A bold Kansas bill would create an education inspector general and require schools to report teacher misconduct and those responsible for the misdeeds to be listed on a statewide registry available to the public. 

The education inspector general would be stationed in the attorney general’s office to conduct “audits, investigations and reviews of educational institutions.” The attorney general would choose the education inspector general.  

The bill, also known as the Haylee Weissenbach protecting students act, is meant to “protect the safety and well-being of all students by establishing an independent, statewide system of educational oversight designed to detect, investigate and prevent professional misconduct, criminal misconduct and systemic failure in Kansas elementary and secondary educational institutions,” the bill says. 

Weissenbach, whom the bill is named after, was sexually assaulted by her science teacher while attending McLouth Unified School District north of Lawrence. She pursued a federal lawsuit against the school district, which ended in an $800,000 settlement in 2022, according to the Kansas City Star. 

“She’s looking out for all the young girls in this community,” Weissenbach’s mother, Jenny Weissenbach, said in an interview with the Star at the time.

Currently, most public schools work under the “pass the trash” principle, referring to when teachers guilty of professional or criminal misconduct are let go, usually without other punishment, and are allowed to seek employment at another school, often unaware of the misconduct, and where the crime could possibly be committed again, Attorney John Manly said in an interview last month. 

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“In public education in most states, it’s next to impossible to fire a bad teacher,” he said. “And typically you don’t fire them; they actually pay them to go away, even if they’ve sexually abused children.”

Manly explained teachers are considered mandated reporters, but the rule isn’t enforced. Schools typically investigate an issue themselves instead of reporting it and aren’t required to inform parents there might be an issue, he said.

Indeed, The Lion reports, “an estimated 95% of educator sexual misconduct cases are handled in-house and never reported to law enforcement.”

Meanwhile, Manly reports,“17% of students in this country who go to public schools will suffer some sort of sexual misconduct while in school by school personnel, which is a staggering statistic if you do the math.”

“Schools are encouraging students to protest ICE, but ignoring THIS?!!!” one user commented on the interview on X. 

“You think of school as a safe space,” Weissenbach’s father, Scott Weissenbach, told the Star. “You put a lot of faith that the people in charge of the school district are going to make sure that it is a safe place for your children, and I’m angry that that did not happen.”

Kansas would join some 18 other states in tracking staff sexual misconduct in schools and preventing guilty parties’ rehiring. 

The bill would require all school employees and anyone else who provides services for educational institutions to immediately report any suspected criminal misconduct. Teachers or other personnel who commit a crime would have to be registered on an educator misconduct registry. 

Activist Denise Roberts sent written testimony in favor of the bill to the Senate Education Committee saying the bill helps parents protect their children. 

“I have been disappointed yearly at the inability of Kansas legislators to do anything to protect the rights of children and families in the face of what we have all seen, flagrant abuse after abuse of those boundaries by local school districts.

“This is a start. I urge you to pass this bill and provide parents some ground to stand on.”