OLYMPIA — Schools in Snohomish County are busy trying to determine how a new state Supreme Court decision will affect the way they publicly identify teachers accused of sexual misconduct.
The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that identities of public school teachers who face unsubstantiated allegations of sexual misconduct can be kept secret to protect the educators’ privacy.
The 6-3 ruling partially reversed a state Court of Appeals ruling that those identities must be disclosed under state public records laws, unless the allegations of misconduct were clearly false.
Kim Mead, president of the Everett teachers union, said she was thrilled by the ruling. It will allow teachers to educate kids without the fear of their careers being ruined by a false accusation, she said.
“I don’t think any teacher minds being held to a high standard and wants to be held to a high standard, but not one that’s based on lies,” said Mead, president of the 1,200-member Everett Education Association. “They shouldn’t have to pay for someone’s false accusation.”
The Supreme Court’s majority, led by Justice Mary Fairhurst, ruled that a teacher’s identity should be made public only when alleged sexual misconduct has been substantiated or when that conduct results in some form of discipline, even if only a reprimand.
But the identity of teachers who have been subject to unsubstantiated allegations should not become public because “such disclosure would violate the teacher’s right to privacy.”
“Allegations of such abuse should be thoroughly investigated by school districts and, if the allegations are substantiated, the media may request records containing the identity of the perpetrating teacher,” Fairhurst wrote.
In Everett schools, parents are told when their child’s teacher is removed from the classroom because of allegations of sexual misconduct, said spokeswoman Mary Waggoner. The district doesn’t publicize all the details of the alleged misconduct while teachers are being investigated, she said.
She’s not sure how the Supreme Court ruling will affect Everett schools.
“I don’t know what this means,” she said. “We’ll do whatever the law requires us to do.”
In Edmonds, district officials are also trying to determine what sort of impact the ruling will have.
“It will take time to read through, and understand and interpret the ruling,” said Jennifer Aaby, a spokeswoman for the Edmonds School District.
In a scathing dissent, Justice Barbara Madsen said the ruling could conceal information needed to help determine whether the state’s school districts are addressing sexual misconduct allegations, meaning that “predatory teachers may go undetected and unpunished.”
The ruling will make it easier for school districts to shuffle predatory teachers and coaches to different schools, said Toby Nixon, president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government in Seattle. He believes that parents should be able to find out if their child’s teacher has been accused, even wrongly, of sexual misconduct — especially if there’s a pattern.
“It’s one thing to be able to have this general idea of whether allegations are being investigated or not in a district,” he said. “It’s quite another one for a parent to be able to find out whether their student’s teacher has had a series of accusations made against him by different people at different times. Under the decision today, parents won’t be able to find that out.”
The case stems from a 2003 investigative project by a Seattle newspaper that found 159 coaches in Washington were fired or reprimanded for sexual misconduct, ranging from harassment to rape.
As part of its research, the paper filed public disclosure requests with 10 school districts seeking copies of all records relating to allegations of teacher sexual misconduct in the previous 10 years.
Several teachers sued to keep the districts from releasing their records, arguing that it violated their right to privacy. The newspaper became a party in the lawsuit, seeking for the records to be released. The Herald joined other newspapers in going to court to seek access to the information.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.
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