HAMPTON ROADS, Va. – The vast majority of teachers are wonderful people devoting their lives to helping people learn but a small number of them break boundaries and wind up in trouble.
Every year a small number of teachers lose their license in the state of Virginia for serious misconduct.
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.
Burton declined an interview with News 3 about the case.
In June, a Tabb High School teacher was arrested after the York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office said it received a report of inappropriate relations between the teacher and students.
According to the YPSO, 32-year-old Kristen McAllister was charged with two felony counts of taking indecent liberties with a child by a person in a custodial or supervisory relationship and two misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The sheriff's office said the two counts of the charges refer to two different occasions with the same person.
Both cases made headlines this summer in Hampton Roads.
Shocking allegations in cases like this happen around the country caused which is why there was the creation of the website- naughtyteacherlist.com.
The founder of the website, Jason only wanted to be identified by his first name for safety reasons.
He said he started the website in January and by August had about 250 cases on the website with another 300 not posted yet.
“There are many teachers that are dating their students,” he said. He believes this is a problem that needs more attention.
Former New York resident Brittany Rohl is 29 years-old today. She said back in high school, a teacher who was also her coach and twice her age started to groom and isolate her when she was 16-years-old.
“He would tell me that I was special, that no one else understood me like he did,” said Rohl.
She said he would take her special sporting trips, spend extra time with her and share personal information.
“He talked about his own mental health, his own relationships, his marriage,” said Rohl, “Adult topics that make you feel like you're being let in on learning about the world but what it's really doing is breaking down those boundaries.”
She said it began very slowly and continued to progress throughout high school.
She said he was beloved, respected, and adorable by the community.
“Groomers don't just groom the child. They groom the community. They groom parents,” said Rohl.
She says their first kiss happened the day she graduated high school.
“Two months later, I turned eighteen and that week he drove to my house in the middle of the night and texted me and said, ‘come outside’ and then the sexual part of that started,” said Rohl.
She said she continued the toxic relationship into college.
She said no charges were ever filed and he never got into trouble.
Some experts say it’s the cases that you don’t hear in the news that are the most dangerous.
Every year about 6,000 teachers across the country get adverse action taken against them, according to the National Association of State Directors of Teacher, Education, and Certification, NASDTEC.
Teachers can get in trouble after being arrested, having inappropriate relations with at student, getting physical with a student or even in some states not paying their child support.
NASDTEC leaders say to have your license taken away you have engaged in serious misconduct that deems them unsafe however the offense may not elevate to the level of a criminal offense.
According to their website, this Clearinghouse is the national collection point for actions taken against an educators license or certificate and they maintain a database of all disciplinary actions reported by NASDTEC members and disseminates this information to all participating NASDTEC jurisdictions.
When hired in Virginia teachers go through an extensive criminal background check with fingerprints and have their names are run through NASDTEC clearinghouse.
The News 3 Investigative team interviewed NASDTEC Executive Director Phillip Rogers. He said across the country, “There are significantly more cases every year being entered to the clearinghouse than there was ten years ago, fifteen years ago.”
He said the exact reason is unknown, but it could be better screening or better reporting.
The Virginia Department of Education posts the list of licenses and endorsements denied, revoked, suspended, canceled, or reinstated by the Board of Education since 2000. Click here to see the list.
The News 3 Investigative team requested the petitions for the teachers who lost their licenses in the last four years in the Hampton Roads area.
“The petition provides the State Board of Education with a summary of the facts determined at the local level during the investigation by the school division,” said Charles Pyle, Director of Communication for the Virginia Department of Education.
There were about 20 teachers in our region on the list.
While reviewing the records we found in 2019 one teacher in Portsmouth had his license taken away after he was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with an 18-year-old student.
There is a lengthy investigative process that occurs by the school division and then a panel for the state where evidence and statements are presented.
Rogers said different districts and states take different amounts of time to complete these kinds of reviews.
In this case, another teacher reported to school leaders that the teen said this teacher was her “sugar daddy”, and that he “asked for nudes” and “groped her in his truck”.
