A Santa Jose, California, high school teacher was arrested on Tuesday after he allegedly solicited sexual favors from a Santa Cruz police detective posing as a 13 year-old girl.
Barany, who is a music teacher at William C. Overfelt High School in San Jose, arranged to meet the "girl" he believed to be 13 years old, at a location in Santa Cruz, which is where he was arrested.
According to the district attorney's office, formal charges will be filed against Barany this week.
After being arrested the police notified the Santa Clara County school officials, who immediately put Barany on administrative leave until an investigation can be conducted.
Superintendent Bob Nunez said the district procedure when teachers are arrested is to put them on paid administrative leave until an employment investigation can be performed. Barany originally resigned following his arrest, but today asked that his resignation be reconsidered.
The employment investigation begins after the criminal case has been filed because the district doesn't want to "taint any of the witnesses or evidence," Nunez said.
ABC reports that detectives are investigating to discover whether Barany had contact with any other children and according to the Internet chat room conversation that led to his arrest he was planning on "committing lewd acts with a teenager."
Zach Friend with the Santa Cruz police stated, "It's disturbing to think anybody of his age and position of authority would say the things he said to a 13-year-old girl."
Barany was not the only teacher accused of soliciting sex with a 13-year-old girl, as an Ontario, Oregon social studies teacher was also caught in a sting similar to the one that Barany was arrested for, reported Seattlepi.com.
Joseph Garner was charged with online sexual corruption of a child after a three-month investigation touched off by a private organization that identifies sexual predators on the Web.
These arrests come on the heels of two new bills that have been approved in California by the State Assembly, that are geared to close loopholes in California's teacher licensing laws that allow teachers that have been accused and/or convicted of serious crimes, to remain in the classroom.
The Daily News reports that this legislation, sponsored by Sen. Bob Margett, R-Arcadia, and Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena and were "prompted" by an Associated Press investigation last year, into sexual misconduct by teachers, will "allow the state to revoke licenses from teachers who plead no contest to certain sex crimes or drug offenses or have had their licenses revoked in another state."
Both bills passed the Senate and State Assembly and are awaiting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature to become law, but he has refused to sign any legislation until the state budget has been passed.
Both bills were also sponsored by the state credentialing commission after the AP published the results of their seven-month investigation, and both bills were opposed by the California Teachers Association.
An analysis by the California Teacher Credentialing Commission following AP's report found that about two-thirds of the educators who face revocation or other serious action are convicted following a plea of no contest to a serious offense.
That triggered a discretionary review by the commission rather than the mandatory loss of teachers' licenses, a process that can sometimes take two or three years.
According to the current law, the results of misconduct accusations are sealed after one year by credentialing commission which hinders schools abilities to confirm a teachers' complete background, if they later learn that teacher lied on their applications.
One of the bills, the one sponsored by Margett, would keep those records open and available for five years instead of one.
The other bill that was approved by the State Assembly, the one sponsored by Scott, would "automatically suspend teachers' credentials if they have had their license revoked in another state for misconduct."
Scott's bill would also require the credentialing commission to automatically revoke a teachers' license if a prior criminal conviction had limited their contact with children.
The exact wording in that bill is:
The commission also would be required to revoke the credential of a holder when it receives notice that the ability of the holder to associate with minors has been limited as a term or condition of probation or sentencing resulting from a criminal conviction in this state, another state, or the United States, or the holder has been ordered to surrender a credential or certification document as a term or condition of probation or sentencing resulting from a criminal conviction in this state, another state, or the United States, except as specified. The person whose credential is so revoked would be prohibited from applying for reinstatement of the credential until the terms or conditions imposed by the conviction are lifted.
Margett's legislation can be found here (9 page PDF file)
Scott's legislation can be found here (8 page PDF file)
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