The Learning Curve: Why Teacher Misconduct Is Still a Huge Problem

For years, a dedicated procession of education reporters at Voice of San Diego have been digging into the Pandora’s Box of local teacher misconduct. What they’ve found is case after case (after case after case) in which districts and schools either ignored complaints against teachers or allowed them to quietly retire. The above stories are just a fraction of the work we’ve done on this subject. 

But despite our work on teacher misconduct, frustratingly little seems to have changed. Teachers accused of inappropriate behavior often skate away with few consequences, if they’re removed from classrooms at all. Typically, teachers are transferred to new schools or are allowed to retire or resign, but those agreements often come with stipulations that a district not disclose any of the behavior that led to the teacher’s departure. 

That was the case in the latest story we reported: As part of a nationwide investigation into teacher misconduct, Business Insider reporter Matt Drange obtained documents that he shared with Voice detailing complaints going back years against San Diego Unified middle school teacher Bruno Schonian. 

The complaints included allegations that Schonian had not only grabbed one middle school girl’s butt and told others they had “nice boobs,” but that he’d also sexually harassed colleagues. Instead of trying to get him out of the classroom in response to early complaints, Roosevelt Middle School officials simply moved him into classrooms with younger students because they “did not want him working with more mature 8th grade girls.” 

The final straw: In 2019, one student alleged Schonian tried to meet up with her off-campus and told her he couldn’t “wait until you’re 18.” In text messages to her friend following the incident, the girl wrote that while she felt pressured to say yes to his offers, on the inside she was thinking, “I’m going to get raped.” The two never met up. The girl reported the interaction to officials the following day.  

But despite performing an investigation that district officials concluded had “provided enough evidence to pursue discipline for grooming a female student,” they didn’t fire Schonian. Instead, they allowed him to retire. Part of the agreement he reached with the district also prevented San Diego Unified from revealing any of the circumstances of his departure, meaning potential future employers could have no idea of the allegations he’d racked up.  

One of the key disciplinary mechanisms for teachers accused of misconduct – California’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing – also seems to have failed in this case. The commission is in charge of issuing and overseeing teacher’s credentials, and removing them in instances of misconduct to ensure teachers who’ve behaved inappropriately don’t end up in classrooms again. 

Despite San Diego Unified officials forwarding information about Schonian’s case to the commission, as is legally required when a teacher leaves a district due to allegations of misconduct, nothing seemed to happen. It ended up falling on San Diego prosecutors, who charged Schonian with multiple misdemeanor counts related to the grooming allegation, to do the heavy lifting. Schonian ended up pleading guilty to one count, and only then was his credential revoked.  

In only the most severe circumstances do teachers actually get axed: But even then, it’s not guaranteed they’ll stay out of schools forever. We saw that firsthand last year when we reported the story of Joshua Barney, who was fired from his job as a teacher at Grossmont Union High School District for inappropriately touching a student.  

After his firing, Barney fought back, suing the district over what he said was his unfair firing. Ultimately a court found in favor of the district, but that didn’t keep Barney out of the classroom for good.  

That’s because in this case, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing chose not to revoke his credential. Exactly why is still not clear. That left Barney free to pursue employment at a new district, which he did. Despite our previous coverage of Barney’s case, and Grossmont Union officials’ insistence that had a potential employer asked why Barney was fired they would have been able to tell them, Sweetwater Union High School District hired him in 2022. Shortly after our coverage of Barney, and amid an investigation into new allegations against him, he resigned from Sweetwater. 

So, why is it so hard to fire teachers? The big picture is that the deck is stacked against true accountability. Whether it’s union contracts that give educators generous protections and make getting rid of problem teachers a potentially costly and drawn-out process or districts simply ignoring allegations, teachers are often more likely to be shuffled to a new school or position than face any significant reckoning for their actions. It can be much easier to dish out milquetoast warnings than really take teachers to task, as Schonian’s case shows.  

California’s statewide commission in charge of credentialing can also be a sluggish agency, bogged down by a massive caseload it has no hope of working through quickly. But Barney’s case shows that even when the commission does make a decision, the results can be questionable and reasonings even murkier. The commission chose not to pull Barney’s credential. So, it fell on the district to do the bare minimum and check his employment history. Sweetwater, however, seemed to have failed to do so. An uneven patchwork of policies and laws relating to identifying and reporting misconduct also hinders real action, as Drange discovered for Business Insider. That also means what an investigation into these kinds of allegations entails can look drastically different from school to school and district to district. 

Another key stumbling block for accountability is just how hard districts often fight to conceal records of misconduct or abuse. Voice has seen this firsthand. We have, for years fought, in and out of the courtroom, to access records of teacher misconduct, often with districts offering up laughably miniscule amounts of records.  

The bottom line is that the reporting, investigation and discipline process for misconduct in school seems to be badly broken and has been for years. And for the sake of children, something needs to change. In the meantime, we’ll keep up the pressure the only way we know how: investigative journalism that digs deep, hits hard and pushes officials to do better.  

In Lighter News: Introducing … The Progress Report 

We’re trying something new over here at Voice, it’s called The Progress Report. Each month, we’ll bring you a story of educational innovations happening locally, how they’re panning out and what they may be able to teach districts, schools, educators and parents. 

For the first installment, I visited Edison Elementary. Eagle-eyed readers may recognize that name. Years ago, former ed reporter Will Huntsberry found the school was having remarkable success educating kids despite the community’s high levels of poverty. Well, turns out the school’s only gotten better. Does Edison have a secret sauce? Sort of. But it’s more complicated than that. 

Content Bouncing Around My Mind Palace

• On Tuesday I previewed San Diego Unified’s plan to cut of the district’s $94.7 million budget deficit. It basically boiled down to eliminating nearly 500 jobs and laying off over 240 teachers. Last night, board members approved the plan. It won’t eliminate the district’s deficit, but it will cut it in about half.