The Teacher who had Sex with a Child

[jsteele]

Famously, Michelle Rhee told Fast Company magazine, "I got rid of teachers who had hit children, who had had sex with children, who had missed 78 days of school." It later turned out that the number of teachers who had sex with children was one and that one hadn't even been convicted of a crime. Today, more light was shed on the situation to which Rhee referred.

Ayanna Blue, a former student at Shadd Transition Academy has sued the District of Columbia Public Schools, Michelle Rhee, and Robert Weismiller, charging that Weismiller (her teacher at Shadd) impregnated her while she was a student at Shadd. Blue was 18 at the time of the alleged affair. The 14-page suit is available here as a PDF:

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/09/09/DCPreg.pdf

Keeping in mind that this document contains only allegations, many of the details included are horrifying. According to Blue, several Shadd staff members were aware of the relationship between the teacher and student. Moreover, a DCPS investigation is said to have found Weismiller innocent of misconduct. Weismiller was not fired as a result of his behavior, but was released in the October 2009 reduction in force Rhee justified due to budget cuts.

If the allegations in the lawsuit are even close to being true, it is unconscionable that the DCPS would clear Weismiller and then tarnish 265 other teachers with his misdeeds.

[Anonymous]

Gotta love Rhee...open mouth, insert foot, rinse, repeat.

And an education counselor is quoted in the Post today saying that the school, Shadd, is just an all-around dangerous environment for anybody's kid. WTF?? i thought Rhee had reformed DC schools??

[Anonymous]

My reading of the situation makes me see the need for Rhee to stay and stay on the reform track--there is so much work to be done, and for those of us with kids in DCPS (or those of us who care about the kids in DCPS) we cannot wait for a slower, more gentle reform.
This example shows how dysfunctional the system is in that the normal paths cannot even get rid of a teacher like this. My observation as a DCPS parent is that it is INCREDIBLY difficult for teachers to be fired- and I am talking about 2 different teachers at my kids' school who have gone through the investigation process after, in one case- a physical assault on a student, and in the second case- corporal punishment of several students. Both teachers were found to have committed what they were accused of, and yet, neither was fired. The only way they were gotten out of the school was in one case- to be offered early retirement, and in the 2nd- just with pressure from admin, she switched districts.

[Anonymous]

how and when did this guy get hired? Just curious since I've heard dcps has more stringent background checks than private (Beauvour and Sidwell anyone?) it sounds like a sad situation, but hardly reason to draw any conclusions one way or another on reform.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My reading of the situation makes me see the need for Rhee to stay and stay on the reform track

Talk about being in the tank ---

This teacher could have and should have been removed from having contact with children as soon as his behavior was known. Rhee facilitated his ongoing molestation of this girl by hiding the situation.

But once people are completely in the tank, it seems like they will turn any situation around to Rhee's advantage. It is a sight to behold.

I hope I soon have the opportunity to observe it from afar as she leaves DC and mesmerizes a new group of devotees.

[jsteele]

The main take away I had from reading the lawsuit was how little has apparently changed at Shadd under the Rhee regime. While some DCPS schools have had total overhauls of both their physical plants and staff, Shadd still seems to be existing as a relic of the worst of DCPS. Reading the PDF along with the Rheeform article mentioned elsewhere, Rhee's emphasis on recruiting and retaining students that will boost test scores really becomes apparent. She may well be sending personal emails to parents in Foggy Bottom in the search for high-performing students, but she apparently had little concern for a school full of special needs kids. Given the impact on the DCPS budget of special needs students, one would have hoped that schools such as Shadd would have been more of a priority.

[Anonymous]

It is misconduct, but she wasn't a child. She was 18 when the affair started.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:It is misconduct, but she wasn't a child. She was 18 when the affair started.

Which is why the guy wasn't arrested. It also means that Rhee was wrong when she told Fast Company that she fired teachers who had sex with children. But, given that the girl had emotional issues serious enough to have her placed in a special school means that many people would consider her to still be a child.