Via Crime & Consequences, there is an AP story about new California efforts to keep sex offenders from teaching at public schools.
The new laws close loopholes in California's teacher licensing system that had allowed some teachers accused or even convicted of serious crimes to remain in the classroom.
The bills by Sen. Bob Margett, a Republican, and Sen. Jack Scott, a Democrat, were prompted by an Associated Press investigation last year into sexual misconduct by teachers.
Margett's bill allows the state to revoke licenses from teachers who plead no contest to certain sex crimes or drug offenses without waiting for a discretionary review that can sometimes take two or three years. No contest pleas are a common legal agreement that allows a defendant to avoid a trial or civil liability but still leads to conviction.
An analysis by the California Teacher Credentialing Commission following AP's report found that about two-thirds of the roughly 90 educators who face revocation or other serious action each year plead no contest to a misdemeanor offense.
The inclusion of no contest pleas seems like a sensible enough course (as long as the list of sex offenses does not include crimes like public urination). However, the notion that mere accusations might lead to revocation is a little more troubling depending upon how the law is drafted. The inclusion of drug offenses is notable and shows how drug offenders and sex offenders are the two criminal populations that have to deal with these collateral restrictions.
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