HAMPTON ROADS, Va. — Every year, there's a small number of educators who get in trouble for misconduct.
News 3 first reported on this back in September, and we're now following up with more recent cases of heinous crimes done at the hands of people hired to teach and protect children in Hampton Roads.
- Ryan Elza, a former eighth-grade teacher who admitted to a series of suspicious fires last year in the West Ghent area of Norfolk, has received a 10-year sentence.
- The Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney's Office announced in August that an Ocean Lakes High School teacher accused of sexually abusing an exchange student will serve five years in prison, the highest possible sentence for this charge. Robert Burton Weisenbeck, 55, was sentenced on charges of custodial indecent liberties. In addition to his prison sentence, Weisenbeck must also register as a sex offender and undergo sex offender treatment.
- A Chesapeake Public Schools employee is out of a job after an investigation into his conduct with a student. He was put on administrative leave on Nov. 21 and he voluntarily surrendered his license and requested cancellation in response to a petition for revocation by the Chesapeake Public Schools in February.
RELATED: News 3 Investigates when Virginia teachers lose their license over serious misconduct
Every year, about 6,000 teachers across the country have an adverse action taken against their license, according to the National Association of State Directors of Teacher, Education, and Certification (NASDTEC). This group keeps track of all the cases — some are criminal cases while others are not.
We requested information from the Virginia Department of Education about teachers who have lost their licenses since 2022 in Hampton Roads.
In two separate cases, a teacher in Virginia Beach and another in Norfolk lost their licenses after child abuse charges surfaced. Child Protective Services (CPS) investigated the cases.
Another Newport News teacher had his license revoked after getting into an altercation with a student in a classroom.
The DOE said teachers in Virginia go through an extensive criminal background check when hired and then have their names run through the NASDTEC Clearinghouse.
NASDTEC Executive Director Jimmy Adams said the state pays for all Virginia public schools to have access to the database.
Adams said the Clearinghouse allows states to see things that may not have risen to a criminal action but could be misconduct or inappropriate behavior. He said it is one level that is necessary to protect children.
Troy Hutchings is the Senior Policy Advisor for NASDTEC. He says the database helps schools complete a thorough background check of potential hires.
“In an era when there is a catastrophic teacher shortage it helps the districts to not take shortcuts,” said Hutchings.
The Clearinghouse can detect problems a teacher may have had in another state.
“We have found people who have lost a license and they've now moved into another location and they're applying for a job in the system,” said Hutchings.
News 3's investigation found two cases like this in recent months. Two teachers were denied a Virginia license after trying to come from another state where they had a problem.
One man from Kentucky had a history of making inappropriate remarks to students along with having “anger issues” and was described as a “flat-out bully." He was denied a Virginia teaching license.
Another woman from Ohio was denied a teaching license after failing to report suspected child abuse in her previous state.
In a separate case, a local teacher got hired last January, then resigned in May after the Virginia Department of Education denied her teaching license after they learned that a child almost drowned while in her care at her daycare center in 2017.
But only finalized cases are put into the NASDTEC Clearinghouse.
It could take several months for an appeal process to finalize, which means there could be a gap in time between when the teacher gets in trouble for misconduct to the time when the names are reported to the Clearinghouse.
“When you're taking action against someone’s livelihood, it's a big deal, and it deserves that kind of due process,” said Hutchings.
NASDTEC leaders said continually utilizing the Clearinghouse is important to catch anyone who may have slipped through the cracks.
Hutchings says preventing misconduct before it happens is critical.
He said having open discussions about professional ethics and the difficult situations that teachers can be put in, along with recognizing inappropriate behavior early on, is key to putting an end to future problematic behavior.
“Prevention is so much better. By the time a person ends up in the Clearinghouse, at least one kid has been hurt or something has happened within the community,” said Adams.
They stress that with over 4 million teachers in the country, the number of people getting in trouble for misconduct is extremely small.
“I really think that every state is working very diligently to protect their children,” said Adams.
