AMERICAN LENS - 01-06-17

Dear Ms. Dillon,

The blog posted on January 5, 2017, on American Lens Editors entitled Teacher Revocation List
Lags Behind Media Reporting, omitted significant important information that your readers should
have in order to be fully informed.

The revocation or suspension of a teachers professional license is a serious matter that requires a
significant investigation, sufficient evidence, and established processes to ensure that correct decisions
are made. In addition, procedural safeguards have to be in place in order to protect the due process
rights of teachers who hold professional licenses. The Department of Public Instruction receives reports
and allegations from numerous sources regarding teacher misconduct. Those sources include local
school districts, parents, law enforcement, the public, and the media. The Department takes all such
allegations and reports seriously and proceeds to investigate each according to the severity, magnitude
and urgency of a particular allegation.

The revocation or suspension of a teachers license cannot be predicated solely upon a media report of
an arrest, or an arrest in general. This notion is of course based on the fundamental concept that every
person is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law. Generally, any arrest is
followed by an in-depth investigation by law enforcement. Unless the individual pleads guilty right
away, an investigation can be lengthy and, assuming the investigation warrants further charges and a
trial, the entire criminal process can take months. In some rare instances, the Department might have
independent evidence of wrongdoing to support disciplinary action, but in the vast majority of cases it
has no access to the law enforcement investigation and must await the outcome of a trial in order to
assess the sufficiency of the evidence upon which to discipline a teacher, if appropriate.

The limited staff at DPI does keep track as much as possible of the media reports, and contacts the
district attorneys frequently as necessary to ascertain the progress of investigations and trials. In many
instances, however, law enforcement reports are not accessible until the completion of the criminal
process and similarly the DA is unable to share information. As a result of this criminal process, well-
ingrained in our system of law, and essential for the protection of Due Process, the Department simply
cannot act on a mere media report until many months have passed.

That being said, it is important to note that, a teacher who gets arrested for a serious crime is almost
always, if not always, discharged from employment as a teacher and is, in light of the media exposure,
not likely to be rehired in another school setting unless and until trial determines the teacher to be
guilty. Rest assured that, in the event a teacher is convicted of a crime that supports automatic
revocation, mandatory revocation pursuant to G.S. 115C -296(d)(2), the Department and the State
Board exercise due diligence in ensuring that mandatory, automatic revocation occurs consistent with
law.

Please keep in mind that the presence of a criminal action does not preclude the Department from
taking action against a license. The Department has the authority, and uses it often, to revoke a
teachers license even when faced with a not guilty verdict from a criminal court. The standards for
disciplining a teacher do not require a guilty verdict in order to warrant revocation. If the Department
has independent evidence of wrongdoing, aside from the confidential evidence that is held by law
enforcement to investigate, the Department is at liberty to proceed to discipline the teacher. The very
real and practical problem, however, is that often there is no such independent evidence available to the
 AMERICAN LENS - 01-06-17

Department after an arrest takes place; the investigation belongs to law enforcement. Unless the school
system has done its own independent investigation prior to the arrest (and this sometimes does happen),
the Department has no recourse but to await the outcome of the criminal process.

This agency has worked diligently and over the years to constantly improve its teacher disciplinary
process: No process is perfect, regardless of which licensure board you are dealing with, but we would
defend ours as against most of these in this State and elsewhere.

Your blog also referenced nine individuals you claim should have been on the Department list of
teachers revoked or suspended. In fact, the version of this list references was outdated at the publication
of your blog. The current list does reflect the names of these individuals. Our list is updated regularly to
supply up-to-date information about all licensed teachers whose licenses have been revoked or
suspended.

Thank you for the opportunity to clarify these important issues. We hope you will share this additional
information with your readers in the interest of a full discussion of this important topic. We remain
committed to our teachers, their professionalism, and the assurance to our public, parents, and students,
that teachers in our classroom are held to the highest ethical and moral standards.

Sincerely,
Vanessa Jeter
Vanessa W. Jeter, Director
Communication and Information Services
NC Department of Public Instruction
6306 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-6306

919-807-3469 phone
919-807-3481 fax