USA Today – Steve Reilly
“In 1997, West Virginia fifth-grade student Jeremy Bell died of what was believed to be a head injury while on a camping trip with the principal of his school, Edgar Friedrichs Jr. Nearly eight years later, investigators determined it was not a head injury. Bell had been sexually abused and killed by his principal, according to state criminal records and documents filed in a subsequent federal lawsuit. Probing deeper, officials realized Friedrichs had been dismissed by a Pennsylvania school for sexual misconduct allegations years earlier, but the school helped him get his job in West Virginia. The story of Jeremy Bell, and others like it, helped provide the impetus for federal changes proposed over the past decade that would mandate background checks for teachers, require states and districts to share data about disciplined teachers and prohibit school districts from facilitating the transfer of a teacher accused of sexual misconduct to another jurisdiction.”(more)