A KUOW investigation reveals Seattle teachers who hit, slapped, sexually harassed or verbally abused students. The district allowed these teachers to keep teaching.
On a rainy morning two years ago, James Johnson, a Seattle teacher, punched an eighth grader in the jaw.
Johnson was not fired — even though a Seattle Public Schools investigation found that he had punched his student in the face. Through a public records request, KUOW obtained records for 10 cases in which teachers were disciplined for verbal abuse, physical abuse or sexual harassment against children in Seattle Public Schools from 2012 to 2018.
An elementary school teacher with a history of yanking children’s hair was found to have pulled a slouching child by his ears “from a reclined to an upright position in his seat,” leaving the child quietly sobbing for the rest of class. The teacher received a written reprimand. In 2004, Johnson was disciplined for pushing a student into lockers in the Clover Park School District, near Tacoma. The student’s chain necklace broke during the conflict.
But after a hearing with then-Superintendent Larry Nyland, in which Meany Principal Chanda Oatis spoke on Johnson’s behalf, Nyland instead gave Johnson a five-day suspension. “How does someone get away with assaulting a minor?” Elinor said recently. “It doesn't make a lot of sense to me.” Midway through that stretch, in June 2018, a district investigation found that Johnson had, indeed, sexually harassed students. He had touched girls on the shoulders and legs and made them uncomfortable, the district found.
Personnel files show a Seattle Schools human resources official recommended against firing Johnson because the evidence regarding the intimidation allegations was inconsistent. It is unclear why the sexual harassment findings did not result in discipline. The 2016 district investigation found that Schmidt “slapped, swatted or hit” a student’s hand down when she raised it to ask a question. In another incident, Schmidt, who is white, reportedly implied to a student that African-American children all look alike.
Schmidt had started an application for medical leave because of his erratic behavior just days before the John Hay principal put him on administrative leave. Before Schmidt worked in Seattle, he had a long tenure in Steilacoom Historical School District, near Tacoma. Schmidt said he has sustained between eight and 10 major concussions over his lifetime. “You’re talking to a guy with a broken brain,” Schmidt said.
“The biggest challenge is summertime,” Cronas said. “Nobody’s around to do a reference check. So you do the best you can with the information you’ve got.” In 2018, Schmidt was on administrative leave again: this time, for allegedly pushing and yelling at two girls in his class after one of the children rode a bicycle the wrong way.
After the district told Schmidt they planned to investigate the incident, he agreed to resign. He signed a second settlement agreement with Seattle Public Schools. Seattle never substantiated the newest abuse allegations against Schmidt, because the district stopped investigating when he agreed to resign.
Schmidt told parents that he did not have the training or experience to teach 7th grade math, and that the district had failed to support him. In fact, state law requires that superintendents notify the state within 10 days after an educator is forced to resign or fired for misconduct. Since 1993, there have only been three investigations into a superintendent not reporting misconduct.When the state started investigating Kevin Schmidt, he voluntarily surrendered his teaching license, “just so people stop bothering me,” he said.“You could make the argument I shouldn’t teach,” he said. “Should I have gotten out earlier? Absolutely. But when you’re having medical issues, you don’t make the best decisions.
In 2012, at McClure Middle School on Queen Anne, staff called 911 after the school principal ignored their complaints that Johnson appeared to be grooming students for inappropriate relationships, said a former teacher at that school who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisal by the district.
“Female students … came to me, often in tears, and reported that when they were doing work in class, he would come up to them from the back, put his arm around them, and breathe and talk softly into their ear and say things like how good they looked that day,” Perry said in an email to a district staffer.According to Perry’s email, a teachers union representative told Perry he had not reported the allegations in the mandatory time window.
Johnson received a two-year deferred prosecution for assault, including 32 hours of community service, a no-contact order with the student victim, and fines.Earlier this year, the state Office of Professional Practices ordered a six-month suspension of Johnson’s teaching certificate and for him to undergo a psychological evaluation “which validates his ability to have unsupervised access to students in a school environment.
Failure to disclose past discipline on an application is, itself, an act of misconduct that can result in termination at the district level, and action against an educator’s certificate at the state level. “Organizational culture is shaped by what you celebrate, what you tolerate, and what you absolutely will not allow,” said Rick Burke, who recently stepped down from the Seattle School Board.Attorney Shannon McMinimee said that while unions represent teachers accused of misconduct, it’s ultimately up to districts whether to fire an abusive teacher – and the state whether to let them keep teaching in public schools in Washington.
She said she’s seen districts reset their staff discipline standards, including during her time as general counsel in Tacoma Public Schools.
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