Interesting newscast this evening…

A dad in a neighboring town says a high school teacher sent inappropriate text messages to his daughter.  This may or may not be true.   We don’t know because we’ve not seen any evidence.  We only know that there is an investigation underway, which there should be.  The school won’t comment because to comment publicly on a personnel matter is against the law at this point.

I know you’d probably think there’s more to this story but that’s it…. No facts (other than there is an investigation), just a parent’s statement reported as news during primetime.

A real news report might have stated that there have been allegations but it hasn’t been determined if they are founded since there is an investigation underway.  No one would be named since it’s just one dad’s statement with no other evidence offered.

A real news report might list the proper steps expected of the school district facing these types of allegations and then assure the public that they would give a future report updating what actions were taken by the district.

If these allegations are true, an ethics violation would be submitted to the Arkansas Department of Education Ethics Board.  The teacher would appear before the board for a hearing.  If evidence is determined to be creditable, the resulting punishments could extend to fines and revoking the teacher’s license.   Law enforcement would determine if criminal charges should be filed.

Now that’s a news story and it only takes a minute or two to share real information that holds educators accountable while protecting against character assassination in the event that the teacher is innocent or is the victim of a terrible hoax.

My problem with this television station is that we skipped a lot of steps that you would expect a professional news gathering organization to take.   We jumped right to the dad’s side of the story and left it there.  The station comes off looking like tabloid news.

I certainly hope the teacher is guilty of sending these text messages because, if he is not, then we’ve witnessed a terrible injustice on this man.  If I were a lawyer, I would be contacting this teacher in hopes that he’s innocent so I could file a slander lawsuit.  If he is guilty of this then proper due process should be taken to correct the situation and a creditable news organization would be expected to follow up and see that proper steps are taken.

I like this TV station (especially the weather reporting) and want to keep watching but I don’t appreciate thin news reporting, especially when we play fast and loose with the reputations of local citizens.

In case you’re wondering, I don’t know anyone involved in this situation.  I just want accurate news.

July 20, 2012

An Air Force instructor implicated in a sweeping sex scandal at one of the nation’s busiest military training bases was convicted in military court Friday of raping one female recruit and sexually assaulting several others.

Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, the first Lackland Air Force Base instructor to stand trial in the scandal, was found guilty by a jury of seven military personnel on all 28 counts he faced, including rape, aggravated sexual contact and multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault.

The jury deleted a clause from two counts that accused Walker of making flirtatious and lewd comments to trainees. However, it upheld the overall counts containing the deleted clauses, which accused him of trying to cultivate a sexual relationship with two trainees.

Walker faces up to life in prison and a dishonorable discharge at his sentencing hearing, which starts Saturday. He showed no emotion upon hearing the verdict. Outside the base courtroom afterward, Walker was met by his father and other relatives, some of whom were crying. He will remain free pending sentencing.

Walker is among 12 Lackland instructors investigated for sexual misconduct toward at least 31 female trainees. Six instructors have been charged on counts ranging from rape to adultery. Walker faced the most serious charges and was the first to stand trial.

Lackland is where every American airman receives basic training. It has about 475 instructors for the approximately 35,000 airmen who graduate every year. About one in five is female, pushed through eight weeks of basic training by a group of instructors, 90 percent of whom are men. The sexual misconduct at the base apparently began in 2009, but the first woman didn’t come forward until last year. The first allegations were levied against Walker, who is accused of crimes that allegedly took place between October 2010 and January 2011. According to prosecutors, Walker had sexual intercourse with 4 of the 10 female recruits. He was also accused of making flirtatious or sexually suggestive comments, sending inappropriate text messages and sometimes groping his recruits.

Walker also is accused of forcing five recruits to engage in sexual acts by threatening their military careers and intimidating two of the women into lying about his alleged misconduct, prosecutors alleged. Several of Walker’s alleged victims testified during his court-martial, including one airman who described how Walker lured her into an office and sexually assaulted her on a bed, ignoring her pleas to stop. The women told jurors that Walker gained their trust to get them alone in his office or an empty dormitory where he forced them into kissing, touching and intercourse. Those testifying said they didn’t tell anybody at first because they feared being booted from the Air Force.

The Associated Press is not naming those who testified because they are alleged sexual assault victims.

Meanwhile, the case of another former Air Force training instructor has been referred to a general court-martial, according to an Air Force statement issued Friday evening.

