Facebook Records Teacher Misconduct

(Des Moines, Iowa) A 43-year-old art teacher formerly with the Alburnett School District outside Cedar Rapids, Marni Gable, resigned her position in August ostensibly for personal reasons. Now news has surfaced that Gable resigned after school administrators confronted her with 18 pages of sexually-charged communications she entered on Facebook.

Effectively, Gable faced a choice of resigning or being fired.

In her Facebook conversations, some of which involved Alburnett students, Gable allegedly made two separate comments pertaining to male genitalia. In one, she referred to a photo of a giraffe with its tongue hanging out. In an attached comment, she allegedly made a reference to oral sex and wrote, "Nummy, nummy."

In other Facebook conversations, she allegedly exchanged comments with a student about dropping the soap in a prison shower; said that in one particular photo of her she was "wasted"; called a group of cheerleaders "retards"; and referred to some people as "wacky bastards."

State regulations require that the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners be notified within 60 days of resignations prompted by teacher misconduct. Alburnett school officials failed to do so in Gable's case. In fact, Gable's alleged misconduct only became known when she applied for unemployment benefits.

The Gable case illustrates a problem which is believed to be somewhat common. Local school districts are not always reporting teachers who have behaved inappropriately, rather they opt to quietly shoo the teacher away without fanfare or scandal. The districts are essentially pawning their problems off to other jurisdictions.

The Iowa Board of Educational Examiners is considering what to do about the problem. I'd suggest making failure to report teacher misconduct a criminal offense. I believe that people in positions of authority over children shouldn't be allowed to keep secrets regarding misconduct from the public.