitute teachers at any level be at least 18 years of age and have a high school diploma. The Fayette County School System requires that its high school teachers be at least 21. Board members have requested that the issue be revisited to see if a change in the minimum age at the middle school level should be made. No one on the board has made a specific recommendation and there is currently no timetable for when or if the matter might be discussed at a board meeting. "We are going to relook at the policy to see if anything needs to be changed or tightened up, so we can be as careful as possible about choosing substitutes," said Superintendent John DeCotis. While pointing out that this is the first incident of this type involving a substitute teacher, DeCotis added that finding qualified subs for the entire system is a constant challenge because of a sizeable shortage. Substitutes' daily pay ranges from $52 (high school diploma) to $57 (four-year degree) to $62 (certified teacher). The county conducts a training session each month, typically drawing 40-50 people, DeCotis said, but many of them drop out soon afterward because of permanent job opportunities or other factors. "So we're constantly retraining," he said. State standards require four hours of training for new substitutes who do not hold valid or expired teaching certificates, according to the county school system. Substitutes who hold certificates are required to view a sexual harassment video before entering the classroom. Because of state guidelines regarding minimum age, the county must be careful not to arbitrarily reject someone and risk an age discrimination lawsuit, DeCotis said. As for the technological aspects of the Sheets incident, officials also are looking into safeguards that can be placed on computers to prevent unwanted material from showing up on the screen. "We had some things in place before, but they were insufficient," DeCotis said. A new bill that recently passed in the U.S. Congress requires school systems to take a more active role in this regard, so the system was already looking into the matter, according to DeCotis. But the technology can be difficult to handle. Some filtering programs block out key words or phrases and could prevent a legitimate site from being accessed for academic purposes, while other improper sites can be accessed through links from other sites and sometimes slip through the cracks of any preventive software. While these issues are being considered at the staff level right now, they could surface at a future board meeting, especially if a large expenditure is required or a policy change is considered, DeCotis said.
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