Pa. is supposed to ‘immediately’ suspend teachers charged with serious crimes. That doesn’t always happen.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education's system for handling teacher misconduct is sometimes murky, and there have been failures in the system for notifying schools of an educator's arrest.
For months after he was arrested in March 2024 on charges of masturbating in a Montgomery County cemetery, Matthew Gagat continued teaching fifth graders at Lynnewood Elementary School in Havertown.
And in Chester County, Charles Graydus remained a career and technical education teacher at Octorara Junior/Senior High School after his January 2023 arrest for masturbating in front of a salon employee. The district accepted Graydus’ retirement that June.
In both cases, Haverford and Octorara Area school district officials said they weren’t informed of the arrests, so they didn’t suspend the teachers.
But the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), which under state law is called on to “immediately” suspend the certifications of educators charged with certain crimes, also did not do so.
An Inquirer review of Pennsylvania’s disciplinary actions against Philadelphia-area educators found at least a dozen instances, starting in 2015, in which the state took more than a year to act on the licenses of teachers charged with crimes that the law says warrant immediate suspension.
That review covered disciplinary actions against 82 teachers for which The Inquirer identified matching court records. A broader review of a state database of more than 470 disciplinary actions taken by Pennsylvania against Philadelphia-area educators over the last 20 years found:
The state provides public explanations for teacher discipline in an online database. Yet the educator discipline system is murky in a number of ways. Hundreds of complaints are filed against Pennsylvania teachers each year, and all are confidential. So are records related to investigations by the education department. And school-level disciplinary actions against teachers are not reflected in the state’s database.
It is up to schools to quickly remove teachers facing serious criminal charges from classrooms, because it can take months — or sometimes years — for the state to suspend a license. The state said that it has to provide educators with due process, and that the pace of a criminal case can also affect its disciplinary actions.
There have been failures in the state’s system for notifying schools of an educator’s arrest. The education department in October announced a “system upgrade” to improve communication with local schools.
It is not always clear what led to a teacher’s discipline. Nearly 50 of the 470 actions against Philadelphia-area educators cited conduct that was defined as “inappropriate” or “improper,” without clarification of whether the behavior was sexual or violated a different type of boundary.
Some victim advocates expressed concern that teachers who surrender their licenses for unclear reasons could get a new job working with children.
Sending sexual text messages or other forms of communication is a “very, very common part of teacher abuse we see,” said Jennifer Storm, Pennsylvania’s former victim advocate, who now works part time for a law firm that represents sexual abuse victims. If a teacher’s offense was sexual in nature, Storm said, “it should be pretty red-flagged, and made abundantly clear so the public knows.”
Storm also said it was problematic for the state to not suspend licenses more quickly when teachers are charged with serious crimes: “Suspension pending the outcome of the case should be the norm, and it should be immediate,” she said.
Erin James, a spokesperson for the education department, said the discipline imposed by its Professional Standards and Practices Commission — including immediate suspensions — was “one mechanism in a multilayered system designed to keep students safe and hold educators accountable.“
When the department becomes aware of a potentially dangerous situation involving a teacher, it “is urgently engaged with school officials, law enforcement, child welfare agencies — and any other relevant stakeholder — to ensure that children are protected,” James said.
How the educator discipline system works
The state has authority to discipline anyone with a license to teach in Pennsylvania, including by suspending or revoking their certification. If a licensed teacher is arrested, the education department is supposed to get a notification from Pennsylvania’s criminal justice network.
School administrators are also required to notify the department of any educator charged with a misdemeanor or felony, or accused of sexual misconduct with a child or student, among other offenses. Teachers are also expected to tell their schools within 72 hours of serious criminal charges.
Discipline can also stem from misconduct complaints filed with the education department, including by members of the public. The department received 550 complaints last year, according to James.
To impose discipline, the department files a notice with the 13-member Professional Standards and Practices Commission. Most members, who are appointed by the governor, are required to be current or former educators; the commission has final say over discipline.
In some cases, there’s nothing to decide: Pennsylvania’s Educator Discipline Act says a teacher’s license must be revoked upon conviction of certain crimes, including murder, rape and other sex crimes, aggravated assault, and any crime of “moral turpitude.”
With noncriminal conduct, however, the line is hazier. Officials with the education department, which employs its own investigators, say they consider factors including whether the misconduct was an isolated incident, whether the teacher has been disciplined before, and the teacher’s age and experience.
Teachers have a right to a hearing. Sanctions can range from private reprimands to temporary suspensions, to revocation of the right to teach in a public school. (Private reprimands are not listed in the state’s public database; James said five were issued last year.) Sometimes teachers surrender their licenses, which can be negotiated with the state.
‘Immediate suspension’ can take more than a year
The Educator Discipline Act directs the state to immediately suspend the licenses of teachers charged with specific crimes. The law does not define immediately.
The Inquirer identified numerous cases where more than a year — or years — passed between a teacher’s arrest on the charges specified under the law, and suspension of their license. It was not clear whether any of the teachers remained in classrooms. In some cases, the education department did not act on a teacher’s license until after a conviction.
Among the cases with more than a year’s delay:
Corey Curtis, who last taught at People for People Charter School in Philadelphia, was charged with attempted homicide in February 2022; the state suspended his license in March 2023. Curtis, who pleaded guilty in May 2023 to aggravated assault and was sentenced to two to four years in prison, could not be reached for comment.
