(May 13) -- The Houston charter school teacher caught on a cell-phone video beating a 13-year-old student was wanted on a criminal mischief charge, accused of slashing a woman's tires last year.
Sheri Lynn Davis, 40, was fired Monday by Jamie's House Charter School. However, she won't lose her teaching certificate because she never had one, the Houston Chronicle reported. Texas law states that only bilingual and special education teachers must be certified in order to work at charter schools. Davis is a science teacher.
Davis taught at the charter school for more than a year while a warrant was out for her arrest, stemming from the alleged tire slashing in January 2009. Davis is scheduled to appear in court on that criminal mischief charge, a misdemeanor, on Tuesday, according to Houston's KRIV-TV.
She lost her job after school administrators saw a cell phone video recorded by one of her students in late April that showed her slapping and kicking 13-year-old Isaiah Johnson, then dragging him across the floor and slamming his head into a wall. The boy's mother, Alesha Johnson, said Isaiah suffered a black eye and other bruises in the attack.
"There's no excuse for a teacher to behave like this," Jamie's House Charter School Principal David Jones said in a statement. "We've already removed the teacher, and we want to apologize to the student and the mother."
Davis could face criminal charges for the latest incident, but none have been filed yet. She had worked at the school for three years without complaint, school officials told the Houston Chronicle. But the ordeal is now prompting lawmakers to re-examine screening practices for charter school teachers.
State Rep. Scott Hochberg, a Democrat from Houston, said all charter school teachers should be certified, just like their public school counterparts.
"There are so many avenues available to become certified that I don't think we should be allowing noncertified teachers to teach," he told the Chronicle.
A 2007 state law mandated that all Texas schools, public and charter, conduct criminal background checks and collect fingerprints from teaching applicants. Jamie's House Charter School declined to comment on Davis' background.
Teacher certification laws in Texas require candidates to have a bachelor's degree, complete an educator preparation program and pass certification exams. The qualifications are less stringent for charter school teachers, who are required by most schools to have a high school diploma and demonstrate competency in their subject.
David Dunn, the executive director of the Texas Charter Schools Association, argues that certification does not necessarily prevent teachers from behaving badly.
"There are certified teachers who misbehave," he told the Chronicle. "Certification does not equal protection. The real protection around student safety is the criminal history background checks that all public schools in the state of Texas are required to do."
Certified teachers' certificates are available online through the State Board for Educator Certification. A teacher's certificate is flagged if he or she has been investigated by the board.
