Teachers’ licenses to be revoked, but delay criticized

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2004 | 11:25 a.m.

More than three years after they pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct with students, two Clark County School District teachers are slated to have their licenses revoked by the State Board of Education.

Terri Miller, president of Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation, a Las Vegas watchdog group, said she was surprised at the lengthy delay between criminal convictions and the education board's vote to revoke teacher licenses.

"They have no idea where these people are disappearing to or whether they're walking into schools in other states and getting jobs," Miller said. "Nevada needs to do a much better job getting through these cases quickly and sharing the information."

Newell Earl Leavitt, who taught at Burkholder Middle School in Henderson, pleaded guilty in July 2001 to statutory sexual seduction of a teen and is serving a two- to eight-year prison sentence. And Byron Covert, a former Laughlin elementary schoolteacher, pleaded guilty Sept. 6, 2001, to three counts of possession of child pornography and was sentenced to five years probation.

Leavitt and Covert's licenses were suspended immediately following their arrests and their names were "flagged" on a national database shared with other state education departments, said Nevada Schools Superintendent Keith Rheault.

"The revocations weren't pursued as quickly as they should have been," Rheault said. "There may have been a false sense of security among our staff that these guys were in jail. In reality the licenses needed to be taken away permanently as soon as possible."

Rheault said a new deputy attorney general, Ed Irvin, was assigned to his department last year. Since then Irvin has been working to bring the department up to date in all disciplinary actions, Rheault said.

There are several other investigations under way that may yield recommendations for suspension or revocation but all involve incidents within the last year or so, Rheault said. The backlog of the oldest cases has been resolved, Rheault said.

"We've got our processes cleaned up, and we're not going to fall behind again," Rheault said.

Two additional teachers, who both pleaded guilty to sex-related charges between one and two years ago, are also expected to lose their licenses when the state board meets in Las Vegas Dec. 4:

* Jill Leslie Fletcher, a substitute teacher in Dayton, pleaded guilty Sept. 30, 2002 to preparing and distributing pornographic materials depicting a minor, a class B felony. She was given a suspended prison sentence of 12 to 36 months.

* John Richard Sinchak, who taught a combined fourth-fifth grade class at Garehime Elementary School in Las Vegas, pleaded guilty Oct. 21, 2003 to a felony count of attempted lewdness with a child under 14. He was sentenced to two to five years in prison.

Licenses for Fletcher and Sinchak have also been suspended since their arrests, Rheault said.

Fletcher's substitute license expired in January but the revocation would essentially be retroactive.

There is no requirement that a suspension or revocation be completed within a particular time frame.

Before a teacher's license can be suspended or revoked, he must be notified of the state's intentions and given the opportunity to request a hearing. The state had difficulty tracking down Leavitt to notify him that the revocation process was underway. A first set of documents sent certified mail to his last known residence were not received. He was eventually located -- at Lovelock Correctional Center, where he is serving his sentence.

The Nevada Department of Education submits information about teacher licenses, suspensions and revocations to a database maintained by the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification. The association sends out monthly updates of license activity for individual states to compare against their own rosters.

The database's effectiveness depends on individual states handling investigations and taking action quickly, Rheault said. There have been instances when the database has cleared a Nevada teaching license applicant but the individual's FBI fingerprint check shows a criminal record, Rheault said.

Only 21 states -- including Nevada -- have signed the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact, an agreement to share criminal histories with other states that ask for information about an individual applying for a public sector job. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., has introduced legislation to create a national database that would compile criminal information on teachers. States would be offered incentives to participate.

The State Board of Education doesn't need to wait for a criminal conviction to take action. Under state statute, "immoral or unprofessional conduct, evidence of unfitness for service" are also grounds for suspending or revoking a teacher's license. Teachers may also be punished for violating security measures around achievement and proficiency tests.

Gary Waters, president of the State Board of Education, said he was puzzled as to why it would take years to revoke the license of an individual who had already admitted wrongdoing in a criminal court.

"I understand in some cases we have to wait for enough evidence to be gathered and individuals are entitled to due process, but some of these folks are no-brainers," Waters said. "Especially when were talking about someone pleading guilty to sex crimes involving children."

Even without the additional delay of waiting for criminal charges to be resolved, revoking a teacher's license can be a lengthy process. In the case of Ronald J. Williamson, accused of giving students an advance look at the May 2003 proficiency test, it was a year before his case went to the state board and his license was revoked.

By that time Williamson had apparently left Nevada -- attempts to locate him locally were unsuccessful and he was believed to have moved to Florida, education officials said at the time of the state board's vote.

During its 2004 session, Washington state's legislature requiring the superintendent of instruction to make a recommendation as to the status of a teacher's license within a year of launching an investigation.

"The lawmakers wanted to make sure we were doing our jobs in a timely manner," said Kim Schmanke, spokeswoman for the Office of the Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction. "In most cases were completing investigations within a year but when there were also criminal charges to be resolved it was taking as long as two years."

Additionally, the Washington superintendent's office is now flagging teacher licenses that have investigations pending, alerting potential employers in other states, Schmanke said.

"It's a way of letting people know if they're considering the person for employment they should call us first," Schmanke said.