Wisconsin- from www.sheboyganpress.com – Educators caught viewing pornography on school district computers would have their teaching licenses revoked and their names posted online under a bill being circulated in the Wisconsin Legislature.
The bill, co-sponsored by state Rep. Steve Kestell [pictured], R-Elkhart Lake, authorizes the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to initiate license revocation proceedings against a teacher or administrator caught viewing pornography in violation of school policy.
Kestell said Wednesday that the bill was drafted in response to a resolution the Wisconsin Association of School Boards passed during its annual convention in January. Christopher Nelson — then the administrator of the New Holstein School District — was attending that conference when he was arrested for attempting to arrange a sexual rendezvous with a 15-year-old boy that was in fact a Milwaukee police detective.
Police found child pornography on jump drives in Nelson’s possession as well as in his district office, court records show. The office discovery led to child pornography charges in Calumet County.
“The school boards association actually had taken a position on this issue before, even simultaneously with, the issue in New Holstein,” said Kestell, whose district includes New Holstein. “We were already aware of it and working on it, and, of course, this Christopher Nelson thing really kind of proved the point.”
Nelson, who has since been fired, left an administrative post in the Madison Metropolitan School District in 2005 after being caught viewing adult pornography on a work computer. The DPI investigated but took no action, and New Holstein officials have said they were not aware of the matter when Nelson was hired in 2009.
“I had the opportunity to review the police reports in that (Madison) investigation, and it was pretty hard to imagine why they didn’t take action,” Kestell said. “This bill would very much clarify things as far as what the expectations are.”
Oscar Beilke, president of the New Holstein School Board, said he supports the proposal.