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" Lacking judgment and impulse control are to be expected of children and teenagers. Those capabilities are not developed until the early 20's. Unit 5 has a ZERO tolerance policy for some student offenses, expulsion can result even in a first ever offense. Students are required to abide by all the rules set forth by the administration with little margin for error. Apparently, the same is not true for educators. Jon White, suspended with pay for accessing porn ON the job as a teacher. First offense or not, one that should have the same consequences as those for students. Does ZERO tolerance apply only to students? There's no second chance in any other school system for those expelled. Educators, however, are encourged to take their proclivities and teach elsewhere. "

" To bkr0521- don't put the blame on the parents of the children when Unit 5 and teachers knew he was looking at porn on a school computer. Usually if they are doing this at work they have a very serious problem which leads to the offender striking at work. "

" To Aaron- It is Unit 5's responsibility. Plain and simple sir if everyone overlooks this type of activity and gives him a " letter " they become part of the problem. TEACHERS and ADMINISTRATORS SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE for their "poor" judgements and actions. Because they could have stopped him from being hired again as a teacher they contributed to his crimes. The Catholic Church did the same type of things and look at them now. "

" Unit 5 should be held accountable-If I was one of the parents I'd sue Unit 5 for everything they owned. There is no excuse for this type of cover-up. That's exactly what this was. I like how the teachers education association states it's not uncommon for a letter like this to be made, as if that Ok's their actions. This is exactly what is WRONG with America. THE DUMBING OF AMERICA CONTINUES !!!!
THANK A TEACHER - "

" To BLKBELT: Where in the article does it state that the union kept the school from firing him? "

" Unit 5 is not to blame? That is EXACTLY what they want you to think. We live in such a bureaucratic litigious society that when a monster like this attacks our children our hands are tied and he has more rights than the victims. We need... NEED voucher systems so that we instill more competition in schooling. If there were more competition and privatized schools this would NOT happen because there would be no unions to fight for idiots like him. He would have been fired and everyone who asked would be told why. Let him get a job digging ditches or flushing porta potties. Better yet, send him to Turkey. Over there if he molested a child he'd have his hand cut off. Barbaric but effective. When are we going to stand up and stop tolerating this behavior from members of our community? "

" To start with, the mother of the student who threatened to call the police was aware of the fact that a teacher was taking too big an interest in a student. This is how sexual predators win the trust of potential victims- predators pay special attention and give things to children they want to molest. I guess parents haven't been learning the warning signs. But that is neither here nor there. The problem started well before that time. When Jon White was found to watching child pornagraphy in his classroom, instead of being suspended, he should have been fired and Unit 5 then make sure that if another school contacted them for a recommendation, that the Unit 5 officials told the other school not to hire White. Apparently, the Unit 5 officials did not see this as a big deal. I am glad my kids don't go to Unit 5. "

" Please...Unit 5 is not too blame. I'm sure they had every intent to remove Mr. White from his position, probably after his first poor choice of action, but I'd be willing to bet they would have been fought every step of the way by the "association." It was probably easier to have him resign and move on. The real crime is that someone or some group negotiated for his letter of recomendation, and that school systems are required to write these letters. Laws need to be changed. Place the blame on the predator, not the school district that hired him. "

" Parents: GET LOUD about this. Viewing porn may be controversial, but viewing it on a classroom computer where you also acting in the position of a trusted authority over children should have sent up red flags everywhere. What in the world was Heinneman thinking when he wrote such a glowing letter of recommendation for this animal, and allowed the man to go on and be a threat somewhere else? "

" Looks like the school systems are reacting like the Cathoric church, sweep it under the rug until you get caught. Schools of all places should be protecting our children. But from past experiences, they don't.
All fail to protect or do what is best for us citizens. The government, our politicians, the oil companies, our insurance companies, utilitity companys. I could go on and on. Everything is power and greed. Me, me me!
One day you will have to answer for you deeds or mis-deeds, as will I.
"

" Unit 5 failed to protect its students. It ignored the warning signs. It allowed a predator to continue unabated. I also wonder why the parent of the girl threatened to tell the police. They should have notified the police. Perhaps it would have forced Unit 5 to take a different course of action. I sincerely hope the victims and their families can heal from White's actions.

Too manyTragedies occur because people fail to do their jobs or cover up facts. This is a classic example. Perhaps someone from Unit 5 should serve the other 8 years that Jon didn't (but should have) been given.
"

" What a sad deal. I think the quality of schools in Unit 5 are excellent. On the whole, great teachers, fantastic administers, and it's unfortunate that such a tragedy had to occur. It's also unfortunate that a deal was negotiated where a letter "had" to be written as part of a resignation agreement. I'm sure that put admin. in a very difficult spot. Who negotiated these terms for White by the way? Did Union representation play a role in making sure he was given a positive letter? Doesn't seem right that someone guilty of these activities should be given a positive reference. I doubt Unit 5 volunteered these services without being told what to do by another group.
"

" It is disheartening to think that someone like White could be given a letter or recommendation. That is what is wrong in the work place, references to not mean a thing anymore. People only put down references who will say some positive and employers readily hand out recommendations even when there is good reason not to hire the person. Fortunately in the private business (non big-corporate) people normally open up off the record and tell others about bad apples or substandard employees. Much to the displeasure of the liberals but none the less how it should be. Who wants to be fed line of bull when you are investing time, talent, money in a potential employee. "

" What was about the picture of the movie star that upset the child's parent? Was it sexually implicit & if so why was the teacher not fired without recommendation? If White had not "evolved" to the more serious incidents, yet the picture was the reason he was asked to resign, why the flowery letter? White's case will continue w/a dangerous 48 years in prison & officials saying "improved" about it's methods of handling such & with the help of state lawmakers but parents and others trying to protect their children from predators need to know whether people in charge of them are cutting slack or clamping down. The self "understanding" of the school officials is about as lax as their awareness of "evolving" child molesters. Until excuses are set aside and these vermin are summarily expelled from schools and prosecuted on a routine basis, this will continue. Not new is this little banana game, which played in Chatsworth resulted in a life sentence. If the crazies are smart, it's "time out" for that game. If the officials are smart, they'll be more aware and diligent with no "time out." "