District tries candor in teacher misconduct cases

updated 8:04 p.m. ET Dec. 26, 2007

FARMINGTON, N.M. - Arthur Brokop, a young substitute teacher, shut the windowless door of the first-grade classroom he'd been called in to oversee.

He dimmed the lights while showing a video and, one by one, put three young girls on his lap so he could fondle them through their clothing.

The crime still haunts the school superintendent in this town surrounded by oil fields and the rugged high desert of northwestern New Mexico.

"We were negligent," superintendent Janel Ryan says, pointedly repeating a word used in a multimillion-dollar civil judgment in favor of one of the victims. "It just ate me up."

Her candor is rare. So is the strength of her resolve to make sure a case like this never occurs again.

An AP investigation this fall found 2,570 educators whose teaching credentials were revoked, denied, surrendered or sanctioned from 2001 through 2005 following allegations of sexual misconduct. The AP also found that many other educators accused of sexual wrongdoing were able to make secret deals with a promise to their districts to leave quietly, some with letters of recommendation.

Expert: Schools must admit, apologize
Even in the most public of sexual misconduct cases, school administrators are often reluctant to talk about it. Among other things, they fear embarrassment, blame and anger from parents.

But that shouldn't stop them from dealing with the issue head-on, says one expert who helps schools deal with and prevent teacher misconduct.

"The 'let-sleeping-dogs-lie' mentality is counterproductive," says Robert Shoop, a Kansas State University professor who's written a book for school administrators called "Sexual Exploitation in Schools: How to Spot It and Stop It."

"My suggestion is to admit mistakes, to apologize for mistakes and to make a pledge that you're not going to let this happen again," he says. "There's no guarantee that bad stuff won't happen. But you can certainly reduce the likelihood."

Ryan, who was promoted to the district's head job after the 2002 incident with Brokop, has followed that advice.

She recalls how, during a meeting about the civil lawsuit, a lawyer for one of the victims brusquely threw a copy of Shoop's book to her.

"She told me I'd do well to read it," Ryan recalls.

And she did, inviting Shoop to come and give a full-day training to principals in her district. In doing so, she also vowed to make substantial changes in screening and training for employees — and in the way the district handles sexual misconduct allegations.

District now takes proactive steps
Some districts are ordered by the court to take such action. But that wasn't the case in Farmington. Ryan says she did so because it was the right thing.

"I had to do something," says the longtime educator and Roman Catholic, who was partly inspired to act by the clergy sex abuse scandal in her own church. "If it's taught me anything, it's if there's an element of suspicion, you investigate."

Among the changes she and her staff have put into place:

• Local and federal background checks, using fingerprints, are done on every new employee. So far, random checks on existing employees are not legal, but she hopes that will change.
• Principals and new employees, from teachers and administrators to janitors and cooks, go through extensive training on sexual misconduct — what it is, how to avoid it, and what to do if they suspect it.
• Employees also must sign a code of ethics, which includes language on sexual misconduct.
• Even when police are called in, administrators not involved with the incident do their own internal investigation. Ryan says every allegation, even if it is a concern based on rumor, is looked into. The district and three others in the county of roughly 125,000 people now use a standard procedure for investigating sexual misconduct allegations.
• All classroom doors now have windows. And substitutes are instructed to keep their doors open and are supposed to be monitored by neighboring teachers.

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