Well isn't this interesting to say the least. Is our system saying its okay for this kind of behavior? Having sex with a 16 year old and sending sleazy photos of oneself to a 15 year old is acceptable behavior? Why should she be charged and treated differently for a man? I am a firm believer in if you do the crime you do the time.

Yakima coach given deal new law forbids
By Chris Bristol

Yakima Herald Republic

YAKIMA — Not many people get to quit a job months after they were fired. Sean Painter is an exception.
Fired last summer amid allegations he sexually harassed students, the East Valley School District teacher and soccer coach recently negotiated a deal with school officials, who retracted his termination and let him resign retroactively.

But that wasn't all. Although it lacks the force of a court order, the agreement also sealed records in the case, restricts what East Valley school officials can say about his departure and withdrew a complaint about him to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The deal lets him say he "chose" to resign, instead of saying he was forced to. In return, Painter dropped his pursuit of a financial settlement from the school district.

Once a common practice for school districts trying to get rid of teachers accused of misconduct, deals like this soon will be history because a new state law that takes effect in June.

The new legislation came in response to a Seattle Times series that documented the ease with which coaches — at least 98 in a 10-year period — continued to coach or moved from one school district to another in Washington after being reprimanded or fired for sexual misconduct.

Sealing personnel records and concealing findings of sexual-misconduct investigations are two of the practices the new legislation bans. The new law will require that hiring school districts ask for records of sexual misconduct from applicants' former employers — and that former employers give it to them.

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, who sponsored the legislation, was disappointed to hear East Valley negotiated a deal even as The Times' December series, "Coaches who prey," was exposing such practices.

The deal with Painter was made in January. Details of the agreement, along with more than 400 documents in the case, were recently obtained as part of a public-records request filed by the Yakima Herald-Republic.

"It's unbelievable," Kohl-Welles said. "I want to support our school districts, and I really believe most do a fine job. But we know perpetrators are out there, and to think they can leave one school district and blithely go to another and start the same behavior again is just unacceptable."

East Valley schools Superintendent John Schieche defended the deal, saying it achieved two major goals: "One, not to pay (Painter) a dime. Two, that he leave our district and never come back."

An official with the state superintendent's office said the agency has been investigating the Painter allegations and the case remains active despite East Valley withdrawing the complaint as part of its deal with Painter.

Multiple reprimands, warning

By the time Painter left East Valley, some students had nicknamed the 34-year-old teacher "The Perv Painter."

Painter taught science and math at East Valley Central Middle School and coached boys and girls soccer at East Valley High School from 1998 to 2003. Both soccer teams won the Class 2A state title in 2000, his second year as head coach.

According to school records, Painter had been formally reprimanded three times by October 2002 for harassing female students and a staff member. He was warned he could be fired if it happened again.

In May 2003, school officials began a new investigation when another teacher reported in writing that after showing a film on sexual harassment by teachers, "three girls in the back row shouted out simultaneously, "Mr. Painter!"

The district suspended Painter, and Schieche fired him July 31. In doing so, he cited new allegations that Painter had touched, swatted and kicked female students on the buttocks, tickled and hugged them and made frequent flirty remarks.

In a recent interview, Painter denied the allegations against him and said school officials were forced to settle the case because of credibility problems with some of his accusers.

Painter said he settled to spare students the trauma of testifying. Painter also said he has since come to regret that decision.

"I should have went all the way and made them suffer," he said.

Genesis of the deal

Painter appealed his firing and got a lawyer paid for by the state teachers union, the Washington Education Association. Nearly two dozen students were deposed under oath in preparation for the hearing.

Meanwhile, Schieche notified the state superintendent's office that Painter had been fired for sexual harassment of students and other conduct that demonstrated "poor professional judgment."

In October, Schieche added another allegation: An East Valley High graduate, a former soccer player on Painter's team, told school officials he had brought liquor to her dorm room at Central Washington University in Ellensburg.

By December, Painter's attorney and the school district's attorneys were negotiating a settlement that would allow him to resign retroactively.

Painter sought $10,000.

The sticking point was money. In a letter dated Dec. 4, Painter's attorney, Ed Shea Jr., of Pasco, offered to settle the case on the grounds that taking the matter all the way to an appeal hearing could cost the school district at least $15,000 to $20,000 in legal costs.

The school district, which had rejected a demand for one-year's salary, didn't want to pay Painter. On a copy of Shea's settlement offer, somebody wrote "NO MONEY AT ALL!" in the margins.

Six weeks later, the negotiations were complete. Painter agreed to walk away empty-handed and promised not to sue or seek reinstatement.

In return, the district agreed to let him resign retroactively and to withdraw the complaint to the state superintendent's office. It also agreed to seal records about the case.

Under the agreement, only the East Valley superintendent can answer inquiries from prospective employers about Painter and must confine his answer to a simple statement that says Painter received satisfactory teaching evaluations and won state titles as a soccer coach.

If a prospective employer asks more questions, the superintendent is required to say that female students had accused Painter of "inappropriate comments and behavior," but that two or three of them later retracted or altered their accusations.

Schieche said he believes he could almost always tell prospective employers about the allegations. Even the hint of such allegations would dissuade other districts from hiring Painter, he said.

Scope of legislation

The agreement with Painter says the district will disclose the records "as required by law." It also requires the district to tell Painter who is seeking the records.

Even though Painter's file is sealed, Schieche said the district would release it if somebody with a valid interest in the case filed a public-records request for it.

The legislation will prohibit virtually every facet of the Painter settlement. Although the legislation takes effect June 10, it does not apply to existing agreements.

Kohl-Welles, the state senator, took exception to Schieche's belief that hiring school districts will ask tough questions about Painter.

The "Coaches who prey" series in The Times documented numerous episodes in which hiring school districts failed to check references or, desperate for qualified coaches, looked the other way, she said.

The new legislation requires that hiring school districts request sexual-misconduct records from applicants' former employers. Current state law says only that school districts "may" request such information.

Agreements that conceal records of sexual misconduct are also prohibited. The state superintendent's office also is required to finish investigations of misconduct within one year and verify, as previously required by law, that allegations of criminal behavior have been reported to the police.


Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

Coaches continue working for schools and private teams after being caught for sexual misconduct
By Christine Willmsen and Maureen O'Hagan
Seattle Times staff reporters

The bond between athlete and coach can be powerful, and the one between a 15-year-old Port Townsend girl and a 34-year-old basketball coach was especially strong.
The girl, raised in a troubled home, saw Randy Sheriff not only as a mentor on dribbling and jump-shooting, but as surrogate parent, confidant and "the greatest dad in the world."

Sheriff showered her first with attention, then with flowers and chocolates, then with kisses.

Before long, the coach — a married man with two children of his own — was sending the teenager love notes. By the time she was 16, she says, they were having sex.

People around them suspected as much but looked the other way as Sheriff isolated the girl from her friends and family.

