Bill 207
Indiana state Senate bill unclear and unconstitutional

A bill being considered by the state Senate of Indiana is threatening to limit teacher rights and promote unnecessary prosecutions and firings in the state. Motivated by several reports of inappropriate relationships between teachers and students in a school system near Indianapolis, Sen. J. Murray Clark wrote a bill that makes license suspension the immediate result of "any act of immorality, misconduct in office, incompetence or willful neglect of duty," according to the Ball State Daily News.

If this law passes in Indiana, it will include a laundry-list of reasons for which reports could be filed. This list includes misdemeanors, minor alcohol offenses, DUIs and "deviant conduct." Furthermore, the bill will protect people who file such reports from charges of slander.

Though several teacher unions have expressed extreme discomfort with this bill, it seems to be sailing rather easily through the state Senate in spite of several fatal flaws.

The bill's goals, as explicitly noted by its author, are impossible ideals. Schools already perform background checks during the interview process of would-be teachers, and have no trouble firing employees for the most serious offenses listed by the bill: rape, child molestation, child exploitation, sexual misconduct with a minor, etc. Legislating this laundry list will not suddenly or drastically increase schools' ability to catch criminal teachers.

While it would be unfair to suspect the bill's authors of ulterior motives, certainly one must raise questions as to its vague wording. Its ambiguity allows for dangerously broad interpretation of "deviant conduct." As this bill applies both to private and public schools, for example, this clause could be used by religiously-affiliated schools as a legal means of firing homosexual employees upon discovery.

Such suspicions are reinforced by some of the bill's further requirements. Police would be required to immediately report even the most minor criminal offenses (from public intoxication to parking tickets) to superintendents, and previous employers and universities would be asked to keep "moral records" of possible teachers.

While no one would argue that screening of teachers, particularly those who work with younger children, is extremely important, Senate Bill 207 does not take any great leaps in strengthening screening processes. Rather, it provides a legal means for red-scare-like tactics of investigation and discrimination among teachers in Indiana, violating individual freedoms and privacy along the way.