Olin teacher accused of inappropriate contact with student

Jeremy Chamberlin, 32, a special education teacher and volleyball coach at Olin faces charges for allegedly touching a 15-year-old student and sending her obscene text messages.

Court documents show allegations against Chamberlin include “multiple instances of the defendant kissing, touching of the breast and touching the buttocks of the victim”. Criminal complaints also show that the victim allegedly emailed suggestive photos to the defendant.

Chamberlin made his initial court appearance Wednesday morning and a preliminary hearing is set for April 9th.

Chamberlin remains in custody with a $10,000 bond. The court requires him to have no contact with the minor or her family.

Olin Superintendent Jayne Richardson, tells TV9 that the school board will complete its own internal investigation without regard for the criminal case which could lead to Chamberlin's dismissal. That could happen as early as the next school board meeting. Chamberlin is currently on paid administrative leave.

OSKALOOSA

Chamberlin was accused of a similar crime in 2008 when he was a teacher and coach at a different Iowa school district.

Chamberlin was hired by the Olin Consolidated School District in July, a month after he resigned from his job teaching junior high business and typing and coaching boys basketball in the Oskaloosa Community School District.

Here's what led to his resignation from Oskaloosa: In August 2008 he was charged with assault with intent to commit sexual abuse in Mahaska County court. He was accused of grabbing a 16-year-old's breast and trying to put his hands down her pants during her birthday party in September 2006, according to court records. (See court documents below.) The school district suspended him.

He pleaded not guilty, and the sex abuse charge was eventually dropped.  Later he pleaded guilty to simple assault for the incident and was fined $65.

He resigned from the Oskaloosa school district in April 2009, effective at the end of that contract year.

“His last employment officially for us would have been June 2009,” Carolyn McGaughey, superintendent of the Oskaloosa Community School District, wrote in an e-mail.

OLIN

Within 30 days, the Olin school board voted to hire him to teach and coach girls volleyball and basketball. Jeff Nance, principal of Olin High School, said he didn't know about the original charges against Chamberlin in Oskaloosa or his guilty plea for assault.

“If there are red flags, school districts don't hire people,” Nance said. “We didn't know.”

Olin school officials insist that they did followed standard procedures in their background check of Chamberlin. However Richardson said those procedures will be reevaluated in light of these allegations.

Chamberlin had been a substitute teacher at the school before last fall, and was also a graduate of Olin High School.

BACKGROUND CHECKS

The number of cases of sexual misconduct by high school teachers and administrators in eastern Iowa has spiked in recent months, raising questions about the way schools vet teachers.

Teacher backgrounds are checked by the Board of Educational Examiners when they apply for a license to teach. This has been true since 2000 and goes for new teachers and teachers from out of state. Teachers who started before 2000 may have slipped through without a background check.

In 2008, the Iowa Legislature closed the loophole, requiring that a teacher who switches districts within the state and hasn't gotten a Board of Educational Examiners background check must get a background check from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

The DCI checks court records and sends fingerprints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which cross-references those with national databases. The report sent to schools shows initial charges and convictions in Iowa and elsewhere, said Dave Jobes, special agent in charge of background checks at the DCI.

“Typically the record will show what they were charged with, and then ultimately what they were convicted of, so it would show that difference,” Jobes said.

In addition to records checks, schools routinely call references.

“It would be usual and customary for a school to do checks of previous employers, and ask question about their performance on the person's background that could have a bearing on their employability,” said Dan Smith, executive director of the School Administrators of Iowa.

McGaughey, the superintendent in Oskaloosa, said nobody at Olin called her about Chamberlin. The former principal at Oskaloosa, Steve Gray, now a superintendent at Janesville, said nobody from Olin called him about Chamberlin either.

Nance, the principal at Olin, said his school did check references.