ACCUSED-TEACHER BILL KILLED BY COMMITTEE

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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 22, 1992                   TAG: 9202220410
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short
ACCUSED-TEACHER BILL KILLED BY COMMITTEE
A bill to shield teachers from career-threatening publicity when they're accused of child abuse was killed in a Senate committee Friday.
The bill had cleared the House of Delegates, but members of the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services said they feared it would protect teachers at the expense of children.
The bill's sponsor, Del. Mary Christian, D-Hampton, said the idea was not to prevent teachers from being reported but to keep them from unwarranted publicity.
"Teachers are in a vulnerable position," said Rob Jones, president of the Virginia Education Association, which supported the measure. "If you give a bad grade, criticize a parent for neglect or abuse, or even administer punishment for misbehavior, a teacher is in a position where their very job security can be ended by allegations of child abuse."
The bill would have exempted teachers from investigations by social services workers, which sometimes get publicized even when there is no more than a suspicion of abuse.
Instead, teacher investigations would have gone right to local commonwealth's attorneys. That would be more confidential and clear-cut, proponents argued.
Commonwealth's attorneys, local government officials and the Virginia PTA opposed the bill, but all sides agreed that teachers need some form of protection from vengeful parents.
The bill was deferred to next year, and Jones promised the various groups would work to find "a solution to this where the rights of all are protected."
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB