Ron Cassie, The Examiner
2007-04-04 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

BALTIMORE -

Timothy Gounaris was hired to teach in Baltimore County shortly after his forced resignation from Harford County Public Schools in 2000 because of a sexual relationship with a former Falston Middle School student. He taught at Pine Grove Middle School in Baltimore County until the allegations of a new sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl surfaced there in December 2005. Gounaris was removed from the classroom while under investigation by Baltimore County police and resigned last summer from his teaching position in Baltimore County.

Nonetheless, Gounaris was hired to teach again — this fall in Baltimore City — where he was ultimately arrested on the sexual child abuse charges stemming from the Baltimore County incident. His case opened several questions for school system administrators and human resource officials.

Last month, the Maryland Association of Boards of Education organized a seminar in an effort to encourage the school system’s human resource department to honestly and accurately share all relevant information on potential faculty and staff candidates.

In previous discussions, spokespeople with Harford and Baltimore counties and Baltimore City school systems defended their hiring practices, saying they were limited on what information they can reveal about former employees to potential employers.

That fear, said Stephen Bounds, director of legal and policy services for the Maryland Association of Boards of Education, is unfounded.

Bounds said that as long as human resource offices are accurate and honest, they have no reason not to share information regarding a teacher who has been removed from the classroom — or anything else documented in their personal file — with exception of some medical records.

The state Department of Education also is looking at a new policy that would require teachers who voluntarily surrender their certification — for whatever reason — to go through the certification process again, rather than automatically being issued a certification at a future date.

Baltimore County, which had another teacher arrested this year on child sexual abuse allegations, and another on stalking charges, has added funding for another investigator for the school system. The system, however, failed to notify Pine Grove Middle parents when the former teacher was arrested. Officials there said it is the system’s policy to leave notification responsibility to local principals.