Staff Sgt. Craig LeBlanc is charged with sexual misconduct, obstructing justice and making a false official statement. He is accused of using his post as a military instructor to sexually assault and pursue a sexual relationship with one female trainee, and have a wrongful sexual relationship with another. No trial date has been set.

One of the other instructors charged in the case, Staff Sgt. Peter Vega-Maldonado, pleaded guilty in June, admitting he had sex with a female trainee in exchange for a sentence of 90 days’ confinement. He later acknowledged he had been involved with a total of 10 trainees – a number previously unknown to investigators.

RICHFIELD, Minn. (WCCO/AP) – Disgraced Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn will receive a $6.6 million severance package.

Dunn will receive a compensation package also includes includes a 2012 bonus of $1.1 million, stock grants of $2.5 million, a severance payment of $2.9 million and more than $100,000 for unused vacation.

With 167,000 employees under his watch, Brian Dunn wasn’t only Best Buy’s CEO, he was their leader.

He was the man hailed with turning the struggling electronics retailer around.

But when employees and the company’s board of directors learned of his inappropriate relationship with a 29-year-old female subordinate, Dunn resigned and the board’s internal investigation began.

One month after stepping aside, Best Buy’s audit committee released a three-page report detailing the alleged misconduct.

It concludes that Dunn violated company policy by “engaging in an extremely close personal relationship with a female employee that negatively impacted the work environment.”

The audit also says Dunn use “extremely poor judgment and a lack of professionalism,” but did not misuse company resources.

Details of the internal audit also reveal Dunn’s apparent obsession with the woman, calling or texting her 224 times over a nine-day span in which he traveled overseas on business trips.

The report says that the calls had no identifiable business purpose.

Dunn is also alleged to have provided the woman with tickets to at least seven sporting events and concerts, $600 of his own cash, and engaged in numerous social meetings outside the office including lunches and drinking engagements both during the week and on weekends.

St. Thomas marketing professor, David Brennan, says that restoring the confidence of customers, stockholders and employees is crucial to Best Buy.

“What this situation shows is that it clears the air of this particular situation, so that some of that uncertainty is going to be removed,” said Brennan.

The committee’s report further shows that the relationship created friction and disruption within the workplace and damaged employee morale.

According to the woman’s supervisor, the relationship with CEO Dunn impeded efforts to supervise the female employee.

When Best Buy founder and board chairman Richard Schulze was told of the affair last December, he confronted Dunn, but apparently did nothing about it.

Not reporting the complaint of employees to the board’s audit committee was a violation of company policy.

For that miscalculation, Schulze decided to step down as chairman of the board.

Schulze’s resignation is effective June 21 at the company’s annual meeting. He will become chairman emeritus, an honorary position, and serve out his term as director through June 2013.

He will be replaced at Best Buy by Hatim Tyabji, who is currently chairman of Best Buy’s audit committee and CEO of Bytemobile Inc., a provider of video optimization and traffic management systems for mobile network operators..

“This had to be devastating for him,” said Brennan. “Even more so, not following rules, regulations and policies that he helped set in place a decade ago.”

Schulze created the company by opening his first store called the Sound of Music in St. Paul, Minn., in 1966. He was CEO for more than 30 years, overseeing it through decades of steady growth before relinquishing that title in 2002.

R.J. Hottovy, a Morningstar analyst that follows Best Buy, said Schulze’s departure might be good for the company as it seeks a “fresh start.” It also may open up the door for a takeover offer, he said, since getting Schulze to part with his shares has been a barrier for private equity companies. Schulze currently owns 20 percent of Best Buy’s shares.

“Schulze has been influential in building the business from the beginning,” Hottovy said. “That said, the company has struggled to keep its relevance in today’s consumer electronics retail environment.”

On the news of the departure, shares closed up 28 cents at $19.56 on Monday after earlier sinking to $19.02 — the lowest they’ve been in more than three years.

(TM and © Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

As part of a plea agreement Wednesday, prosecutors dropped two other charges against 56-year-old Steven Bloom. Those charges accused the St. Paul man of buying lingerie for a former student and texting girls about their reproductive health.

Bloom resigned from the school district in March 2010 after police got a search warrant for his office.

Prosecutors say Bloom texted one sophomore about 50 times a month, often asking about her feminine health issues.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press report quotes Bloom’s attorney as saying her client’s conduct crossed a communications boundary, but he was never physically inappropriate with any student.

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)