A story out of West Virginia indicates that either the Mountain State has an enormous problem with teachers sexually abusing students--or that it's so hard to fire teachers that the only ones who get the ax are the ones who are guilty of murder and mayhem. In the past five years, 35% of the teachers who lost their certification in West Virginia did so because of "sexual assault or abuse," with another 19% fired for a more ambiguous offense termed "misconduct." One incident of "misconduct" resulted in a pregnancy, so the sexual offenses would seem to add up to more than 35%.

There were some colorful categories of offense, too: credit card fraud, computer invasion of privacy, wanton endangerment, and even one murder. Exactly none of the teachers had their licenses revoked for being ineffective in the classroom--the closest was one teacher's removal for "unsafe classroom activities."