Although Port Townsend school officials believed Sheriff was having an intimate relationship with her, they simply nudged him out of town, allowing him to land a coaching job in the Cascade Mountain burg of Cle Elum, where he was ultimately accused of preying on another girl.

He had to leave that school, too, but continued to coach, this time for girls on elite private teams in the Seattle area.

This is the secret side of the fast-growing world of girls sports. In a yearlong investigation that involved an ongoing court battle with school districts and the state teachers union, The Seattle Times discovered:

• Over the past decade, 159 coaches in Washington have been fired or reprimanded for sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to rape. Nearly all were male coaches victimizing girls. At least 98 of these coaches continued to coach or teach.

• The number of offending coaches is much greater. When faced with complaints against coaches, school officials often failed to investigate them and sometimes ignored a law requiring them to report suspected abuse to police. Many times, they disregarded a state law requiring them to report misconduct to the state education office.

• Even after getting caught, many men were allowed to continue coaching because school administrators promised to keep their disciplinary records secret if the coaches simply left. Some districts paid tens of thousands of dollars to get coaches to leave. Other districts hired coaches they knew had records of sexual misconduct.

• When the state gets involved, its investigations can be as flawed as local districts’. On average, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) took two years to investigate a case and sometimes didn’t conduct a single interview with a victim, coach or school official. Often, the state simply dropped investigations, leaving accused coaches with clean records and valid teaching certificates.

• In the growing field of private club teams, coaches can get a job or start a team with almost no regulation or oversight. Men who coach teams sanctioned by the Amateur Athletic Union have been convicted of such crimes as assault, indecent liberties with a child and drug possession.

• With all of these system failures, parents are the last line of defense for female athletes. But too often, parents ignore the warning signs of sexual misconduct. Some parents suspected abuse and did little to stop it, trusting the coaches while doubting their young accusers.

"Unfortunately, everyone has an investment in the silence — the parents, the team and community," said Sandra Kirby, a Canadian sociologist who studied sex abuse of athletes by coaches. "The measure is, if a coach has had good successes, that’s all they are worried about. They’re ignoring the victims."



NEED FOR COACHES GREATER THAN EVER

A small number of unscrupulous coaches exploits the opportunity

The demand for quality coaching in girls sports has burgeoned since 1972, when Congress passed Title IX, a law requiring that girls be given the same educational — and athletic — opportunities as boys.

Today, the soccer fields and basketball courts of America are nearly as likely to be occupied by females as by males. The number of girls playing high-school sports in Washington has tripled since 1972. Last year, 43 percent of high-school girls played sports.

That doesn’t include the thousands of girls, teenage or younger, who take part in recreational or club teams outside the school setting.

This boom created a nearly insatiable call for coaches, most of whom are men.

Coaching is a demanding profession, with long hours, often low pay and pressure from insistent fans. For most of the more than 20,000 coaches in this state, the reward is the satisfaction of mentoring student-athletes, not only in the skills of a particular sport, but in the values of teamwork, practice and sportsmanship.





But for a small and unscrupulous minority, there is another reward: the opportunity to sexually prey upon their young charges.

Coaching presents a unique opportunity for such misconduct. Coaches work with athletes for hours at a time, often over several years, in unstructured settings such as locker rooms and out-of-town tournaments. Coaches tell them what to eat, how to train and even with whom to associate.

Coaches are generally admired by kids and parents and, like priests, might be the last people suspected of abuse. As a profession, coaching has one of the highest rates of sexual-misconduct complaints, according to Bill Lennon, a Bellevue licensed sex-offender therapist and expert on sexual abuse by teachers.

A study of North Carolina schools found that the No. 1 reason for dismissal of a coach — accounting for 1 in every 5 firings — was not a team’s poor performance on the field, but the coach’s sexual relationship with a student.

The Times analysis shows that Washington teachers who coach are three times more likely to be investigated by the state for sexual misconduct than noncoaching teachers. (Coaches who teach at private schools are not required to have a teaching certificate. Without public records, reporters could not include them in the analysis.)

Misconduct by coaches runs the gamut: a Northshore coach who had sex with a girl for several years and now teaches in Snohomish County; a Davenport coach who paid girls to pose for pornographic pictures and videos; a Lynnwood-area basketball coach accused last week of molesting four girls.

The laws are clear. In Washington, a teacher commits a crime if he has sex with a student younger than 18. For coaches who aren’t teachers, it’s against the law to have sex with someone younger than 16 or with a person younger than 18 if they abuse their "supervisory position" — giving punishment or rewards — to obtain sex.

But the crime is hard to prove and the law rarely used.

In looking at specific cases, The Times found how easily a predatory coach can take advantage of an unsuspecting student, and how easily he can move on to other victims. 

VULNERABLE GIRLS CAN BECOME VICTIMS

How a Port Townsend coach took advantage of a troubled teenager

Randy Sheriff came to Port Townsend in 1983 with an impressive résumé. He had led Seattle’s Roosevelt High School basketball team to the 1973 state tournament and later played professional basketball in Europe.

Sheriff coached girls volleyball and boys basketball and taught driver’s education at Port Townsend High School.

In 1988, he took an interest in a 15-year-old girl with long brown hair. He sharpened her basketball skills and talked about her troubles at home. One night, she needed to talk about a fight she had had with her dad. The girl met Sheriff at a picnic table in a park, looking for support.

"He really didn’t seem to want to talk about it," she said in court records. "He just leaned over and gave me a full-on French kiss."

Before long, Sheriff was sending her love notes, she said.

"I felt puzzled, like I was falling in love," the girl said. "He was my lifeline."

By the time she was 16, she said, she and the coach were having sex in his car, at his house and in motels. Occasionally, she said, he brought along alcohol and marijuana they both used.

(The girl is not being named because The Times generally does not identify people who were sexually victimized. Others did agree to be identified.)

She baby-sat his two children. Sheriff made her his coaching assistant for the Port Townsend boys basketball team and brought her on road trips. She trained with him at his California basketball camp, and he took her to Australia with an adult men’s team.

The relationship took its toll on her. Because Sheriff insisted on secrecy, the teenager distanced herself from family and friends, feeling alone and ashamed.

"If we were driving where people might see us, he would put my head down onto the seat of the car until we got out of town," she later said in a statement. "That was extremely humiliating for me."

The girl slipped into depression and had suicidal thoughts. Word of their relationship spread through the high school. Heather Carter, a Port Townsend graduate, said students "snickered" when the pair disappeared into a room off the gym. "Everyone in the school knew they were having an affair."

Some employees raised concerns with Principal Jim Carter. He talked to Sheriff and the girl, but both denied any intimacy, and the matter was dropped.






But suspicions continued to circulate, and in 1990, Carter sent Sheriff a letter ordering him to stay away from the student.

"There were no more reports and apparently what we did must have worked, because the student left the school district," Carter said in an interview. "We were satisfied if there was anything going on, we had cut that short."

But the relationship hadn’t ended. The girl moved in with her mother, transferring to Friday Harbor High School on San Juan Island for her senior year, and played basketball.

