How it works: Teacher abuse investigations

The state Department of Education offers schools guidance when it comes to investigations into suspected teacher abuse involving students.

The DOE defines teacher sexual abuse to include criminal offenses laid out under Iowa Code and a number of other inappropriate, intentional sexual behaviors and sexual harassment.

“The definition of ‘sexual abuse' is deliberately broad,” the manual states. “It includes inappropriate conduct between an adult school employee and a student, such as sexual language and innuendo or behaviors with suggestive sexual overtones, as well as sexual social behaviors such as kissing, dating, etc. It certainly includes sexual harassment or the promise of favorable treatment in return for sexual favors or activities.”

Although educators are mandatory child abuse reporters – if they have reason to suspect that a child is being physically or sexually abused at home they are required by law to report that suspicion to the Department of Human Services – there is no mandatory reporting of suspected abuse of students by school employees. Schools only are obligated to investigate suspected abuse if they receive a complaint.

Here's how it works:

When a school employee receives a complaint of teacher abuse, they forward that information to a designated internal investigator -- it could be a principal, teacher or other staff member.

Anyone can file a complaint who has knowledge of an incident of abuse, but an adult has to witness the report, to keep people from filing frivolous reports. Schools aren't required to investigate anonymous reports.

If the investigator thinks the alleged student victim is in imminent danger, they can temporarily remove the student from contact with the employee under investigation, temporarily remove that employee from service or take other appropriate action.

Investigators can interview victims and witnesses, review victims' school records and – if they think there's grounds – the accused teacher him or herself.

The internal investigator's job isn't to find out whether the accused educator is guilty or innocent, but to determine whether it's likely that an incident took place and whether the school has jurisdiction over the case (if it happened on school grounds, school time, on a school-sponsored activity or in a school-related context).

If they find the report is “founded”, they have a choice: forward the case to law enforcement if it seems a criminal law has been violated, or to an external investigator with special training -- could be law enforcement, the county attorney's office, DHS workers or other private parties experienced in abuse investigations.

If they think the report is unfounded, or if the accused teacher resigns in the middle of the investigation, they close the books on the investigation. At that point, the district can decide whether or not to file a complaint with the state Board of Educational Examiners.

“The designated investigator has discretion to file a complaint with the board in situations where the employee has resigned as a result of the allegation or investigation but has not admitted that a violation occurred.”

And again:

“In all cases of founded abuse, file a complaint with either the BoEE or the DE's transportation consultant (if the school employee is a bus driver). The only time that filing a complaint is discretionary is when the employee has voluntarily resigned without admitting the truth of the allegation and without agreeing to surrender his/her license or certificate.”

I talked to some local superintendents last week to find out more about how they handle investigations within their districts. Here is what some of them had to say:

Clear Creek Amana Superintendent Paula Vincent told me her district appoints and trains a number of Level 1 investigators who are instructed to contact law enforcement immediately if they receive a serious allegation of teacher abuse or misconduct involving a student and they know they won't be able to immediately verify whether the incident took place.

When investigating a complaint, she said, they'll frequently seek guidance and help from the state Board of Educational Examiners throughout. Frequently, she said, the district will hire an independent investigator right away, instead of waiting for the case to reach the state-required second level of investigation.

“It's difficult, as you can imagine, having a staff member investigate another staff member,” she said. “So when it's one of our own staff members we often will have an outside person that we contract with.”

Linn-Mar Community School Superintendent Katie Mulholland told me her district appoints Level 1 investigators at each school and a few district-wide investigators so that a complainant has plenty of options even if they're uncomfortable reporting an incident to staff at a particular school. “We want to make it possible for anybody to report anything to anybody,” she said.

She said Linn-Mar also is working on a district policy that will govern digital communication between teachers and students – so every teacher and student understands what's appropriate. Although she said there haven't been any inappropriate communications reported at Linn-Mar, it's a “grayish” area that other schools have struggled with, and they're looking to clarify the issue of what's appropriate. They're still working out the details, she said:

“It's really hard to figure this all out without having five pages of rules,” she said. “So we're probably going to just going to get down to absolutes – either yes or no – and there would be very few instances when individual contacts are allowed.”

Vinton-Shellsburg also has Level 1 investigators in each building, Superintendent Mary Jo Hainstock told me: “they are generally people that students and staff would have direct and quick access to report something.”

She echoed the sentiments of several superintendents when she said that her district forwards every founded complaint to the state Board of Educational Examiners.

“The number one priority is making sure that we do things keeping kids safety in mind,” she said.

One key, she said, is in making sure that students and families and staff all understand where the boundaries are between appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Her district encourages staff not to send text messages or e-mails to individual students – to contact an entire class or team if they're going to send messages – and to make sure their class websites are hosted on the school's site.

Iowa City Schools has four Level 1 investigators, Associate Superintendent Jim Behle told me: two assistant superintendents (including Behle), District Equity Director Ross Wilburn and the district's head nurse.

The district won't investigate anonymous complaints, and has an informal option for parents who don't want to start a formal Level 1 investigation. (“It's not an option to not investigate,” he said. “We just give parents the option of whether they want to do a formal or informal.”

Every single one of those founded formal complaints goes to law enforcement – officers in the Iowa City and Coralville police departments serve as the district's Level 2 investigators, Behle said. Those officers have been trained through the Department of Education, so they can do an administrative as well as criminal investigation.

In addition, Iowa City's policy is to immediately forward any allegations of sexual abuse or misconduct to law enforcement. Behle said that would include misconduct like sexually themed e-mails.

“We believe it's better if it's investigated by an independent party,” he said. “There's always a suspicion that the school may cover something up, and we don't want even a perception of that.”