Teacher’s arrest doesn’t always mean dismissal

For a teacher in Pennsylvania, landing in jail doesn't necessarily mean landing in the unemployment line.

Depending on the offense, teachers who commit crimes in the state may be able to return to the classroom.

In some cases, a school district may not even know if a teacher has been arrested - district officials must rely on police or the media to tell them. No state law requires court or police officials to notify school districts.

'Normally, what happens is on serious incidents we are notified by Pittsburgh police. They do an outstanding job of notifying us,' school police Chief Robert Fadzen said Thursday.

On Tuesday, Peter Paul Vislay Jr., a social studies teacher at Washington Polytechnic Academy in Lawrenceville, was arrested after children told police he aimed a shotgun at them outside his home.

Vislay, 50, has been charged with seven counts each of simple assault and making terroristic threats and two counts of risking a catastrophe. He was released on bail yesterday from Allegheny County Jail.

This wasn't Vislay's first run-in with the law. Police arrested him in 1999 after a man and a woman said the teacher threatened them with a gun and brass knuckles. He pleaded guilty to harassment and disorderly conduct, according to court records. Both are summary offenses for which Vislay paid a $300 fine.

Pittsburgh Public Schools officials said they were aware at the time of Vislay's previous arrest, but declined to say what disciplinary action, if any, was taken.

'He shouldn't have been back in that school. You have to worry about kids bringing guns to school. Now you have to worry about the teachers,' said April Zunic of Lawrenceville, the mother of a sixth-grade student at Washington, a middle school magnet program.

But public school teachers have legal rights that protect them in most cases from being summarily fired, said Bruce Campbell, an attorney who represents the Pittsburgh Public Schools on labor issues.

When teachers apply for a job, they must submit to a criminal background check. Few if any school districts require ongoing background checks, which educators said would be a cumbersome and costly process.

If a teacher is arrested for an incident that took place outside school, the school district must conduct an investigation to determine whether the offense relates to the employee's job duties, Campbell said. The first step is to suspend the teacher with pay while the investigation takes place.

Employees have the right to a hearing conducted by either the school board or a neutral arbitrator, and the teacher can appeal disciplinary action in court.

'Obviously, for a misdemeanor or something like that, they're not going to lose their job,' said Al Fondy, president of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers. 'But if you threaten someone with a gun, that's pretty serious business.'

State law requires school districts to report to the state Department of Education any teacher who has been fired.

Under Pennsylvania law, districts must fire any employee convicted of any of the following offenses: kidnapping, unlawful restraint, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent exposure, endangering the welfare of children or corruption of minors.

Illicit drug use is also grounds for termination, Campbell said.

The state can revoke or suspend a teacher's certificate for any of those offenses, as well as for immorality, incompetence, intemperance, cruelty or negligence. The National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification maintains an online database of people who have been stripped of their teaching certificates.

In some states, including Virginia and California, law enforcement agencies are required to inform school districts when their employees are arrested for certain offenses, including child abuse.

Performing regular background checks on employees would be all but impossible, said Julie Lewis, an attorney for the National School Boards Association in Alexandria, Va.

'We would support having some kind of state law requiring law enforcement to notify a school,' she said. 'We all want our kids to be in safe schools and in a safe environment, and I think that's the ultimate goal.'

Jonathan Potts can be reached at jpotts@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7900.