After one of her games, coach Vic Woodward questioned the girl about reports that Sheriff had been seen giving her a piggyback ride and kissing her.

She admitted it was true. Woodward "told me it had to stop or he would have to tell someone. He never asked me about it again," she later told state investigators.

In 1998, she sued the Port Townsend district and Sheriff. A psychologist hired by her lawyer evaluated her, writing in a report: "It appears that Mr. Sheriff took advantage of her vulnerability by requiring her to engage in sexual activity with him in return for his attention and affection. Not only did Mr. Sheriff have a significant advantage over (the girl) due to the age differential, he also enjoyed a power position from his role as a teacher and coach."

"Don’t have blind faith — I did," her father said recently. "He is a coach. He is in a position of authority. I didn’t think anything could go wrong."

The district settled with her in 2002, paying $50,000. Sheriff settled earlier for an undisclosed sum. The victim’s lawyer described school officials’ attitude as "see-no-evil, hear-no-evil."

In 1991, Port Townsend school officials told Sheriff he was no longer needed as the boys basketball coach despite taking the team to the state tournament.

New school district finds love letter from Sheriff to basketball star

By the next school year, Sheriff found another coaching and teaching job, this time at Cle Elum-Roslyn High School. He coached girls volleyball and softball and boys basketball.

Personnel files are unclear when the new district learned of Sheriff’s intimacy with the Port Townsend girl. However, Cle Elum-Roslyn Principal Jim Stephenson assigned Brian Pendleton, a director of extracurricular activities, to keep an eye on Sheriff.

And before long, Sheriff again was focusing his attention on a girl who was the star of the volleyball and basketball teams.

"It was clear from week two it was already inappropriate," Pendleton said. "I was angry he had been passed to Cle Elum. Someone passed a problem along and we kept hurting kids."

In a letter to Cle Elum-Roslyn Superintendent Jake Walker, Pendleton reported that more than 20 parents had lodged complaints about Sheriff in fall 1994: spending unsupervised time with girls after practices, allowing them to drive his car and developing an unusually close relationship with his star player.

In March 1995, administrators were given a love letter, found in the school parking lot, from Sheriff to the girl.

"The way we play off each other is so instinctual, so natural, I can’t help but think about the potential," Sheriff wrote. "No one cares more for you, no one. Remember I have worshipped you so long — and then had you — now lost you."

Cle Elum school officials had seen enough. They reached an agreement with the coach and his union: He would quit, and the district would drop its investigation and not disclose his misconduct to potential employers.

Pendleton, currently principal of Walla Walla High School, said he is angry with how he and district officials handled the case.

"I am a little disappointed in myself," he said. "You are supposed to call the cops. I probably should have."

Cle Elum officials sent the sexual-misconduct complaint about Sheriff to the state superintendent in 1995.

After four years of investigating the problems in Cle Elum and Port Townsend, the state decided to revoke Sheriff’s teaching license, concluding he had sex with a student and sent love letters to another. At that point, Sheriff voluntarily gave up the license.

But that wouldn’t stop him from coaching.

Pushed out of public schools, coaches start their own private teams

As the participation in girls sports has exploded, so have the opportunities for college scholarships for female athletes. Competition for those scholarships has created a new phenomenon: elite club, or "select," teams for girls.

These teams are big business, with parents paying coaches thousands of dollars to sharpen their daughters’ skills.

Sandy Schneider, a longtime girls basketball coach and assistant athletic director at Lakeside School in Seattle, sees this largely unregulated world as dangerous territory. Unsupervised coaches are traveling with athletes, staying overnight in hotels and spending countless hours individually training girls — for fees of up to $600 a month.

"There are a lot of kids and families in a position to be exploited," Schneider said.

Roger Hansen, a highly regarded coach and athletic director for Lake Washington High School, explained: "Joe Blow off the street can go out and recruit and say anything and do anything and promise anything to kids and start his own team."

It was here that Sheriff found his next coaching opportunity.

Shut off from public-school teaching, Sheriff landed positions in the late 1990s with two club teams: the Bellevue Girls Select Basketball team and the Puget Sound Flight.

Going into private coaching is an easy option for coaches with troubled pasts. The Times found at least nine other coaches like Sheriff who had been reprimanded, fired or pushed out of public-school jobs for sexual misconduct but continued coaching for nonschool teams.

Sheriff insists he told the directors of those teams about his past. "I’ve been honest and told them there were allegations, and still they wanted me to coach," he said in an interview. "They begged me to coach. I’ve been above and beyond reproach in the past 10 years."

But Dennis Edwards, Puget Sound Flight director of operations, said he didn’t know about Sheriff’s reputation until a parent informed him three years later. Edwards said he gave Sheriff a choice: Quit or tell players and parents about his past.

Sheriff quit but continued to coach for Bellevue Girls Select. Then in May 2000, he was hired by Barbara Berry, a former University of Washington basketball player, to coach The Way to Win, a private basketball program in Maple Valley.

Berry said she had known Sheriff for years, seeing him at coaching clinics, camps and tournaments, and considers him "the best basketball coach I know, strictly from a basketball sense."

Shortly after Sheriff started, Berry heard complaints about her friend’s tainted history. "Some didn’t come to The Way to Win program because of it," Berry said. "I would get phone calls about Randy all the time."

Even after learning about Sheriff’s past, however, Berry didn’t say anything to her players or their parents.

A few months ago, after reporters started looking into Sheriff’s past, he quit coaching for The Way to Win and Bellevue Girls Select. He now works as a motivational speaker. In an interview, Sheriff said: "I’ve had no inappropriate behavior with students. I’ve always denied all the historical allegations."

INVESTIGATIONS CAN BE LENGTHY

While the process drags on, teachers who coach often hop to new districts

Just how many Randy Sheriffs are still coaching girls is impossible to say. The Times’ investigation found that school districts are hesitant to even begin investigations, and when they do, the burden tends to fall more on the accusing player than on the accused coach.

Even when districts find evidence of abuse, they often simply pass the offending coach on to another unsuspecting district. And when the state gets involved, investigations are haphazard and can drag on for years.

For example, the OSPI took nearly five years to investigate complaints against Mark A. Taylor, now 44, a Bethel School District volleyball coach and science teacher.

Most of that time, the file sat on OSPI shelves. Taylor had been forced to resign in 1993 from Spanaway Junior High after female students complained that he slipped his hand down a girl’s shirt and fondled her breast on the ride home from a class trip to a water park.

By law, school districts are supposed to inform the OSPI when they have "reliable information" that teachers aren’t of "good moral character" or have committed unprofessional conduct.

The state then must investigate and determine whether those teachers should face discipline, up to losing their licenses.

Bethel officials passed their findings along, but the OSPI took so long to close the case — 1,765 days — that Taylor landed another coaching and teaching job at Clover Park in Pierce County and then at Lake Stevens in Snohomish County. Lake Stevens did not know about complaints against Taylor, and records are unclear whether Clover Park knew.

