Kansas Revokes License of Teacher Accused of Delaying Child Abuse Report

Kansas City Star
April 20, 2012

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/04/19/3564919/kansas-revokes-license-of-teacher.html

The Kansas Board of Education has taken the unusual step of revoking the license of a teacher who was accused of failing to promptly report suspected child abuse.

The Wichita Eagle reported that Donna L. Ford, 51, surrendered her license to the state board. Members voted 6-2 on Tuesday to accept the surrender and revoke Ford’s license.

But some education officials are alarmed by the step.

“It’s an absolute atrocity. What this does is send a shiver down the spine of every teacher in the state,” said board member Walt Chappell, who cast one of the no votes.

“Here’s someone who is concerned about children and wants to protect children,” said Chappell, who said he has spoken with both the teacher and her lawyer. “They ran her through the wringer over something where she was trying to do her best.”

Ford had been a teacher for 17 years, most recently at Cleaveland Elementary School in Wichita. She said in a letter to the board that there had been allegations that she delayed reporting alleged sexual abuse for two weeks.

Kansas law requires teachers, doctors, counselors and other mandatory reporters to inform the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services or law enforcement agencies if they suspect a child has been abused.

Ford wrote that she surrendered her license as a condition of her resignation with early retirement benefits.

Kevin Ireland, general counsel for the Kansas Department of Education, said state officials and board members “are not privy to the details, and it’s a personnel matter” between Ford and the Wichita School District.

The district declined to discuss specifics. Its policy requires all employees to report suspected abuse by phone to state officials “on the same day the suspicion arises.”

But Kansas National Education Association general counsel David Schauner said the punishment was too severe.

“I’ve done this work now for 33 years and I’ve never seen a school district do what they did in this case,” Schauner said.

He said he couldn’t divulge specifics because of attorney-client privilege and the conditions of Ford’s agreement with the district. But, he said, “it is not what it might appear at first blush.”

“There are some rather substantial extenuating circumstances that took place” between the time Ford first suspected a student was being abused and when she reported it to authorities, Schauner said.