Education Quagmire

An educational assistant from Edmonds, WA was charged with possession of child pornography on his home computer.

It is not believed any of the photos depict Edmonds students.

In addition to those photos, however, charging papers say investigators also found "dozens of pictures of fully clothed young girls obviously photographed surreptitiously while they were at school." Charging documents said the photos "focused on the girls' rear ends and crotches."

The photos appear to have been taken at the schools where the man worked. Nevertheless, school officials have no idea how to proceed:

Jakala said Buckley will be fired if he is convicted of the child-pornography charge. District officials are also investigating whether taking photos of Edmonds students is a fireable offense.

Jakala said it is not against school policy for district employees to photograph students as they walk through the halls during the school day.

It's amazing that even the lowliest school employees have such bulletproof property rights to their jobs that they can't be fired unless they violate an explicit policy. It's not enough to engage in conduct that is so obnoxious that it could well inspire some mother of one of these violated little girls to give the creep a penectomy using a blunt-tipped scissors.

School-district officials are also investigating why Buckley was hired in 1994 despite having a criminal record, although she said the district does not have a policy forbidding such a hire. "We have nothing in policy that says flat out the Edmonds School District does not hire convicted felons," said Jakala.

But there is a policy that says that the good people of Edmonds have to keep paying through the nose to keep the Edmonds School District in operation no matter how idiotic are the folks who run it.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 01, 2004 08:36 PM