Tacoma Schools officials could have fired teacher Jennifer Leigh Rice last fall when they learned about her history of socializing with students, two attorneys say.
And officials knew of issues in Rice’s past earlier than they’ve previously acknowledged, personnel records appear to show.
Rice, 31, is in Pierce County jail, charged with the August kidnap and rape of a 10-year-old boy who was in her fourth-grade class at McKinley Elementary School during the 2006-07 school year. Prosecutors charge that sexual abuse began as early as December and continued into the summer.
She also faces charges of raping a second boy, who was not one of her students, during July and August.
Rice told police she had sexual intercourse with the 10-year-old several times, including once in his bedroom on Aug. 2, according to court documents. She pleaded not guilty to all 13 counts, which include rape, kidnapping and child molestation.
The case raises questions about when Tacoma Schools officials learned of concerns raised when Rice taught at Spanaway Lake High School during the 1998-99 school year, and once they knew, whether they could and should have let her go.
District spokeswoman Leanna Albrecht responded to a list of questions from The News Tribune by directing a reporter to human resources policies posted on the district’s Web site.
“Many of your other questions deal with issues that would be addressed in what we anticipate to be litigation; therefore, we are not in a position to respond to those based upon the advice of counsel,” she wrote in a statement e-mailed to the newspaper. Among the questions she did not answer was whether any legal claims have been filed against the district in the case.
After Rice’s arrest last month, Albrecht told The News Tribune that the decision to hire Rice was made before district officials had a clear view of her past.
Her comments seem to suggest there wasn’t much the district could have done.
But records show that then-Tacoma human resources director Bonnie McGuire knew within days of Rice’s Oct. 9 hire that Rice once worked for the Bethel School District, where she was investigated for inappropriate and unprofessional relationships with students.
McGuire was an assistant principal at Spanaway Lake High School when Rice came under investigation in the fall of 1998 and the winter of 1999. Allegations included that Rice drove students around, made verbal advances to a male student and attended a student party that included drinking and marijuana use.
McGuire admonished Rice then that “it was not OK for a teacher to be hanging out with students on a social basis,” records of the investigation show.
“I told her that it is not appropriate for a teacher to have students in her car, and that she could not continue this practice,” McGuire wrote in a statement for the investigatory record.
McGuire was not the only administrator to talk to Rice about her behavior, and Rice was placed on administrative leave for three weeks during the investigation. She was brought back as a substitute teacher to complete the year. She resigned that June.
TIME ELEMENT QUESTIONED
Tacoma Schools officials told The News Tribune last month that they didn’t get documents about Rice’s past problems in the Bethel School District until December. McGuire, they said, was not involved in the decision to hire Rice.
But an e-mail exchange contained in Rice’s personnel file shows that Tacoma administrators apparently had concerns about Rice’s past two months earlier.
In the space of 26 minutes on Oct. 16, Tacoma fingerprint technician Arnold Bush, McGuire and then-deputy superintendent Ethelda Burke participated in this e-mail exchange:
BUSH: “Bonnie ... MiaCulpa! I didn’t scroll down far enough on her experience list. She DID list Bethel. She left there in 1999.”
McGUIRE: “No problem. I’m glad you checked – thank you!” Then she adds this note to in-house attorney Susan Schreurs and Burke, who oversaw human resources: “Susan and Ethelda – Jennifer Rice did indeed declare she had worked for Bethel SD – next steps?”
BURKE: “Now that this is established. What if anything can we do?”
McGuire, who was transferred out of human resources to a job as director of high school education earlier this year, declined to comment for this story, referring all questions to Albrecht.
Burke directed questions about the e-mail exchange to Schreurs. Schreurs referred questions to Albrecht.
‘CONDITIONAL OFFER’
Language in the “conditional offer of employment” Rice signed Oct. 10 gave the district an out if reference and background checks were unsatisfactory. In boldfaced and underlined text, that agreement says the job offer hinged on verification of teaching credentials and satisfactory reference and background checks.
“Based on the contract protections that they had included for themselves, they could have said that the background checks did not meet their satisfaction” and waved goodbye to Rice, said Steve Calandrillo, a professor of contracts law at the University of Washington. “It’s pretty strong public policy that you don’t want to hire teachers with questionable backgrounds.”
There is no evidence in Rice’s personnel file that Tacoma officials probed for more information until November. Bethel’s human resources director, Judy Borgia, returned sexual misconduct background check paperwork on Nov. 20 with a note to McGuire saying she would appreciate a call “on another issue documented in her personnel file.”
On Dec. 5, Bethel officials faxed Tacoma a thick file detailing the concerns raised at Spanaway Lake.
Coincidentally, the district sent Rice a binding contract dated Dec. 8.
Once she knew of Rice’s history at Bethel, Burke called in Rice for a meeting to order her not to transport students in her car or attend student parties.
That meeting occurred Dec. 18.
On the same day, Rice signed her contract.
“I’m not aware that the time frame on her signing that contract was similar,” Burke said Friday. “That was something that went directly through the clerical staff.”
The offer could have been withdrawn at any point up until the contract was signed by both parties, said Tacoma attorney Bill Coats, who often does work for the Bethel School District.
“If the person does not fulfill the conditions, the (school) board is not obligated to offer her a permanent position,” Coats said.
PROBLEMS CONTINUED
Burke said Friday that she brought Rice in for the conference as soon as she learned of the issues at Spanaway Lake. Burke told Rice not to transport students in her car or attend student parties, a record of the meeting shows.
