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So yesterday I spelled "collaborate" wrong in a tweet and went home and took a nap. :) But still want to highlight how this story was a team effort among four newsrooms: @KYUKNews, @adndotcom, @AKpublicnews & @propublica https://twitter.com/KTOOpubmedia/status/1260292103755587584
So yesterday I spelled "collaborate" wrong in a tweet and went home and took a nap. :) But still want to highlight how this story was a team effort among four newsrooms: @KYUKNews, @adndotcom, @AKpublicnews & @propublica https://twitter.com/KTOOpubmedia/status/1260292103755587584
It's a fairly straightforward story. The well-liked principal for one of the largest elementary schools in rural Alaska was arrested by the FBI, and the school district said it was blindsided by the news. ...
What they didn't say was that school district administrators, first the assistant superintendent and then the superintendent, had been informed of TWO prior criminal investigations into the principal in 2016 and 2018. Board members said they were not informed of either case.
No criminal charges were filed against the principal in the earlier investigations into his behavior to young girls. But in Alaska, ethics rules for educators forbid the very behavior that the principal admitted to in 2016.
Educators are also expected to inform a state regulatory board if a fellow teacher or administrator engages in any kind of "sexual conduct" with a student. Did the Bethel district inform the regulatory board of the prior investigations? We don't know.
What we do know -- what is considered public info -- is how many times the regulatory board has sanctioned Alaska educators for sexual misconduct. Last year we requested those records from the Professional Teaching Practices Commission. The docs look like this:
Over the past decade, at least 40% of teachers sanctioned by the state for sexual misconduct worked in Western Alaska. (As the region is defined in state sex crime data. Sexual assault rates in the region are highest in the state.)
After yesterday's story published, we heard from a law firm that recently filed a second suit against LKSD regarding the former Gladys Jung Elementary principal. They represent *2 more* students alleging Carmichael abused them, bringing the total to 4 potential victims
