Teacher Smackdown

Update to:

Teacher Kelsey Peterson Caught in Mexico After Kidnapping 13-Year-Old Student

Kelsey Peterson, the Nebraska schoolteacher accused of having sex with her 13-year-old male student Fernando Rodriguez and then fleeing with him to Mexico, is now in more legal trouble. Peterson is going through a custody battle for her eight-year-old daughter. She had left the girl with her her parents before escaping with the boy,

Now the girl’s father, William Alexander Long who lives in McKinney, Texas, has temporary custody of the girl.

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UPDATE to Teacher Elizabeth Logan Charged with Theft and Computer Crime for Stealing Student’s Coat, Selling it on eBay

In Hillsboro, Oregon, teacher Elizabeth Lucinda Logan, 42, was sentenced to 18 months of probation for stealing a student’s coat and selling it on eBay. She was found guilty of attempted first-degree theft, computer crime, and third-degree theft.

Judge Hernandez lectured Logan and said that he expected more from her because she was a teacher. He said that she should have known better.

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In Barnwell, South Carolina, Steve Walling was served with six (!) warrants for counts of committing a lewd act on a child under 16. He was caught “improperly touching children” according to news reports.

Walling is a physical education teacher at Barnwell Elementary School. He also helps coach the middle school football team.

Police say the incidents involved a fourth grade girl and happened during the past two years. I am not sure that this means the sexual abuse started when she was in second grade - that means the girl was around seven-years-old folks! Still a fourth grader is only nine years old.

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In Grand Junction, Colorado, teacher Gretchen Blackford confessed to police that she stole at least $15,000 from the parent-teacher organization. She was the president of the Parent Teacher Council at Thunder Mountain Elementary School. Blackford teaches fifth grade at Rocky Mountain Elementary in Clifton, Colorado.

She said she used the money for her personal use. However, police say that it may take up to two months to determine how much money Blackford stole and when. She will not be arrested until the investigation is complete.

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In Erie, Pennsylvania, substitute teacher Erica L. Baker, 24, was arrested on charges that she had sexual contact with a female student over the summer. She is charged with a first degree misdemeanor - three counts of corruption of minors.

Baker was working at Pfieffer-Burleigh Elementary School until the district suspended her. Previously, Baker was a student teacher at Strong Vincent High School where she met the then 16-year-old student.

The two were originally friends then their relationship became sexual over the summer. The girl, who is still a student at Strong Vincent, would meet Baker and drive to a parking lot near the entrance to a local state park to have sex.

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In Denver, Gary Wade, 57, was charged with sexual assault on a child by a person in position of trust. Police believe that there may be more than one victim.

Wade worked as a teacher’s aide at Steele Elementary School, a preschool through fifth grade program. When it came to the faculty’s attention that he had done something inappropriate with a student, they contacted the Denver Public Schools Safety and Security Department. They in turn contacted police.

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In Denver, Colorado Meredith Hollen, 40, faces two counts of sex assault on a child and one count of sex assault on a child by a person in a position of trust. She teaches at Graland Country Day School, an exclusive prep school for kindergarten through ninth grade.

Police report that Hollen did not been teach at the school this year and that the alleged assault happened before this school year. However, they were only recently notified of the abuse.

I wonder why? Did the school try to hide it? Or more likely, the parents did not go to the authorities until recently and maybe only at the urging of the school, a lawyer, or a medical professional.

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Kind of a quiet week at Teacher Smackdown. Maybe people are trying to be extra good for Santa…well everyone but these two.

John Erickson
In Alta, California, John Erickson, a retired teacher who works as a teacher’s aide for an hour a day, was arrested on suspicion of committing lewd acts with a child. He worked at Alta Dutch Flat School and exposed himself to one child.

Placer County sheriffs released Erickson bail. Erickson no longer works at the school and parents were notified of the arrest.

Erickson also owns a Christmas tree farm located near the school.

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In Las Vegas, special education teacher Mamie Hubbard-Washington,64, is accused of child abuse against her students. She beat her seven- and eight-year-old special education students at Doris Reed Elementary with a yard stick and grabbed them so hard that she left bruises. This wonderful example of a teacher is charged with five felony child abuse counts.

Hubbard-Washington was recently in court for her preliminary hearing. Her assistants, the school’s principal, and the children’s parents took the stand. They testified that the helpless special needs children - some of whom can not talk - were abused.

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While this is a crazy story, I would prefer more of these tales rather than stories about teachers sexually molesting kids or bringing guns to school.

In Hillsboro, Oregon, Elizabeth Lucinda Logan, 42, a former teacher at Jackson Elementary school, was charged with first-degree theft by selling, second-degree theft and computer crime after she was accused of stealing a student’s coat and trying to sell it on eBay.

(Geez, they must not pay teachers much in Oregon if they are stealing items and putting them up on online auctions.)

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Just say no, Mr. Leonard!

Assistant principal, Leonard Marsh, 50, was arrested along with his wife Jinny S. Marsh, 56, on charges of growing pot with intent to sell. He was formally charged with manufacturing marijuana and his wife was charged with possession for the weed growing operation in their home in Virginia.

They were growing it in their closet according to police. Packaged marijuana was also found in the home they share with their teenage daughter.

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In South Carolina, Dwight Lawing, 39, was arrested for having inappropriate contact with a 15-year-old student. Lawing is the band teacher at Wallace Elementary/Middle School. He is formally charged with criminal sexual misconduct with a minor, and with dissemination of a harmful material to a minor. (I am guessing that the “harmful material” is either porn, alcohol, or drugs.)

During the past year, the Marlboro County Sheriff’s Office had received several complaints about the teacher. However, they could not move forward with an investigation or arrest since they had no factual information. They finally proceeded after the 15-year-old victim contacted police about what happened to him/her. (The identity of the victim is being hidden because of his/her age, and I don’t want to assume it is a girl. Boys get molested, too.)

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In Illinois, teacher Jon Andrew White is accused of molesting 11 students nine at Urbana’s Thomas Paine Elementary School and two at Colene Hoose Elementary in Normal. All were second grade girls.

White faces three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault, and 13 counts of aggravated criminal abuse. If convicted of two of the more serious predatory criminal sexual assault counts, White faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Not only did White molest the children, but schoool officials were slow to remove him from the classroom after parents told them about a “tasting game” White was playing with their children. Parents said that although the principal, superintendent and human resources director were notified of White’s behavior in November of 2005, the second-grade teacher remained in his classroom until January 31, 2006 when police arrested him at work.

(This is horrible and the school district knows it. Maybe that’s why the principal, superintendent and HR director have all retired since the case came to light.)

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In North Carolina, second grade teacher Amy Snead, 36, was one of six people arrested in “Operation Pill Crusher” a countywide sting agaist methamphetamine production.

Snead is a teacher at Polenta Elementary School and is now suspended. She had worked in the school district for 14 years - judging from her age, from the time she left college.

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First grade teacher Sharon Duerring, 49, was removed from her classroom when someone reported to school officials that she was acting intoxicated. Duerring taught at Cooks Corners Elementary in Valparaiso, Indiana.

The reports don’t say if it was a teacher, student or parent that told them that Duerring was drunk. Let’s hope it wasn’t the kids, then again I’m not sure most kids that age would know she was drunk - maybe just “acting funny.”

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