EDUCATION: 81 TEACHERS LOSE LICENSES

State education officials have revoked certification for 81 teachers in the past two years.

Since August, applicants for a teacher's certificate must be fingerprinted for criminal background checks that are run through state and FBI files. The background screenings have been conducted at five different levels periodically over the past two years.

In 1998, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education conducted background checks for applicants for substitute teaching certification, working teachers and people who received teacher's certification, some 500,000 names.

From the background checks, 35 educators have had their certification automatically revoked because they were convicted of at least one of 37 felonies, most of which include crimes involving sex or violence.

Certification for 46 other license-holders was revoked after the state Board of Education deemed them guilty of "moral turpitude."

In addition, several potential substitute teachers have been denied certification because of a felony conviction.

"I think the mission of the department and all school districts is to protect kids, whether in the classroom or playground or wherever it is," said Gary Jones, the department's director of the professional conduct and investigations division. "Certainly, providing quality teachers is one way of meeting that goal."

Former teacher

One of the latest educators to lose certification was Steven P. Mason, a former art teacher who last taught in the Charleston School District. The Missouri Board of Education voted Friday to revoke Mason's lifetime teaching certificate because Mason had been convicted of a felony charge of possession of a controlled substance. Mason was not teaching at the time of the conviction.

The revocation proceedings began last spring after a routine criminal background check of all license holders revealed Mason's conviction. Once a conviction is discovered, the state notifies certificate-holders in person if there is an automatic revocation, and by certified mail if the state board must determine disciplinary action.

Educators may choose to appear alone or with counsel to defend themselves at an administrative hearing, but in many cases, they are not present at the hearings, Jones said.

Mason is not the only Southeast Missouri educator to have his license revoked. In April, the lifetime certification held by Dr. Richard Bollwerk, a former assistant superintendent of Cape Girardeau School District, was revoked after a criminal background check revealed Bollwerk had been convicted on misdemeanor charges of property damage and harassment in 1997. Bollwerk was working as assistant superintendent of the Winfield School District in Lincoln County when his certification was revoked.

The conviction stemmed from an Aug. 26, 1997, incident in which Bollwerk sent thousands of faxes consisting of sheets of solid black paper to 12 fax machines owned by the Cape Girardeau district. Several of the machines were damaged because of the vast number of faxes.

Jones said the number of teachers with criminal convictions is very small in comparison to the number of certified educators.

"I don't like to use the connotation we're catching a lot' of people," he said. "If you have one person that preys on children, that's one too many.".