Lesson Learned? - Protecting students at school

In every profession, there is a line which should not be crossed. In some, there is a line which cannot be crossed. When you work with young people, especially children, you assume the role of protector. Knowing the world is full of things and people who might do them harm, your love and care sends the message that no matter what happens, nothing can hurt them while they are with you. As a parent, teacher, priest, pastor, school administrator, doctor, coach, or babysitter, you’re assuming a responsibility which should be more iportant to you than any and everything else – a responsibility for their innocence.

Unfortunately for about a dozen current and former Lincoln Middle School students, that responsibility wasn’t taken as seriously as it should have been. It turns out that alleged sexual predator, Thomas Beltran, had been accused of crossing the line (that nobody who works with young people should even think about approaching, much less crossing) possibly as far back as ten years ago. In 2006, a Lincoln student complained about being touched by Mr. Beltran, the most serious accusation that can be made against a teacher, and no action was taken against him. Make no mistake, I’m not saying the action taken wasn’t strong enough, I’m saying no action was taken. The student was temporarily moved out of his classroom and police were brought in to investigate, but prosecutors didn’t find enough evidence to bring a case against Mr. Beltran, who claimed his touching of the student was “misinterpreted,” and the matter was dropped. The decision was made by then-Principal Kathy Scott to “warn” him not to touch female students and allow him to continue teaching as though nothing had happened. No notice was sent to the School Board and nothing detailing the incident was added to Mr. Beltran’s personnel file. For all intents and purposes, it was like it never happened.

I should say that Mr. Beltran is, of course, innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. But as the details of his actions became public knowledge over the last week or so, I kept coming back to the same question, “why was a criminal standard being applied to such an obvious question of professional ethics?” I wondered who, besides Mr. Beltran, has a vested interest in seeing him back in the classroom, despite allegations that would certainly qualify as evidence that he shouldn’t be anywhere near teenage girls, much less teenage girls who don’t communicate well in English? The answer, of course, is the Santa Monica-Malibu Classroom Teachers Association. I’m not blaming them or holding them responsible for Mr. Beltran’s alleged crimes, but I am saying that they have a lot more work to do if they want to be considered part of the solution and not part of the problem. Their president, Harry Keiley, didn’t do them any favors with his reaction to the school district and school board’s plans to implement new child abuse policies. “The safety and well-being of children is at the forefront of our concern,” he said. Amazingly, he added a qualifier to that statement, saying, “but it also should be noted that teachers do not check their constitutional rights at their school doors as they walk in.” It’s almost like he said, “we want kids to be safe at school unless that safety potentially undermines what we believe to be the rights of teachers.”

Somebody should tell Mr. Keiley that without young people to educate, teachers’ rights aren’t really an issue because they won’t have jobs teaching. This is Santa Monica we’re talking about. There are a lot of people in this town who can and will send their kids to private schools if public school teachers’ constitutional rights somehow become more important to them than their students. At the same time, you never know whose child you’re educating in a particular classroom. There are some pretty wealthy people with some pretty deep pockets in Santa Monica, and few things motivate parents like getting justice for their kids. God forbid this happens again and the victim’s family decides to “lawyer up” and start chopping heads. Then some tough questions are going to be asked about who knew what and when, and what are the civil and criminal penalties involved.

I sincerely hope that all parties involved (parents, teachers, administrators, the school board, the district, and the Teachers Association) will put their collective heads together and come up with a way to repair whatever damage has been caused by this sad tale. As difficult as it may be, it’s much easier than trying to come up with an answer when a girl who was abused by someone she was supposed to be able to trust asks why you didn’t do anything to stop it.