Rice reported she’d already driven some of her Tacoma students in her car, telling Burke the trips occurred at the request of parents when activities kept kids at school after dark, according to Burke’s record of the meeting.
Burke followed the meeting up with an e-mail the next day, telling Rice not to give students her personal phone numbers or e-mail address.
Rice responded with a letter of her own after winter break. She took issue with Burke’s mention that Rice was asked to resign from the Bethel School District. Rice said she left Bethel to attend graduate school.
In the same letter, dated Jan. 12, Rice also told Burke: “I want to reiterate that I understand the need to avoid socializing with students outside of school as well as transporting students in personal vehicles. I fully intend to follow your directives.”
But within a few weeks, teachers, parents and school officials began reporting concerns about Rice having students in her room long after school was out, asking students to go to the mall or have dinner with her, and palling around with kids in other ways.
Questions about Rice’s conduct mounted, and on April 20 then-Superintendent Charlie Milligan put her on paid administrative leave.
A 20-page investigation report, compiled by former district administrator Carolyn Ho from interviews with several staff members and at least one parent, details many instances of Rice socializing with students.
In one interview, McKinley Principal Pili Wolfe describes going to Rice’s classroom the afternoon of April 17 to find Rice at the board in the front of her classroom with two boys who were describing how they’d solved a problem.
Wolfe told the investigator Rice had her arm around (a boy) and she moved her arm from up on his shoulder and moved it down on his waist and then back up on his shoulder.
The district didn’t tell Rice she wouldn’t be rehired until July 9, when Burke wrote to her, pointing out that she continued socializing with students even after she was told not to.
PLAYING IT SAFE
Whether Rice’s behavior at Spanaway Lake High School could predict criminal behavior isn’t clear.
Rice told Burke in her Jan. 12 letter that she was young and inexperienced when she taught at Spanaway Lake and that she’d matured and learned from the experience.
Attorney Coats points out that it can sometimes be difficult for a young teacher, especially at the high school level, “to make the transition from being a student to being a professional employee. They don’t have the maturity or the concept of boundaries to deal with teenage students. For a lot of teachers starting out, it’s a common problem.”
Looking at Rice’s Bethel experience, “it would be possible to conclude that she showed immaturity and that she didn’t have a concept of boundaries and that she undercut her credibility as a professional employee,” he said. “But I don’t think that you could look at that and ever, ever conclude that she would kidnap a 10-year-old child and have sex with him.”
Lucy Berliner, director of the Center for Sexual Assault & Traumatic Stress at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, says any case of a teacher “stepping over the line into personal encounters” with students “should be taken very seriously.”
“You don’t want teachers to have informal relationships with students outside of school” for a number of reasons, not just the possibility of sexual misconduct, she said. And when a person is warned about a behavior and continues it anyway, you need to pay even closer attention, she said.
Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, thinks school districts too often do only “bare minimum” checks on teachers and other employees before they’re hired.
That may save money in the short term, but it can cost huge sums in lawsuits later, he said.
Of the Rice case, he asked: “Why would they even take the risk of proceeding with employment of that person when they have the knowledge that there was a red flag in the work history?”
“There isn’t a logical answer from a legal or professional perspective,” he added. “If I was a parent with a child in that classroom I’d be livid that (employment) was allowed to proceed when they had the option of saying ‘Thank you’ or ‘No, thank you.’”
To see copies of Jennifer Leigh Rice’s employment documents, go to our Web site.
The Jennifer Rice file
1998-99
Rice is investigated for inappropriately socializing with students at Spanaway Lake High School, in the Bethel School District. She resigns.
1999-2005
Earns a graduate degree. Owns a transcription business. Works as a fifth-grade teacher for one year in the North Thurston School District.
2005-2006
Rice teaches second grade at Southworth Elementary School in Yelm. She resigns at the end of the year, but officials say they wouldn’t have rehired her.
Oct. 9, 2006
Tacoma hires Rice to teach fourth grade at McKinley Elementary School.
Oct. 10, 2006
Rice signs “Conditional Offer of Employment.”
Oct. 16, 2006
Three Tacoma School District administrators discuss Rice’s employment at the Bethel School District.
Oct. 26, 2006
Tacoma School Board approves Rice’s hire; it’s among a slate of routine personnel actions.
Nov. 20, 2006
Bethel human resources director asks a Tacoma administrator to call her regarding an issue in Rice’s employment file.
Dec. 1, 2006-Feb. 28, 2007
Prosecutors allege that during this period Rice began a predatory sexual relationship with a 10-year-old student.
Dec. 5, 2006
The Bethel district faxes a 30-page file to Tacoma, detailing the Spanaway Lake investigation.
Dec. 8, 2006
Tacoma issues a one-year, $36,652 contract to Rice with a notation that she has 10 days to sign and return it.
Dec. 18, 2006
A Tacoma administrator discusses the Bethel allegations with Rice and orders her not to attend parties with students or transport them in her car. On the same day, Rice signs and dates her contract.
Dec. 19, 2006
McKinley Elementary principal delivers a “satisfactory” performance evaluation to Rice.
April 20, 2007
The district puts Rice on administrative leave amid concerns about her behavior with students.
July 9, 2007
A Tacoma administrator notifies Rice that she will not be rehired in Tacoma.
Aug. 13, 2007
Rice is charged with kidnapping the student for sexual motivation. On the same day, a Tacoma administrator writes to the state Office of Professional Practices, saying Rice “is not of good moral character or personally fit to be a teacher in this state.”
Sept. 12, 2007
Pierce County prosecutors file 12 more charges against Rice. She pleads not guilty to all charges and remains in Pierce County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.
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