Teacher

When the police were leaving a Thousand Oaks high school campus after a routine search of student lockers for contraband, one of their drug-sniffing dogs paused at a vehicle in the staff parking lot. The car belonged to a special education teacher, and police said the marijuana found inside the vehicle did too. Since Courtney Stockton was placed on leave from his teaching duties at Westlake High School , one of his former students —...

One of two teachers accused of abusing students at Miramonte Elementary School was charged Tuesday with three felony counts and fired by the Los Angeles Board of Education. Martin Bernard Springer, 49, was arrested Friday after two students at the school accused him of fondling them. But the charges filed Tuesday - three counts of committing lewd acts - involve a single girl. A law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation said the second girl recanted her accusation.

Gerald Freedman teaches at a Los Angeles County high school, by all accounts laudably, while technically employed by the city school district. That arrangement worked fine for almost a quarter of a century. But because of budget cuts and a Los Angeles Unified School District policy change, Freedman is being ordered to return to a city classroom next fall. Freedman and others are trying to find a way for him to stay at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, but the prospects seem bleak.

Five mornings a week, Bruce Kravets, 66, puts on a coat and tie, straps on his helmet and bikes to work at Palms Middle School on L.A.'s Westside, where he teaches math. For free. Last June, after 42 years of teaching, Kravets retired. He'd put so much money into his retirement fund over the decades, his monthly compensation if he stepped down would be greater than his regular pay. But that didn't mean he was ready to abandon teaching. His plan was to stay on and teach for no salary, because he couldn't think of anything more fun or rewarding than teaching algebra, geometry, logic and stage craft.

A city schoolteacher removed from the classroom more than seven years ago for alleged misconduct -- and who continued to receive a full paycheck the entire time -- should be fired immediately, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ordered Tuesday. The ruling was the latest turn in the Los Angeles Unified School District's long battle to terminate Matthew Kim, a former special education teacher at Grant High School in Van Nuys. Kim had been accused of touching co-workers' breasts and making improper advances and comments toward students.

Parents will be notified within 72 hours when a teacher is removed from a classroom because of sexual-misconduct allegations, Los Angeles school officials announced Thursday. The new policy addresses parent anger after the arrests of several teachers and other Los Angeles Unified School District employees. "The spate of cases involving sexual misconduct in recent months has prompted a reevaluation of our reporting procedures," Supt. John Deasy said in a statement. Parents at Miramonte Elementary in unincorporated Florence-Firestone were upset that they received no explanation when veteran teacher Mark Berndt was pulled from class early in 2011.

The parents in Parkersburg want their good children to get good grades. When they do not, they go to their elected officials and complain. Their elected officials see their duty and inform the principal of the teacher in question. The principal goes to the teacher and informs him that the good voters are upset that their good children are not getting good grades. Therefore, the teacher is told that good teachers are teachers who are able to give their students good grades. Only a bad teacher would be forced to give their students bad grades.

Re "The Facts of Life" (March 15): It was with great interest, and, yes, a few tears, that I read Lily Eng's article on Shirley Lewis and her dedicated work with the children at CHOC. How fortunate these unfortunate children are to have such a loving and caring teacher--a difficult job, to say the least. BETTY DAY, Yorba Linda

A former teacher at a Pacoima elementary school who continued to work in Los Angeles Unified schools despite several red flags was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison after he admitted molesting 13 students. In letters read to Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lloyd Nash, the parents of three victims explained how third-grade teacher Paul Chapel lured the Telfair Elementary School children before molesting them. One mother, identified as Darlene, wrote that Chapel "personally requested" her son to be in his class.

The baby sitter's daughter scarcely slept the other night, the night before she was to head back to school. All night, she lay petrified on her little white bed, thinking of the teacher with the evil eye. Actually it's a glass eye, and scarcely noticeable, but the teacher who has it is daunting and gruff. It was said around the playground that if you didn't do your homework, she would pluck out her eye and send it to spy on you. The baby sitter's daughter had a checkered past regarding homework.