School authorities in Utah have failed to report educator misconduct, possibly allowing teachers to offend again by moving to other schools, according to a new audit.
The report, which examined a small sample of cases, found dozens of allegations during the past 10 years that weren’t reported to a Utah board of education oversight panel. Teachers were accused of sexually harassing a student by touching the neckline of her shirt, viewing pornography on district computers, offering extra credit to female students if they dressed a certain way, and disciplining a student by throwing a wrench.
In at least one case, an educator was terminated from one school for misconduct that was never reported to the commission, allowing the educator to get another job and offend again, according to the report from the state auditor’s office.
State board officials said they are assigning a team to review teacher-discipline practices in response to the findings.
