TEACHER-CHILD ABUSE SCRUTINY ALTERATION MEASURE ADVANCES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 5, 1992                   TAG: 9202050299
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
TEACHER-CHILD ABUSE SCRUTINY ALTERATION MEASURE ADVANCES
The state's teachers' lobby scored a big victory Tuesday as a House committee voted to remove teachers from the scrutiny of the state social services system when they're accused of child abuse.
Following a sometimes emotional debate, the Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee voted 13-7 to advance a bill that would let prosecutors, rather than child protective services workers, investigate child abuse complaints against teachers.
The committee also voted 17-3 for a bill to bar disclosure of any information in state records about first offenses of suspected child abuse. Those records could be released, however, if there was a subsequent "founded" or suspected case of abuse.
The votes were viewed as a major victory by the VEA, which characterized social workers as almost incompetent to judge child abuse in classrooms, particularly when emotionally disturbed and special education students were involved.
Child advocates accused the teachers' group of chipping away at legal protections for children in favor of alleged abusers.
"This year, it's teachers. Next year it may be day-care workers," said University of Richmond law Professor Robert Shepherd Jr. "We don't need to amend this law on a piecemeal basis. We need to look at the entire issue" of non-family abuse.
In testimony to the committee, the VEA charged that teachers' careers have been ruined by "reason to suspect" labels, which they said have followed teachers by being posted in the state's central computer.
Although the registry information is confidential under the law, leaks persist and allegations are placed in teachers' permanent files, several witnesses said.
Under the current system, "you've given the accuser the covert ability to destroy a teacher's career," said Doris Boitnott, a VEA troubleshooter in the Roanoke valley.
"Guilt is assumed even before a hearing. Denials sound feeble. And hearing officers, who are charged with making a judgment, are often totally unaware of the school situation."
But John Oliver, Chesapeake deputy city attorney and chairman of the Governor's Advisory Board on Child Abuse, said little is done about the cases in which teachers are confronted with abuse allegations and allowed to resign quietly.
"Nothing is known, then," Oliver said. "Nothing is on the record and that teacher goes on to another school system . . . ."
He asked that the issue be tabled for a year to allow a state Social Services Department task force to complete its work on non-family abuse.
Dick Pulley, a VEA lobbyist, said the teachers' group had discussed the issue for two years with state welfare officials, who had agreed to exempt teachers from the law.
But Demis Stewart, director of service programs for the state Department of Social Services, said local agency directors and child protective service workers howled in protest when they discovered the agency's decision. The compromise would have eliminated any mechanism for investigating teachers.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB