School for scandal

Bonanza High School teacher John Mannion has the right to be presumed innocent of the current criminal charges against him.

But it’s not the latest arrest of Mr. Mannion, 54, that should most concern parents and taxpayers. His entire criminal history stands as an indictment of the Clark County School District itself.

Especially at the high school level, the average performance of our public schools stinks. Strong leadership is needed to whip things into shape. But how that can happen in a system so resistant to change, to imposing any consequence for failure or bad acts, that it can’t even get rid of a John Mannion?

In 1988, Mr. Mannion was indicted by a federal grand jury in Utah for drug trafficking. He pleaded guilty and served more than a year in prison for possessing 8 ounces of cocaine. Within three months of his release, he was hired as a Clark County School District custodian.

He had connections. His parents, Jack and Terry Mannion, were longtime district employees. Mannion Middle School in Henderson was named in their honor.

John Mannion worked his way from custodian to coach and to teaching classes in wood shop and weight lifting. He discussed his Utah conviction in a 2009 interview with the Review-Journal. He said he was addicted to cocaine at the time of his conviction, that he had not used drugs since, and that the conviction saved his life.

“I did everything in my power to put that behind me,” Mannion said in 2009. “It’s the only time in my life I’ve been arrested.”

Unfortunately, Mr. Mannion, who in 2009 was employed as a teacher and varsity football coach at Coronado High School, was fired that year after being arrested on suspicion of stealing about $17,000 in booster donations over an eight-month period. Officials at Coronado became suspicious after students found a bag containing more than $5,000 cash behind a bookshelf in the coach’s office.

Prosecutors said Mannion mishandled funds by not immediately giving the money to the school banker, but they were unable to prove he misappropriated the cash. So, after criminal charges were dismissed in 2011, Mannion challenged his firing. An arbitrator ruled in his favor (of course) in 2012, at which point district officials had no realistic choice but to reinstate him. It took another year for Mannion to sort out his teacher license and for the district to find him a new school.

But he couldn’t stay out of trouble. School officials now say that, prior to his going back to work March 4, teaching physical education at Bonanza, Mannion was arrested again, on suspicion of felony drug trafficking charges. Mannion somehow neglected to self-report his July arrest. That’s why he’s now at home — drawing pay.

Authorities said Mannion sold the prescription painkiller Oxycontin to undercover Las Vegas police on three occasions, the last sale for $1,000. So we’re not talking about a couple of pills left at the bottom of the bottle. Mannion also admitted to smoking methamphetamine after detectives found 0.8 grams of it in a black bag next to a glass pipe on his bedside table.

School district officials did not find out about the July arrest until last Thursday. Spokeswoman Amanda Fulkerson said Mannion is suspended with pay, but that he might subsequently be suspended without pay.

Because Mannion never technically lost his job, no new background check was required before he was placed at Bonanza. Nor did Manion ever lose his health benefits during his years-long suspension, Ms. Fulkerson says.

A second chance for those who erred in their youth? Fine. But grown-ups who are entrusted with schooling our children must have solid judgment. Those who consistently make poor personal and professional decisions have no right to career employment in the tax-funded schools. Yet in these parts, even teachers caught having sex with high school students are seen to depart only if they’re considerate enough to quit.

Yes, the vast majority of school district employees are dedicated, hard-working and law-abiding. But administrators who don’t have the power to show bad employees the door become laughingstocks, ineffectually shuffling their paperwork until they finally throw up their hands and ask “Why bother trying to change anything?” The best they can do is make a bad apple someone else’s problem — as the district did with Mannion.

A new teacher evaluation system is supposedly forthcoming, and tenure protections have been dialed back. But those reforms will take years to weed out our worst educators — assuming the system isn’t gamed.

School districts must have the power to fire. Even if it requires new law from the Legislature, the merry-go-round that allows unaccountable “arbitrators” to force the reinstatement of bad apples must end. And the district certainly must be able get rid of train wrecks like Mannion, denying them prolonged paid vacations at taxpayer expense.

Otherwise, who can reform anything? What kind of clown carnival are the taxpayers funding? And why should they keep paying for it?