During the investigation, he admitted he texted her at almost 11 pm at night when the communication started. After having some type of argument in January of 2019, the petition states the teacher and student spoke on the phone for 34 minutes.
Investigative personnel claimed in transcripts that they had text messages, phone messages, a video of her in his truck at a fast-food drive-through, and “insurmountable” evidence that he pursued this young lady.
The teacher firmly denied any allegations of an inappropriate relationship with the student and said the accusation is an example of the student lacking sound judgment in an attempt to gain social acceptance from her peers at his expense.
In the petition the teacher claimed that the student was pursuing him and frustrated that he was not receptive to her advances. It states the teacher admitted to wrongdoing and testified that moving forward he understands that his conduct was not “exemplary of a professional”.
The petition states that the teacher claimed that he was outwitted by an 18-year-old and that she turned his simple responses into allegations that he was trying to lure her into a relationship.
He had his license revoked.
In 2019 in Portsmouth, another teacher in the district also lost his license. There was an investigation completed with a summary of the findings in a petition. It stated the teacher was accused of several inappropriate actions including of showing “pictures of his genitals” to a counselor, showing pictures of his genitals to a former student, and saying sexual comments to students.
The documents reveal that he admitted in July to having a relationship with an 18-year-old who had just graduated in June.
The petition states that according to the investigative file the teacher said he didn’t have any relations with students or any former students who were under 18-year-old.
He allegedly admitted that he did engage with a former student who was 18-years-old but said she started it by texting him first. It states that he said “we were two grown-ups”, “she wasn’t in school”, and that he fell for it. It states he said, “I’m completely wrong. I totally agree but she is an adult.”
He denied being inappropriate and fought to keep his license, but it was revoked by the state.
Both of these cases took several months to complete as the teachers are allowed to fight the decisions made by the school divisions and argue in front of the state panel with an attorney.
The information about the misconduct is not reported to NASDTEC until the case is finalized.
“When it's final, then it's entered (into the clearinghouse) which in itself is a problem because some of those cases take years to adjudicate,” said Rogers.
He said a teacher could leave the job after there were reported allegations of misconduct and while the appeal process is underway, then apply for a teaching job in another state or district and get hired because nothing appears on NASDTEC background check because only final decisions are entered into the system.
“It's important for school districts to run their entire database on a regular basis against NASDTEC because things take time. Due process isn’t quick and is longer in some states than it is in others,” said Rogers.
Our investigation revealed – an orchestra teacher in Georgia lost his license after child porn accusations surfaced. It states there were allegations of child porn found on his home computer. He stated that he gave private piano lessons at his home and his clients used his personal computer.
The petition in his case stated that “according to law enforcement, the evidence didn’t meet the threshold for prosecution.”
He resigned from the school district in Georgia but before his information made it to the NASDTEC clearinghouse he was hired in Virginia and worked in Isle of Wight County for four months between August 2018 and December 2018 until the “division became aware”.
It states he did not disclose police investigation that occurred in Georgia when filling out the application in Virginia. He had his license taken away in Virginia.
“If the state has taken adverse action against a certificate, that's somebody that needs to be looked at a second, third time, and you would have no way of knowing that if you did not check the clearinghouse,” said Roger.
The News 3 Investigative teams also found that a “substitute teacher” in Alabama got arrested for “sexual misconduct” with a student and then married her which prevented her from testifying against him in court. The case got dismissed.
He applied to teach in Virginia, but the clearinghouse detect that he lost his license in Alabama.
Pyle said, “It's not something you like to think about. We like to trust our teachers and we can trust, almost all of our teachers. They're amazing people, but there is this tiny minority that unfortunately has problems with boundaries.”
Rogers said the state of Virginia pay for all schools to have access to the NASDTEC clearinghouse. He said more districts need to be utilizing this and checking on a regular basis the names and backgrounds of the teachers they hire.
Rohl said for years she was overcome with shame and guilt, causing her to have issues with alcohol, panic attacks, and even contemplate suicide while having an inappropriate relationship with her teacher.
She went back to her school district on Long Island last year and spoke publicly about what she called a culture of inappropriate relationships.
She said she wants parents to know this is happening in communities across the country and wants more people to be aware of it.
