When children go to school, the employees assume responsibility for keiki safety and well-being. That temporary custody should mean that, collectively, the adults working there must account for behavior that falls short of that standard.
To that end, legislation is moving as it should to institute new safeguards and to eliminate ways bad actors currently can escape penalty.
One is Senate Bill 2475, a measure to create a “harm to students registry” of employees and volunteers working in Hawaii schools who are found to have committed sexual abuse, physical assault or other harassment against children. It is due today for decision-making by the Senate Ways and Means and the Judiciary committees.
The other measures are House Bill 2400 with a Senate companion measure, SB 3089, both seeking to tighten the process of investigating teachers accused of student sexual misconduct or abuse. The House version was amended on Friday to require teachers to surrender their license rather than it being revoked if they resign or retire before an investigation is completed.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will decide on any changes to SB 3089 at a meeting set for 9:30 a.m. Friday. The preamble in both these bills rightly notes the importance of closing a loophole that “allows these teachers to potentially continue their careers in other states or private schools without any consequences.”
A change from revoking a teacher license to suspending it during an investigation is also sought in SB 2475, as part of the establishment of the Harm to Students Registry.
This move, which comes from the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board, is fair. As Executive Director Felicia Villalobos pointed out in testimony, the board already has a process for revoking a license after an inquiry ends with a termination recommendation.
Overall, the bills seem well-founded. Specifically, supporters of the registry proposal underscore that the database makes information about individuals who have harmed students more accessible to all of Hawaii’s schools.
The rationale was made clear in testimony from public and private school officials alike. State schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi said it would increase “the ability of both private and public pre-K to 12 educational institutions to communicate and provide vital information to consider in rendering employment decisions.”
Philip Bossert, executive director of the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, told the senators that educational institutions have avoided making abuse cases public, adding that parents are often reluctant to put their children through the additional trauma of testifying publicly on a reported case. That can mean that “repeat offenders are thus able to move undetected from one school to another and continue to harm students,” Bossert said.
This is a vulnerability in the social safety net that cannot be allowed to persist.
The state’s Department of the Attorney General has noted that a school investigation of a case does not meet the same bar as criminal conviction in a court of law, which is required of sex-offender registration under state law. But this registry would not be made broadly public and principally would be available to warn other schools making a hiring decision.
One area that merits further discussion is finding a protocol for data sharing with the state Department of Human Services. The agency raised the issue because, among other duties, it reviews petitioners seeking adoptions and approval as child-care providers.
The sad litany of cases in which children have suffered abuse could be curbed with some well-considered reforms put forward by this legislation.
