District seeks sanctions against teacher for inappropriate texts with student

A complaint was filed with the State Board of Educator Certification (SBEC) against a teacher, alleging that his teaching certificate should be sanctioned due to allegations that he engaged in inappropriate communications and solicited a romantic relationship with a student. The teacher denied the allegations and requested a hearing before the State Office of Administrative Hearings.

At the hearing, evidence was introduced to show that the teacher taught high school science for many years prior to the allegations against him. The district opened an investigation after the teacher's wife reported concerns that the teacher was text messaging a student late at night. 

According to the teacher's wife, she and the teacher had been fighting. She decided to review their cellphone records and discovered a phone number that came up multiple times. When she confronted the teacher, he confirmed that the number belonged to a student and that he had been texting her for some time. 

The teacher's wife further reported that, on at least one occasion, she woke up at 11 p.m. and found the teacher texting the student. At the time, the teacher told her that the student needed help with a personal matter. The teacher's wife provided the district a phone log showing the communications between the teacher and the student. The teacher was then placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

During the investigation, the student informed the district that she was the president for the Astronomy Club for which the teacher was the faculty sponsor. She confirmed that the teacher had her number and that they would text about club matters and other things "from time to time." The student stated that the teacher never communicated with her in a sexual nature. The student also provided the district with the text messages on her phone.

The phone log provided to the district revealed that over the course of 10 days, the teacher sent to or received from the student 166 text messages. Many of the weekday text messages appeared to occur throughout the course of the school day. However, on one day, the text messaging began at 12:33 a.m., with the final text message sent by the teacher at 4:07 a.m. Many of the text messages did discuss school matters, but the teacher also discussed his relationship with his wife, alcohol, and other personal matters with the student. A sample text exchange included the following:

• Teacher: Guess I've calm down a bit, but you know how every Friday night I run poker? 
• Student: yes . . . omg what happened; are you drunk haha
• Teacher: Mmmmm, not really (silly face emoji); I was just pissed and first person I thought to text was you... my lady was riding my ass with such bullshit in front of all our friends; I don't mind losing, that's what's fun, I did end up splitting the pot at the end. 
• Student: was she drunk?; what was she saying that made you upset? 
• Teacher: You know what's crazy, for a minute I was thinking I'm gonna get some Mike hard lemonade and hang out with you lol

The teacher admitted to the district that he exchanged text messages with the student, including texting outside of "normal hours." He further admitted to texting the student at 11 p.m. and in the middle of the night. Regarding the middle of the night text, the teacher claimed that when he sent the text, he believed that he had texted a friend. When the student responded to the text, he continued to text with her. He further claimed that any references to alcohol consumption in the text messages were meant as a joke and acknowledged that his communications with the student were inappropriate.

At the conclusion of the investigation, the teacher was informed that a recommendation would be made to terminate his contract. He was given an opportunity to resign prior to that recommendation and elected to do so. The district then made a report to SBEC.

The teacher acknowledged at the hearing before the State Office of Administrative Hearings that it was not appropriate to text the student late at night and that he showed poor judgement. He claimed that he did not receive any formal training or guidance regarding contacting students outside of the school setting. He believed that teachers were just expected to know what would and would not be appropriate. He noted that teachers make mistakes and claimed he would not make this one again. He requested a second chance and asked that his teaching certificate not be revoked.

Following the hearing, the administrative law judge concluded that the teacher violated multiple provisions of the Educators Code of Ethics, notably by failing to maintain appropriate professional educator-student relationships and boundaries based on a reasonably prudent educator standard and by failing to refrain from inappropriate communication with a student or minor, including, but not limited to, electronic communication such as cellphone, text messaging, email, instant messaging, blogging, or other social network communication. 

The administrative law judge recommended that the teacher's certification be revoked. After considering the recommendation, SBEC agreed and voted to issue a final order that revoked the teacher's certification.