And girls at those schools accused Taylor of always trying to find ways to be alone with them and sexually harassing them.

While the OSPI sat on the case, Taylor’s teaching license expired. The state, following its policy, closed his case without a resolution. In the past 10 years, the OSPI dismissed 12 sexual-misconduct cases because teachers’ licenses lapsed during the often slow-paced and incomplete investigations.

But Taylor immediately applied to renew his lapsed license.

At first, the OSPI stated it would give him one, but only if he went on probation for four years and told future employers about his misconduct.

Faced with a legal fight from Taylor’s union attorney, the OSPI instead gave him a written reprimand, telling him not to sexually touch or harass girls again.

Taylor taught at Covington Middle School in Vancouver, Wash., for the 2000 school year. He now has a post-office-box address in Washington, D.C., but it’s unclear if he is teaching.

LESS OVERSIGHT IN PRIVATE SPORTS

Confused young girls often don’t recognize what’s happening until it’s too late

Most shocking, perhaps, are cases where officials and parents have reason to suspect problems with coaches but look away.

Glen Whitworth had already been let go from two positions coaching gymnastics. In the Puyallup School District, an assistant coach complained that Whitworth constantly made sexual innuendoes to the girls. In Federal Way, at Gymnastics Unlimited, girls as young as 9 told the gym’s owner that Whitworth talked about sex with them.

But these complaints didn’t stop some parents from helping Whitworth open a gym in the Pierce County town of Sumner.

"I couldn’t believe people left here to go be with him," said David Mackey, who had fired Whitworth from Gymnastics Unlimited. "I was thinking the parents would keep him in check."

This time, Whitworth had no boss. And this time, he went a lot further.

When one petite, 13-year-old gymnast met Whitworth at his new gym, she looked up to him from the start.

"You trust your coach," said the girl, now 26 years old. "You get up on a four-inch beam and you start to do a flip and if you miss, they’re going to catch you. We, like, thought he was god. We worshipped him."

By the time Whitworth invited the girl to a slumber party at the gym, he had control of her emotionally. That night, he pulled her to him and, with other girls sleeping nearby, forced her to give him oral sex, according to a police report. Then he ordered her to go back to sleep.

The girl was confused, knowing at some level that Whitworth’s actions were despicable, but at the same time feeling she was "chosen."

A week later, he put her on his team. "I was excited because I got to be on the team with the girls that were really good and everyone in the gym looks up to those girls," she said.

So when Whitworth encouraged her and another girl to stay late with him at the gym and drink liquor, she found herself going along. Later, he showed them pornographic videos.

Ultimately, the girl was having sex with her coach almost on a daily basis.

She was a typical target — lacking a father figure and having low self-esteem. "I had no ability to say no," she recalls. "I was a loner. I felt like I wasn’t an understood person."

After graduating and leaving Sumner, the girl unburdened herself to a friend, who urged her to call police.

Whitworth was arrested and convicted of two counts of third-degree rape of a child.

Even with that record, there’s nothing stopping Whitworth, or any other registered sex offender, from setting himself up again as a coach.

Lakeside coach Schneider can’t believe it. "My question is, who’s overseeing these people?"

The System & People who support misconduct

When a friend told coach Stu Gorski in 1995 that Mount Adams School District had hired "a phenomenal wrestling coach," Gorski froze.

"Tell me you didn't hire Randy Deming," he pleaded.

The district had.

Gorski, a football and golf coach in Whatcom County, knew Deming for years as a rival coach at nearby Blaine High School. Gorski also knew of Deming's reputation as a groper of girls who had even been charged with child molestation.

When Gorski learned Deming would also be teaching girls, he warned: "You're putting him back into the fire."

GORDON KING / YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC Randy Deming was acquitted in May on two charges of fourth-degree assault. But the Mount Adams district, in Yakima County, seemed less interested in court records and more in Deming's wrestling record. As one of the most successful coaches in the state, he had a résumé that seemed to shield him from two decades of sexual-misconduct complaints.

Gorski had tried to warn people about Deming, the 1990 Class A Washington state coach of the year. "I even wrote a letter to the Mount Adams School Board," said Gorski, "but never got a reply."

The treatment of Deming is not unusual. In a yearlong investigation, The Seattle Times found that 159 Washington coaches have been reprimanded or fired in the past decade because of sexual misconduct. As with Deming, at least 98 of them continued coaching or teaching afterward.

"I'll be honest, most schools don't follow a code of ethics for their coaches," said Tim Flannery, assistant director of the National Federation of State High School Associations. "They wait for the crisis and scramble to decide how to deal with it."

The Times' investigation found that school administrators often conduct cursory inquiries of sexual-misconduct complaints against coaches and rarely alert police to complaints of sexual abuse — despite a Washington law that says they must do so within 48 hours.

Even when school officials find wrongdoing, they often bow to pressure from the teachers union, handing out mild punishments or none at all.

Districts routinely keep investigations secret by failing to document them or by signing agreements with accused coaches promising not to tell. In fact, the Times found 29 coaches who were passed on to new school districts after being disciplined, pushed out or fired for sexual misconduct.

As a profession, coaching has among the highest rates of sexual-misconduct complaints, experts say.

(The Times did not examine private-school coaches because their school files are not public.)

Winning coaches such as Deming often get second and third chances while continuing to victimize girls.

As one former student of Deming's said in a lawsuit against the Blaine School District: "There is no doubt in my mind that had it not been for his record as a wrestling coach, his conduct would not have been tolerated for long and he would not have had the opportunity to molest me."

LIVING THE LIFE OF A CELEBRITY

Championships clouded the town's opinion of Blaine's wrestling coach

There were problems from the start with James "Randy" Deming. Shortly after he started his career with the Blaine School District in 1974 as a high-school coach and elementary gym teacher, students and parents began complaining.

"My little girl, who was only 7, wouldn't go to school on gym days," recalled Janice Staheli, who now lives in Bellevue.

Her daughter, Kim Staheli Louch, who grew up to be valedictorian, traced her avoidance to the day she was stretching in her elementary physical-education class and Deming poked his finger in her crotch.

"It's not a secret that he was touching girls all the time," said Staheli Louch, who agreed to be named by The Times. He demanded kisses before allowing them to leave class for the restroom, she said.

Neither Deming nor his lawyer responded to a reporter's phone calls and letters.

By the late 1970s, Deming had established a top-notch wrestling program at Blaine High School that would bring pride to the border town.

But complaints kept coming. Staheli and half a dozen other mothers complained en masse to the School Board that the coach had groped girls. "They were just stony-faced," Staheli recalled of the elected officials. "They were all sports jocks. They said these complaints were ridiculous. He was a fine person and we were a bunch of women's libbers."

Deming continued to offend, his file shows. In 1985, the district reprimanded him after he admitted asking a girl at the school if she had any nude photos of herself. Two weeks later, he was reprimanded for massaging a girl in the boys locker room.

In 1987, Deming was investigated by police for touching a 10-year-old near her genitals, but no charges were filed.

Superintendent Robert Gilden wrote to him later that year: "Based on your employment history at Blaine, it is apparent that something is seriously wrong."

But Deming kept his job, in large part because he was a local coaching hero, parents and victims said. During his career, Deming took the Blaine wrestlers — the Borderites — to 14 league championships, 10 district championships, seven regional championships and a state title.

In 1990 — the same year he won state coach-of-the-year honors — Deming was charged with first-degree child molestation after another 10-year-old reported that he rubbed her breasts and touched her near her genitals.

District officials suspended the coach, and the town revolted.

"He was a big celebrity up in Blaine," said James Hoogestraat, a lawyer representing the 10-year-old victim in an ongoing lawsuit against the district. "People circulated petitions asking that the school not terminate him."

Deming kept his job until March 1991, when Whatcom County Deputy Prosecutor Mac Setter offered a deal: Setter would dismiss charges if Deming resigned and never taught again.

Charges were dropped, and Deming resigned. But it didn't take long before he was teaching again.

But first, the district told the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) about his misconduct. Districts are required to do this when they possess "sufficient information to believe an employee is not of good moral character or has committed an act of unprofessional conduct."

In forwarding the Deming complaint, Blaine was doing more than other districts, which often keep even serious complaints in-house, never putting a teacher's license at risk. In an examination of 10 of the state's largest districts, The Times found 18 cases of serious sexual misconduct that were not reported to the OSPI.

But Blaine had to pay a price. Deming said that the district, in exchange for his resigning, had promised not to reveal his misconduct to anyone, which he argued also included the OSPI.

So Deming sued the district for informing the state and interfering with his chances of landing a new job. Blaine paid Deming $27,500 to drop his lawsuit.

As it turned out, Deming's job prospects were hardly dim.

"Put a résumé out there that says you won more wrestling matches than any other coach in the state, you're going to get a job," said Gorski, his old coaching rival. "There is always someone who is willing to overlook certain kinds of things."

Enter Mount Adams' White Swan High School, which wanted a top wrestling coach and hired Deming in 1995 despite his background.

Deming didn't change his troublesome conduct. Girls there complained of unwanted touching. Mount Adams officials disciplined him five times in the past two school years.

Last March, Deming was charged with two counts of fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation after allegedly touching two eighth-grade girls in his math class. During his May trial, Yakima County jurors heard that Deming's classroom was a chaotic place where students watched "The Maury Povich Show" on television while Deming wrestled with kids and demeaned girls.

"He would tell us that girls are useless and the only thing they're supposed to do was stay home," one girl testified.

The girls said he repeatedly grabbed their shoulders, legs, necks or midsections, pinching and squeezing. One said he put her in a "choker hold" and she had to bite him to get away.

On the stand, Deming didn't deny many of their accounts but gave a positive spin. He said he didn't squeeze girls repeatedly or too hard, that his comments about girls were intended to encourage them to get an education, and that nothing he did was inappropriate.

He said the girls were giving him "payback" because he had disciplined them.

Jurors never heard of his misconduct in Blaine because in criminal cases a defendant's prior conduct can't be used against him except in rare circumstances.

After a three-day trial, jurors decided the coach's conduct was not criminal assault and acquitted him.

Meanwhile, Mount Adams gave Deming notice that he was going to be fired. He is appealing that decision and is on paid leave.

UNION POWER

Districts are likely to settle with abusers rather than wage a costly fight

Why should it be so hard to fire a public-school coach who preys on kids?

One problem is that administrators aren't trained to investigate sexual abuse, yet they — not qualified social workers or detectives — are the ones doing the investigating. As a result, school officials miss warning signs or ignore complaints altogether.

Also, districts do not always document discipline. Seattle school officials, for instance, avoid "papering the file" and give oral instead of written reprimands, Ava Greene Davenport, a district administrator, testified in an open-records lawsuit involving The Times.

Many school officials believe they can do little to keep a coach in line because the teachers union will strenuously fight any discipline. Half of school coaches are also teachers and represented by the Washington Education Association (WEA).

If districts do create a paper trail, teachers have a right under most district contracts to have information removed from their files, including misconduct complaints, after a few years. Over time, a coach who teaches can get a second or third chance, despite repeated complaints. Even when schools can prove serious misconduct, firing a teacher can be costly and drawn-out, district attorneys say.

Once a school decides to discipline, suspend or fire him, a teacher-coach has a right to a hearing before a state administrative-law judge — a process that can take months. Meanwhile he is put on leave, collecting pay, while the district pays a substitute as well. And if the district loses its case, it has to pay the coach's lawyer, usually supplied by the WEA.

As a result, school districts weigh the costs and often decide an easier course is getting the coach to resign with a cash settlement. A typical discharge case costs about $100,000, including paid leave, attorney fees and other costs, said Rocky Jackson, a Yakima attorney who has represented many school districts over the past 20 years.

School districts "get into settlement mode because of the cost," Jackson said. "That may not be the best thing, but that's what happens."

SEALED IN SECRECY

School districts often tell potential employers nothing about a coach's past

Luke "Turk" Markishtum, 68, is a prime example. From 1975, when he was hired by the Seattle School District, until 1997, when he finally was pushed out as a teacher and coach, he seemed to play by his own set of rules.

According to two decades of complaints in Markishtum's personnel file, he groped and kissed girls at American Indian Heritage Secondary, bought beer for athletes, falsified their grades so they'd be eligible to play, had sex with his girlfriend on campus and hugged his female students and had them sit on his lap.

Yet nothing happened. No one called police or notified the state of misconduct.

"He feels that he is different and the rules don't apply to him," athletic director Barbara Twardus later told an investigator.

Finally, in 1995, a student said that on her 16th birthday, he grabbed her by the shirt and pulled her toward him so he could kiss her. When Principal Robert Eaglestaff found out, he did nothing, records show.

But a counselor persisted, forcing the school district to hire an investigator, who found another problem. In 1981, during the two years he left Seattle and worked for the Port Angeles School District, Markishtum made newspaper headlines when he was arrested for trying to smuggle six tons of marijuana into the state.

Markishtum made a deal with prosecutors to testify against the supplier. The supplier went to prison; Markishtum went back to the Seattle district.

Nothing in his personnel file indicates the district checked his background before rehiring him.

Markishtum declined to talk about the marijuana case and denied all of the other allegations. In his opinion, he was the victim of a conspiracy by people at the school.

By October 1996, the Seattle School District wanted to fire him but instead signed an agreement: In exchange for Markishtum's resignation, the district would pay him the remainder of his year's salary, an additional $69,000, and keep his record secret from future employers.

The Times found many school districts, including Franklin Pierce, Edmonds and Tacoma, made similar deals, though terms varied.

Even without a secrecy agreement, many school officials say they won't tell the truth about a coach's record because they fear a lawsuit.

Mike Patterson, a lawyer who has represented Seattle and other area districts, said he tells school officials not to discuss a teacher's misconduct when prospective employers call for reference checks. As a result, public schools, which face a shortage of experienced coaches and teachers, have a hard time weeding out unfit candidates.

So it should be no surprise that Markishtum, despite a checkered past, was hired by the North Kitsap School District in 2000.

When contacted in October, North Kitsap spokesman Chris Case said, "This is the first time I've heard this information."

WINNING MORE IMPORTANT THAN ABUSE

One investigation took 20 minutes before a coach was allowed to continue

Apart from financial considerations, school administrators sometimes harbor another, deeply ingrained reason for not tackling sexual misconduct: fear of making themselves and their schools look bad and upsetting their communities.

Stephen Rubin, chairman of the psychology department at Whitman College and co-author of "Teachers That Sexually Abuse Students," said sex abuse is disturbing and school officials don't want to face it. Their denial is "like the ostrich sticking its head in the ground."

DOCUMENTS Steve Diaz File Times database file Complaint PDF Outcome PDF Family's lawsuit PDF That's what happened in Grant County with the Royal School District, which focused more on winning the big game than on a student's safety, according to a 2002 lawsuit.

In September 2000, teacher Steve Diaz, 25, came to Royal with a reputation as a winning basketball coach, having just taken the Highland High School boys team to the state tournament. But he and other coaches were fired from the Yakima-area school after complaints were made that they went hot tubbing with cheerleaders who had just graduated, records show.

Royal school officials said they knew of the hot-tub incident but hired him anyway to teach middle school and coach high school, in part because of his tournament success.

Six months into Diaz's first year at Royal Middle School, three students were worried when their 13-year-old friend came out of Diaz's classroom with her face rubbed red. She said that it was whisker burn from Diaz kissing her and that she had a crush on the coach.

Her concerned friends told two teachers, who alerted the principal, records show.

The timing was bad for the girls and good for Diaz. It was Feb. 23, 2001, the day of a crucial basketball game that, if Royal won, would put it in the state tournament. And many believed that Diaz, as coach, needed to be there.

Despite the serious allegation, Diaz wasn't removed from the classroom nor put on administrative leave, which is standard procedure. Neither the principal nor other officials reported the complaint to the police or the state superintendent.

GORDON KING / YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC, 2000 Steve Diaz took the Highland High boys basketball team to the state tournament in 2000, but a year later at Royal Middle School he ran into trouble. Diaz was charged with eight sex crimes and pleaded guilty to one count of assault with sexual motivation. Instead, athletic director Preston "Kent" Andersen conducted his own investigation — later testifying that, like many school administrators, he had no experience investigating sexual abuse.

The investigation lasted less than 20 minutes, Andersen later testified. He took no notes and asked few questions. Not surprisingly, he found no evidence of wrongdoing. And by 3 p.m., Diaz was cleared to coach the evening's big game.

In all, Diaz and the girl met in his classroom for sexual foreplay four times, according to a police report. The last time, on March 30, 2001, Diaz went much further, forcing the 13-year-old to give him oral sex, according to the report. At that point, she realized that Diaz didn't love her, as she had thought.

"I was just disgusted by everything," the girl later testified. "I was crying and I stood up and he didn't even say anything to me."

In an e-mail, the girl told a friend in detail what happened, and the friend's mother gave the correspondence to school officials.

But even with the e-mail in hand, no one called Child Protective Services or filed a police report. Nor did anyone call the girl's parents until almost a week later, according to testimony in a lawsuit brought by the family.

Instead, the superintendent called the district's risk-management company. It sent an investigator, who questioned the girl over two days. One of those days, school officials bumped into a police officer in the school parking lot, and only then did police get involved. Diaz was charged with eight sex crimes and pleaded guilty in December 2001 to one count of assault with sexual motivation.

Rubin, the psychology professor, has seen this story before. "The real mistake by the school systems is they don't address this as a serious problem," he said.

"They wait until someone sues them, or until a parent comes in and says, 'My little girl was raped.' "

THE system is a joke. I went through this with my child and a 24 year old woman nothing happened... zero
do you think it might have to do with the Taylor family working in local law enforcement? or the fact that at least 5 family members work in the EV school district? and why is CPS not involved or are they? this would ruin any mans life. oh and why can she still attend Church at the high school?
lets be fair here. I am so shocked that people are exepting this nonsense, WAKE UP it screws theese kids up!
I would like to know how many of theese victems finish school and become a teacher or detective maybe a judge that would be great...

Nepotism in local schools, law enforcement, local Government. Really..I would have never guess that. Tell me your just joking.

When you step into Public Education the words Integrity,Honesty, and Pride all have a different meaning than what you were taught as a child.

Hum why don't we just try her and convict her right now, lets do it, we don't need to know the facts we know what we believe to be true, Good grief people, face the truth, sometimes accusations are made against people for many different reasons, I don't know if she is guilty or not guilty but knowing what I know I think she has an aweful lot to lose if she did do something. Sometimes and I can speak first hand about this because I have been going thru it for 2 1/2 years a person can be blamed for something just because they took control away from their accusers and it ticked them off. It makes the accuser feel better about themselves, perhaps it even takes the true guilt off of them and directs it toward someone else so no one will realize that perhaps it isn't the accused fault at all but the accusers. So lets give her a chance and see what happens, It isn't a matter of male and female it is a matter of right or wrong.

Fire the Prosecutor!!

Obviously with the inability of knowing the higher profile and attention of this case, shows inexperience inside the prosecutor's office. STOP blaming the media coverage on this case!! This is a case and story that is important to our community. It appears there are to many chiefs, and not enough indians inside the prosecutor's office, & the Prosecutors lack of leadership has embarressmed our justice system.

this is completely ridiculous!! ALL OF THESE PEOPLE LACK MORALS!

The East Valley teacher somehow put herself in this predicament and whether she had sex with these boys or not, SHE WENT TO FAR! She was unprofessional and immature to send these young boys a seductive picture of herself and text message them. She is a mother and wife, what the hell was she thinking?! Did she not think that she was doing something wrong? She obviously didn't stop to think of how this would affect her, all she could think of was herself messing flirting around with some young boy! Grow up honey, you're 30 something years old and have kids and a husband!!

As for the articles regarding coaches, I am utterly disgusted! These people lack morals and take their position to another level that is not good. And to think that us parents pay to put our beloved children in the hands of these predators.

OSPI is seriously behind if they do not have the sort of training to deal with these situations. Come on people, these are our children we're talking about!! Why are you being lazy in filing paperwork and DOCUMENTING ON PAPER A SEXUAL MISCONDUCT AGAINST A CHILD?? Crimes like this will scar a child forever and no matter how much money you settle for, it doesn't heal that child.

