Editor's Note: Numerous instances of plagiarism have been discovered in Dan Kimber’s “Education Matters” column, which ran in the News- Press from September 2003 to September 2011. In those columns where plagiarism has been found, a For the Record specifying the details will be appended to the piece.
There was an interesting article in The Times last week about a flaw in California's child-abuse reporting system. It seems that the wrongly accused remain listed as reported child abusers, and the state has established no appeals procedure. The original "abuse reports" are used for employment screening, and there is no way for the innocent party to contest the report.
Looking back over my years as a teacher, I think of the many warnings and precautions that we teachers were given to avoid situations that may invite charges of impropriety. I hear from my colleagues that that message has been once again passed along to teachers to avoid any situations (teacher's assistants assigned during a teacher's preparation period, one-on-one tutoring/counseling after school) that may create a "compromising situation."