Texas Teacher Law

Illegal Drugs

YOU may be a criminal.

In the face of embarrassment over several recent drug arrests of Houston ISD teachers, Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra decided to conduct drug searches of teachers cars all over the district.  Searches conducted by drug sniffing dogs in public places, like teacher parking lots, are legal under the constitution even when there is no suspicion of any kind that drugs might be in the parking lot.  Once a dog"alerts" to a car, that provides the police with reasonable suspicion to conduct an actual search of the interior of the car.

A parking lot dog search in the teacher's lot of a highly decorated elementary school, one car owned by a beloved and individually decorated 59 year old art teacher turned up a baggie containing two Xanax pills.  The teacher was arrested, placed on administrative leave, and is now trying to defend herself.  The story is here.

 I bring this up because it presents an opportunity to restate something many people need to hear: prescription drugs are illegal drugs unless you personally have a prescription. 

The teacher in this articles actually claims she knows nothing about the pills, and since other family members also drove this car, that could be true.  But I have talked to many people in my career who do not fully understand the difference between "legal" and "illegal" drugs, a confusion echoed in the comments to the article. 

Leftover medication prescribed to one family member may not legally be used or possessed by another family member.  The same is true of friends - if you throw your back out, it is illegal for you to take pain pills leftover from when your buddy threw his back out last year.   It is okay for you to have medication in your possession that is prescribed to someone else, as long as it is in a container propery labeled by the pharmacy, but if you carry it around in a baggie so that you can take it later,that becomes an illegal act. 

Leftover prescription medication should be thrown out, not shared with others.  If you take prescription medication that was prescribed to someone other than yourself, you are committing a criminal act. 

Texting

Came across this blurb on the website of a Houston television station today - Baytown Teacher Suspended for Text Messaging Students.

Very little information available yet, obviously, but let's talk about the situation anyway.

First, since the police are investigating, the messages probably contain content indicating inappropriate communication or communication about illegal activites, such as underage drinking or something of that sort.

Second, if the police investigate a teacher for inappropriate conduct with a student, the school district will almost always place the teacher on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, whethe the district has any information about the allegations or not.  It's just smart for a district to remove a teacher from contact with students when there is any potential criminal activity. 

Third, a teacher on administrative leave pending a criminal investigation will usually continue to receive full pay until the district takes action on the contract.  For the district to take action mid-year, or end of year on a non-probationary contract, the teacher must get notice and a list of reasons, and will have the opportunity to request a hearing where the teacher can present his or her case. 

Fourth, texting students is not in and of itself inappropriate - it is, after all, just another form of communication - but because it is so informal and so full of abbreviations and codes, it is a risky form of communication for teachers to use.  Text messages are highly vulnerable to misinterpretation because of the brevity, especially when parents who may not be texters themselves get involved.  Use a form of communication with your students that uses complete sentences and paragraphs, so that it can be clear what you are talking about.

Fifth, texting is not a private form of communication.  Anything you text can be passed on to others, or discovered by parents, police and school officials.  So be very formal and cautious about what and how you say things.

Apathy is the Greatest Enemy of Conscientiousness

Talk of education reform is a near constant sound in political circles.  In some districts (or parts of districts) the need for improvment is clear and incontrovertible.  But the question of the definitive key to meaningful change is one that sparks long and heated arguments. 

The latest tale of "reform" comes from Washington DC, a district that needs help by anyone's measure.  The mayor thought change needed to start at the top, with the appointment of a new and unusually credentialed superintendent.  The new superintendent believes change needs to start with "better" teachers, so she's been diligently terminating the current ones.  And at least one of the districts' rare motivated students believes change should start by having functioning computers in the computer class, instead of pencil and paper worksheets. Time magazine has an interesting, if familiar, story. Teacher Magazine's blogboard collected some of the reaction.

So who's right?  My best answer is that everyone is right. A school is an interdependent organism, and while pockets of goodness can exist anywhere, to achieve whole goodness requires many pieces to function effectively together. The standard cry that teachers who can't be fired (because of unions, contracts, due process, whatever) is the problem is just outright bogus.  Teachers with great ability and motivation burn out quickly in a school where nothing changes even after years of trying to get enough textbooks (or ANY textbooks), repair for computers, or working heat/air conditioning and a bathroom that feels safe enough for the kids to use so they don't become so distracted by the end of the day they can't focus because they are busy trying to "hold it" until they get home.

The only thing I know for absolute sure is that classrooms are not little isolated kingdoms where a good or bad teache is the sole determinant of success.

Facebook Crusaders

Most of the time, things we do in the privacy of our own homes are actually private activities.  The biggest exception to this usual rule is our use of our computers to access the internet.  While writing and playing on the computer may feel private because we're at home by ourselves when we do it, it is about the most public thing we can do short of becoming a publicity-seeking celebrity (a la, JS, PH, LL, etc. )

I've seen employers in the last year or two get wise to the wealth of information they can find on job applicants by searching social networking sites.  And I've seen some teachers inadvertently laid low by chance discoveries on the internet about them by parents or students.  But the report of a coordinated effort by news agencies to search Facebook for every single teacher in their city and publicly report on the findings is one that may be unprecendented. Rest assured,  it will definitely not be the last time we hear of it.  Thanks to the EdJurist for finding and reporting on this.

Read a few other posts in Texas Teacher Law about the dangers of the internet:

http://www.texasteacherlaw.com/2007/11/social-networking-with-your-students.html

http://www.texasteacherlaw.com/2007/09/email.html

http://www.texasteacherlaw.com/2007/05/maybe-you-should-live-in-a-cave-and-keep-your-mouth-shut.html