What in the world are we doing..the adult teacher who we have intrusted our children, is basically slapped on the hands and handed her pay check for having sex with a minor, all I can say is that she is lucky she didn't do this to one of my grandchildren, why are we letting her off so easily, maybe we need to have a few children who have been abused by adults come forward and tell their stories about how it effects their entire life, not only at the time but for years after, this teacher should go away for a long time. I hope she can read these comments that have been said against her..and I truly hope she gets what is coming to her, but somehow I doubt it. But one day she will be face to face with the real judge and see her try to get out of this one.

you may have heard there are a few problems with public education in the united states and washington state. I don't know if this women is guilt or not. These cases are great opportunities to address the Culture in Public Education. Its very difficult to get rid of a bad teacher or a Scumy School Administrator in this state let alone a teacher who abuses children.

"Trust US with your children and your money"

People in Public Education want you to believe what they say. Not what they do.

Local Politics dominates our local school system. Local School Board Members are on school boards for all the wrong reasons.

OSPI and the WSSDA are poorly ran organizations.

Its all about the Money not the Children.

Jordan:
Does anyone do anything right in your eyes? Seems like you blame everyone and every organization for one thing or another.

"Fire the Prosecutor!!

Obviously with the inability of knowing the higher profile and attention of this case, shows inexperience inside the prosecutor's office. STOP blaming the media coverage on this case!! This is a case and story that is important to our community. It appears there are to many chiefs, and not enough indians inside the prosecutor's office, & the Prosecutors lack of leadership has embarressmed our justice system."

Jason, I don't know who or what you know about the prosecutor's office. I don't know Jim Hagerty, but I do know Sam Chen and I can say that the Yakima County Prosecutor's office and Yakima County are better off with him there. He takes on some of the toughest cases there are and fights harder than anyone for everyone. He takes the tough cases to trial.

Everybody wants instant results in this fast food world. "They didn't return our calls!" Who the hell is the media demanding answers and not satisfied when they don't have it to make a deadline and sell a paper.

If the system is going to work, then it takes time. If Sam says that is supposed to be a First Degree charge, then unless the elected prosecutor is pulling rank on him, it will be sorted out, and will be a First Degree charge, but you have to give the system time to get it right.

First or second degree? Maybe the prosecutors (like President Clinton) don't consider oral sex to be intercourse??

Quote: A first-degree charge is an accusation of sexual intercourse with a minor; a second-degree charge merely means sexual contact.

It is POSSIBLE that the teacher (allegedly) had oral sex with the student, and the prosecutors are disagreeing over whether or not this constitutes "intercourse".

I can see it now, Michele Taylor on the evening news emphatically pronouncing "I did not have sexual relations with that boy!"

You know, I'm not one bit supprised that this has come up. I am, however, supprised that the reduction in charges have come about this early.

The word Nepotism comes about in all of this, and you can't really help but admit that it may play a role in all of this. I could be wrong, but I think that this is such a common issue in the Yakima Valley that is just swept under the carpet simply because EVERYBODY knows EVERYBODY. If you look at anybody in the Valley that has ever been punnished for misconduct involving their profession or any other legal misconduct, odds are they were a "nobody" to the community. To simply put it, those who get nailed to the cross were scape goats in my opinion. It's too easy to make an example of somebody who may not be as liked or may not have as many people on their side. Let's face it, this gal is practically a product of the EV school district. Do you think for one second that they're going to want one of their own fried? Absolutely not. She's practically a public figure and has so much at stake that it just wreaks with the predictability of nothing happening to her. Where to begin? EV Grad, A young attractive female, has a family, a Church figure, and the list could go on if I knew her on a personal basis like the many that are defending her probably do.

Somebody mentioned training for the teachers to prevent this. Sure, that's great in the perfect world. But in all reality, it isn't going to make a bit of difference - so get that fairy tale out of your head. I've been in the Army's Military Police Corp for the last 5 years. I've seen COUNTLESS rapes and sexual assaults in my career. Guess what? Since day one of being in the Army, I've received at least 3-4 sexual assault prevention training sessions a year; and not the check the block kind either. The sad thing is, all soldiers receive this training but the rapes and assaults continue. The Army has this very same issue of fraternization occuring on a daily basis. In my case, I'm almost ready to become a Drill Sergeant. The Drill Sergeant school is approximately 3 months long. There is alot of emphasis on fraternization and Non Commissioned Officers fooling around with lower enlisted soldiers - and trainees in particular. Again, Guess what? Even with all of that emphasis on fraternization and professionalism, it still occurs. Why? Why is this still happening after days of training to counter these actions? It's called a lack of morals. The trainees view fraternizing with Drill Sergeant as a score. It's like having an affair with a person of power. It's fair to compare that with a teacher sleeping with a student. I am beginning my journey to start doing Drill Sergeant duty. Would you as a parent approve of your 18 year old son or daughter fraternizing with his/her 24 year old Drill Sergeant? It's like a predator preying on the vulnerable, and it's wrong. It's never going to stop, no matter how much we try to combat the issue. Especially when the issue involves personal pleasure. So let's get out of the mentality of "let's conduct an ethics training," because it's proving to be pointless across the nation. I don't know what the answer is to stop this issue, but we certainly need to consider approaching this from a different angle.

Regardless if she's guilty of participating in sexual misconduct with this student, she's clearly guilty of making immoral decisions and certainly conducting herself innappropriately. Texting students alone is certainly crossing the line, and she deserves to be held accountable for her actions. Education is a profession, not a hobby. Consider that, and maybe you would agree with why I stand firm on her being punnished beyond more than her family being put under duress. That's just my view.

Geez, Jordan. The YHR should hire you as a reporter.

Or are you already? The above is quite a litany of stories on this subject that you must have collected over a time.

I am amazed at the number of teachers lately, who are charged with some form of sex crime against students - either sex.

I am NOT surprised that the WEA is behind every single one of them to defend their jobs for them and hide the records.

The major problem to me is the "protections" of members that come with major unionization of public service industries.

I would love to have a job with the state auditor office, newspaper, or the prosecutor office. I would charge $1.00 a year. They don't want me tho. Goes against their values and culture.

I won't work for Wine, or try to explain something to a person who would work for wine.

I think we can all agree that sexual misconduct with a minor is a heinous crime for which the guilty should be punished.

I think we should also all agree that Michele Taylor has not yet been found guilty of any crime. Nor might she ever be. In this country, those accused of a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I sure hope that none of you ever get called up for jury duty, as you appear to be unqualified for the task.

Until the verdict is handed down by a jury of her peers, I hope that some of you "circling sharks" will just back off a little. Remember that you might owe this woman an apology someday for slandering her name, if it is found that she was wronged. Perhaps you could save your criticisms of her until after she has actually been proven guilty.