Daniel Waters, a Chester High School teacher and baseball coach, was charged with sexually assaulting minors in July 2023; the state suspended his license in August 2024. Waters, who pleaded guilty in December to criminal solicitation and was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison, could not be reached for comment.
Kevork Artinian, who taught at Ziegler Elementary School in Philadelphia between August 2018 and August 2020, was charged with corruption of minors and sexual assault in December 2020; the state suspended his license in July 2023. Artinian, who was found guilty in August 2023 and has since appealed his conviction, declined to comment.
Asked why it could take more than a year for the state to act, James said that immediate suspensions are “imposed in certain circumstances” if the Professional Standards and Practices Commission “determines that the educator poses a threat to students or other persons in the schools of the commonwealth.”
She noted that the department needs “reliable criminal court records” to file a notice seeking a teacher’s suspension, and that if teachers are incarcerated, it can hinder the department’s ability to offer the required opportunity for a hearing.
In Curtis’ case, the department issued a notice of charges to offer him a hearing a year after his arrest; in Waters’ case, it took 10 months, according to commission orders. It is not clear when the department offered Artinian a hearing before suspending him.
James also said the department “immediately informs” a teacher’s current or former employer of criminal charges.
“Teachers are often appropriately removed from classrooms by local school officials before the formal discipline process is completed, helping to ensure that the educator does not interact with students during pending criminal proceedings,” James said.
Some schools haven’t been notified of teachers’ arrests
There have been cases, however, where schools say they were never informed of an employee’s arrest.
When Haverford Township Superintendent Maureen Reusche got a call from a reporter last July seeking comment on Gagat, the fifth-grade teacher who had been charged twice with open lewdness, “I was shocked,” Reusche wrote in an Aug. 23 letter to then-Education Secretary Khalid Mumin.
Reusche said she had spoken to state officials, who informed her there was a “technical issue” that had prevented the department from notifying the district of Gagat’s arrests.
Even though Gagat was first arrested on March 3, 2024 — the second arrest occurred that June — “we have still not received the notification from PDE,” Reusche said in the letter. She asked: “How many other districts have not been notified of similar offenses?”
Gagat, who pleaded no contest to the first charge in August and was sentenced to two years’ probation, did not return a request for comment. He has appealed the conviction.
Similarly, the Octorara Area School District told community members in October 2024 that it was never made aware of the January 2023 arrest of Charles Graydus. Graydus retired in June 2023.
“Certainly, this news is concerning and upsetting,” Superintendent Steven Leever said in the message, which followed Graydus’ sentencing to two years’ probation, according to Lancaster Online. Leever said that had the district known of the arrest, “we would have immediately removed” Graydus from the classroom pending investigation.
Graydus did not return a request for comment.
James said the education department “learned last year that in some instances, notifications weren’t reaching the school personnel best positioned to act on this information.” In October, the department announced a “system upgrade” that James said was intended “to improve communication between PDE and school officials about educators facing charges.” It also told schools to make sure their contact information was correct.
The professional standards commission revoked the licenses of both Gagat and Graydus in January.
‘Inappropriate’ or ‘improper’ conduct
If a teacher hasn’t been charged with a crime, it can sometimes be hard to determine what exactly led to a decision by the commission to suspend or revoke a license — or why a teacher surrendered it.
Pennsylvania’s online database of public disciplinary actions against educators often includes specific information about a teacher’s misconduct: for instance, that a teacher took gifts and money from a student in exchange for grades, or exhibited “erratic behavior” and slurred speech at multiple school events.
But in other cases, the nature of the misconduct is less clearly defined — with language indicating a teacher has crossed boundaries, but not indicating how exactly it was “inappropriate.”
Among the most recent examples: Elliott Drago, a former teacher at Philadelphia’s Central High School who won a Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award in 2021, surrendered his license in September; the stated reason was “allegations that educator engaged in inappropriate communications with students.” Drago, who left the Philadelphia district in November 2021, did not respond to a request for comment.
Jared Williams, a former music department chair at Council Rock North High School, surrendered his license in May 2024, for “allegations educator had inappropriate contact with a student.” Williams, who retired from Council Rock in November 2019, did not return a request for comment.
Officials said the reason for a teacher’s disciplinary action can be negotiated as part of a settlement — which can be a way to secure the termination of a teacher’s license, said Christopher McNally, a former state hearing examiner who has a private legal practice in Western Pennsylvania.
“There is a public interest in knowing what happened,” McNally said. But “if the choice is, do we choose to put this in vague or less descriptive terms, so we can get this person out of the profession and protect the public right away, versus let’s fight it out and take the chance we lose … you have to weigh that alternative.”
Whatever language is used to justify a teacher’s license being taken away, it indicates something “really unacceptable” happened, said Charol Shakeshaft, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who has researched educator sexual misconduct since the late 1980s.
“It’s more likely than not, in my studies, that the person remains with a teaching license and remains in education when they’ve abused … than they lose their license,” Shakeshaft said.
And in cases of educators facing charges for serious crimes, Shakeshaft said Pennsylvania should act more quickly to suspend teaching licenses.
“We need to not get bogged down in bureaucracy and respond,” she said.