Agreement a bad deal

It would appear the Wellington schools are finally rid of Jerry Camp after terminating his contract (again) last week on the grounds of immorality, gross inefficiency, violating the policies of the board of education, and good and just cause. Unfortunately, the termination only protects Wellington students from Camp.

The board terminated Camp in April, but he appealed to the state board of education. Then, in August, while appointing a referee to conduct an investigation, the department of education signed a consent agreement allowing Camp to retain his teaching certificate.

Camp has been the source of problems for the Wellington school board for years, including an instance of a folder of pornographic material found in his desk by a student aide, and inappropriate comments made during high school girls basketball practices.

The agreement allows Camp to pack up his folders of pornographic material and take them and go to another school district where he can make inappropriate comments at high school girls basketball practice.

The state department of education made a grievous mistake in allowing Camp to continue to teach Ohio children. The only hope other districts have of avoiding the problems we faced here is to have an application demanding an accounting of all employment and causes for leaving said employers.

We would argue the causes for Camp's termination were so egregious, the department of education should have no choice but to cancel his teaching certificate. Allowing him to keep it exposes other districts to those same problems, and exposes the department of education to liability if the behavior intensifies to something worse.

We don't understand what leverage Camp had in negotiations with the DOE that they would agree to such a consent agreement. It was a bad decision for the children of the state of Ohio.