I agree whit what DESERT ROVER is saying, it is true everyone in yakima valley knows each other. If its a nobody they get punished, but if its a well known person and has ties with law enforcement or other city officials, of course you do not want to see them "get a bad punishment", just give her a lesser punishment. Maybe wrong but its something to think about. I remember I rear-ended a BMW on Tieton, The woman braked all of a sudden and it was raining outside and I was in a big red truck 3 car lengths going 35mph and by the time I could press the brakes I skidded several feet and I still hit her car a little from behind. She stopped in the middle of a busy street, NO stop signs, No crosswalks so a girl can cross the street. When the police came I tried to explain I was not following closely, that she was not even suppose to come at a complete stop on a busy street to let a child cross the street at no crosswalks or etc. The cop said okay, turns out the lady nd the cop were talking and laughing. The lady was the yakima superior judge, and they still got me for Following closely after the cop said she was not suppose to stop in the middle of the street like that. And I had a background check and everything so they make sure I had nothing against the judge. Please. So in a way if you have connections of course there gonna help you out. If that would of been me stopping in the middle of the street nd the judge hit me, I would get the ticket for being stopped in the middle of the street. SO that being said, maybe there is things going on within the justice system in Yakima, With people knowing each other. Slap on the wrist & forget about it & say just dont do it again. Because it was going to be a huge punishment if convicted guilty 5 years vs. 1 year for misconduct.

Who knows we dont know yet until her court in October.
"I nnocent until proven guilty. "
not saying anything until the verdict comes out
but we can all agree that it was wrong.

By the way she was my P.E. teacher in middle school for a year.
Very nice lady, Was probably my fav. P.E. teacher and I cant believe done this...I feel sorry for her

But really if she is guilty she needs to do the Time, Its not fair to men or other people in this mess eventho I like this teacher. Dont do the crime if you cant do the time.

Sorry mrs. Taylor just being fair.

Yakima Fan,

You are absolutely right. She has not been proven guilty. It's all too easy to presume somebody is guilty when it comes to dramatic stories like this. If you get a chance, I made a post on last week's article in reference to this case. I believe the post said something along the lines of me not caring which direction this case goes for Taylor, as long as true justice is executed. Meaning, whoever is truly wrong in this case is held accountable for their actions. There's always two sides to a story as I'm sure you know, and always at least one liar.

While we can honestly agree that Taylor has not been found guilty, I think it's also fair to say that her apprehension was not based ona whim... and that, I think you can't help but agree with as well. There had to be some sort of hard evidence - whether it be very little or the most extreme form of evidence... it has got to be something to have a probably cause for an apprehension... notice I did not say arrest. Considering she has not been proven guilty, I will just base my opinion of her on the most petty thing she could have been apprehended for, which is an accusation. The accusation led to probing of information and evidence obviously. They wouldn't apprehend her based on a he said she said. If they did, then it's the Local Law Enforcement agencies that might owe Taylor the appology, and not me or any of these other readers. Where I'm getting at is, if the Authorities did their job properly, and made a completely legal apprehension; I can't help but assume that she's wrong in some way shape or form. And if that's the case, the only one to really blame is her for putting herself in a situation enough to be accused, appprehended, questioned, and tried.

The only thing I hold against her is that she is a paid professional. Whether she is a professor at Harvard or a highschool teacher East Valley, she is still a paid professional. I will do nothing but assume she's innocent of the sexual misconduct and quite frankly I don't even really hold any value to that allegation at this point, but you can't help but raise an eyebrow at the thought of the exchange of MANY text messages between a teacher and a student. Fact is, either way, this teacher put herself in a situation in which she knew she would be risking her career. It doesn't take a college degree to figure that out.

would you marry me?

This has nothing to do with this woman's guilt or innocents.Rather it has to do with whether D.A. Jim Hagarty treats all people equally under the law.When you combine the facts that he has lowered the charges and decided not to arrest this women when she was charged at the very least he has given the appearance that he does not.Refusing to explain his actions to the media (which is the only way the people can get a explanation)only enhances the appearance of favoritism.Mr.Hagarty needs to either offer a plausible explanation for his action,recuse his office or the people should look for a D.A. that will.

as a graduate from the east valley school district, it sickens me to hear of something like this coming from a place that gives me so much pride to call home. you always hear of it happening others places but you never think it would happen at your school or your childs school. also as being a former red devil, i will believe in my heart that Mrs. Taylor is innocent until there is proof to make me think otherwise.

Finally after all of that phantom brings us back to the topic at hand. There appears to be a serious difference between how men and women are "handled" in these matters.

Why is it that if it had been a male teacher, he would have been arrested right away and a concerted effort to destroy him (and his family) in the community in hopes of bringing forward other victims. None of that seems to have happened here - in fact we are treated to church, community and family tie homilies.

While not defending the actions, I suspect that when the perp is an attractive female, with kids, "good" family, church ties, etc people start to realize that the sentence for this crime (a life sentence because of registration) may not be proportional to the crime. Too bad the same doesn't apply to men.

So much for equal justice for all.

Things are treated differently locally than nationally. Look @ every news organization through out the world speculating about people accused of a crime. also sex sells,speculating about OJ, Anna Nicole, Now the Lab. Tech accused of killing the Yale student.

We all know she not has been found guilty of anything.

DA is back to 1st degree charges tho.

Why has it been reduced???

Well maybe new EVIDENCE has come to light, and maybe it shows she didn't do this! Maybe it shows that kids out of anger or revenge for being ticked off at an adult can make an "ALLEGATION" not realizing just exactly what is going to happen. SO then maybe just maybe they retract their statement thinking it will all go away.. EXCEPT, we live in a society that THRIVES on hurting one another, pointing out EVERYONE elses faults (according to their own thinking)and Judging one another literally to the death.

I wonder how many of YOU finger pointers have ever screwed up or been blamed for something you didn't do and are THANKFUL people forgot about it, forgave you or simply turned the other cheek and now its gone.

Now if she did it, she needs serious Mental help, her children need to be consoled and she needs to be imprisoned. BEFORE you condem someone, how about in our fine nation that our men and woman are over sees dying for, we actually treat her as INNOCENT until proven guilty!!

Iv'e been part of the legal system in a VERY similar case, an adult wrongly accused of hurting a child by an angry ex. It took 2 plus years, almost 50k, a polygraph and wasted many hours and cities monies to get to the bottom of it. It was proven to not have happend, it was proven the mom lied and THANKFULLY the SEX charge was reduced as well, but only reduced and because the Prosecutor needed to suffice THE PEOPLE, The people who condemed him. It was easier to give a reduced misdeanor so THE FINGER POINTERS and CONDEMERS would shut up and see he got something. Now you know why so many INNOCENT people pay for a crime they didnt commit.

How about society teaches their children not to LIE, not to seek revenge!!

Oh and lets leave the whole church and God thing out, too many of you simply can't wait to talk against someone who goes to church. People who go to church go their because they know their NOT perfect, they aren't a finger pointer who thinks they don't screw up. They know they do, they know their forgiven if they ask, they know that God loves them and sent HIS son to die for a sinful fallen world that condems one another.

It's a little silly to compare just one case to another to prove the claim that the system treats males and females different. We don't know what other variables may have put the male in jail.