Most educators are great people who dedicate their lives to teaching the youth, but state records show there is a very small percentage who use their role as a way to prey on victims.
The News 3 Investigative Team requested information from the Department of Education about the teachers who have gotten into trouble and lost their licenses in 2023.
Former Powhatan Band Director Andrew Snead was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to sex crime charges against students.
Eighteen-year-old Bella Hoffman testified at his trial back in June.
“I want kids to know what grooming is because I didn't know what it was. I just thought he was being nice to me. And every teenager wants somebody to be nice to them, so I thought he was being nice to me. But it was the opposite,” she said.
Prosecutors say he used textbook grooming with his victims. They said he had inappropriate sexual contact with kids in and out of school, requested naked pictures, gave them gifts and bought the children alcohol on two band trips to Ohio.
Prosecutors said his crimes date back to 2010, and several students, including Hoffman, testified in court.
In 2023, Snead’s teaching license was canceled. It’s one of 15 cases obtained by the News 3 Investigative Team from the Department of Education. In several cases, teachers who got in trouble for sexual misconduct with students in other states tried to get their teaching licenses in Virginia. In a handful of cases, they had their license denied or canceled.
In one Virginia Beach case, a teacher requested to have his license canceled after the district opened an investigation into his interaction with a student. Outside a rec center, records state a student said the teacher asked the kid to take a picture with his phone and saw an image of the teacher’s private area. It states the teacher was able to retire in lieu of dismissal.
In another case, a teacher in Chesapeake requested to cancel his license after an investigation into allegations of abuse. Charges were sent to the grand jury after an incident in the classroom.
The National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, or NASDTEC, is a professional support organization for people who oversee teaching licenses in states and jurisdictions across the county.
According to their website, “NASDTEC convenes educational partners, fosters diverse perspectives, and advocates for the teaching profession, while providing leadership, resources, and support to ensure the selection, preparation, licensure, and ongoing development of well-prepared educators.”
“Unfortunately, I think that a lot of times we will hear about some of those egregious situations and people knew and then there becomes this automatic assumption that it's very pervasive throughout the whole system and it's just not that way,” said NASDTEC Executive Director Jimmy Adams.
They have a clearinghouse that districts and states across the country use to identify potential red flags when teachers are applying for licenses.
They report about 6,000 of the 3.5 million public school teachers get adverse action taken against their license each year, which can be for a wide variety of issues. They say an extremely small number of cases are for sexual misconduct.
A teacher can get adverse action on their license for many different reasons, like breaking school policy, not paying child support or making an inappropriate comment. Most adverse actions do not lead to a teacher losing their license.
Districts around Virginia have access to the clearinghouse and can use it as a tool when hiring teachers.
“First and foremost, it’s about student safety, welfare, and well-being, but also for teachers for practitioners as well,” said Troy Hutchings, Senior Policy Adviser for NASDTEC.
They think more programs about ethical behavior for teachers could help prevent some problems. NASDTEC provides online videos and tools to help with this.
“Just that reminder that you are a professional and there’s a separation between students and teachers, and there’s a reason for that,” said Adams.
In hopes of keeping bad teachers out of the classrooms and the most vulnerable from being violated.
“I'm very happy it's over and he can't hurt anybody else anymore. I think that's the biggest thing,” said Hoffman.
