How not to teach by example

Nicole Brodeur
How not to teach by example

The Seattle Public School District has my condolences.

The onerous duties of managing millions while teaching and tending to thousands of families is not for the scattered. But the district has proven itself to be just that.

On Tuesday, it dropped a proposal to close 10 schools to help offset a projected $20 million budget deficit.

And in 2003 it put Dawnmarie Cooper in front of students at Washington Middle School.

Cooper was a program manager for the district in 2001 when she was implicated in the theft of more than $500,000 from her church, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Seattle.

The church chose not to press criminal charges, only to seek restitution.

But the district chose to demote Cooper — and with good reason. In her job, she would have eventually overseen a budget of more than $17 million in state and federal funds.

At the time, the district wasn't sure what it would do with Cooper, but it was certain she would never be put in charge of students.

So imagine the scene at Washington last week, when a student Googled his language-arts teacher and learned that she was an embezzler; that she had pilfered church donations to pay off her credit cards and put her son through college.

Word spread quickly. And so did the outrage from parents who feel their children deserve a better role model, and that they deserved the truth.

"The district's lack of honesty — that it was hiding this from us — is mind-boggling," one mother told me.

"She [Cooper] couldn't be trusted in the church, so it's logical to put her in the classroom with eighth-graders?" asked another. "I am having a difficult time saying this is OK."

Principal Marilyn Day is having a difficult time saying anything. She didn't return my calls; nor did Cooper.

District spokeswoman Chris Park said it was former Superintendent Joseph Olchefske who let Cooper teach again.

"He didn't have the authority to make that promise," Park said of banning Cooper from the classroom. "And that's why he had to go back on it."

Cooper was first put on leave, Park said, but officials eventually let her teach, "instead of paying her for not doing anything."

Cooper does have a lifetime teaching certificate she got in 1981, Park said.

With that and the union's backing, "[Cooper] could have sued us," Park said, "and she would have won."

So in 2003, Cooper was assigned to Washington, teaching eighth-grade language arts to some 150 students.

Parents worry that she is in over her head. Papers come back uncreased, with check marks instead of comments.

But more than that, they feel duped, and their children shortchanged by a system that says one thing and does another. When they approached Day to discuss Cooper's placement, one mother said, "We were essentially blown off."

It's one thing when a scattered district changes its mind. But when it turns its back completely, it gives the rest of us reason to scatter.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

She's still waiting by the phone.