Pubdate: Wed, 28 Jun 2006
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2006 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Matthew Dolan and Sara Neufeld
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

PRINCIPAL STANDS BY TROUBLED TEACHER

Letter Asks Judge For Leniency For Convicted Felon

A Baltimore principal used school stationery to request  leniency for
a teacher who had pleaded guilty in August  to carrying 5 pounds of
cocaine in his car and was  allowed to continue teaching until his
sentencing two  weeks ago.

The two-page letter of support from Principal Edith M.  Jones defended
Martius Harding as a talented but  troubled teacher who shepherded his
special education  pupils and served as a role model for children and
staff at Govans Elementary School.

"Judge Bennett, Mr. Harding is a very kind, caring man,  with an
unbelievable spirit as a father and teacher,"  Jones wrote. "He is a
young man, A young man, who, as  intelligent as he is, having gone to
some of the finest  formalized schools, has done some very stupid
things in  his life."

U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett made the letter  public
yesterday at the request of The Sun.

The letter does not explain why Jones allowed Harding  to teach at the
North Baltimore school when he arrived  with a felony conviction from
2001. It also does not  detail why Harding failed to receive his state
  certification or why he continued teaching this year  after an arrest
on cocaine possession charges in  February last year and a drug
conviction in August.  Schools officials have declined to say whether
Jones  acted appropriately.

In August, Harding, 28, of Aberdeen, pleaded guilty in  U.S. District
Court to conspiracy to distribute  cocaine. His lawyer Lawrence B.
Rosenberg said  yesterday that, at Bennett's request, he wrote a
letter  to Jones at the time with news about the plea.

But Jones allowed Harding, who was hired in 2002, to  continue to
teach for the entire school year. He was  sentenced on June 16 to
serve seven years in prison.

In her letter, Jones said any punishment for Harding  should be
tempered by his dedication to the school and  his responsibilities to
his family.

"Mr. Harding has been devastated and perplexed since  his arrest;
however, he has managed to perform  effectively in spite of his
burden," Jones wrote to  Bennett.

"I feel he has made some absolutely terrible mistakes  and horrible
choices," she continued. " ... To take him  from his five children at
home and the staff and  students, who depend on him at the school as
well, will  be a travesty for all. If there is some other way, I am
believing God for it."

Reached at her school office yesterday, Jones declined  to comment.
She demanded to know how a reporter had  obtained a copy of the
letter, and questioned whether  it was legal for the newspaper to print it.

Harding, who was arrested during a traffic stop in  Cecil County,
remains on home detention until his  reporting date to prison, which
is no later than Aug.  16, according to court records.

Yesterday Harding did not return a phone message left  with his
lawyer.

Rosenberg has said that Harding got into drug dealing  as a way to
make money and support an expensive legal  fight to secure visitation
with one of his children.  That explanation is echoed in a letter
written by his  fiancee to the federal judge.

"It is not a day that goes by that he does not talk  about Ariel,"
Harding's fiancee, Jessica M. Evans,  wrote to Bennett, in another
letter released yesterday.  "She is the missing piece in his life.
Martius looks at  Ariel's pictures daily, and I see the hurt in his
eyes  when he looks at them. Getting Ariel back is his number  one
priority."

But Harding's federal court case in Baltimore wasn't  his first brush
with the law.

Records show that Harding pleaded guilty in May 2001 to  participating
in an elaborate fraud using credit cards  on the Internet, stealing
tens of thousands of dollars  worth of goods, including a late-model
Jeep and two new  motorcycles.

Harding, who had wrestled for the University of  Virginia and West
Virginia University before his felony  arrest, was sentenced to five
years' probation and an  indeterminate period of home detention.

The next year, the Baltimore school system hired  Harding as a special
education teacher at Govans.

Jones wrote in her letter that Harding taught 12 to 15 severely
emotionally disturbed pupils.

"Words can not express what his male influence has been on his
students, many of whom do not have fathers in the home or male figures
in their lives," she wrote.

She added that "his professional responsibilities were consistently
managed with care and efficiency."

But the state said it had no record of a teaching certificate for
Harding, a father of five who drove a Mercedes and oversaw a
character-building club for boys called Govans Gentlemen.

School system spokeswoman Edie House declined to comment on Harding's
case and Jones' letter, saying the issues are personnel matters. She
said only that the system follows Maryland law governing employment of
teachers with criminal backgrounds.

"Whatever the Maryland law says, that's where we are," House
said.

State law says that a school board "may" suspend or dismiss a teacher
for grounds including "immorality."

The law also says that a teaching certificate should be suspended or
revoked if a teacher pleads guilty to a "controlled dangerous
substance offense." But state officials have said that Harding did not
have a certificate.

School systems are required under state law to conduct criminal
background checks on employees before hiring them. Harding was hired
at Govans in 2002 despite a felony conviction for fraud during the
previous year.

A legislative audit released Friday concluded that the Maryland State
Department of Education has not implemented adequate safeguards to
prevent convicted criminals from working in schools.

State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick said it is the responsibility
of local school systems to conduct criminal background checks for all
employees.

For Jones, Harding is not beyond redemption.

"I think that he has learned an invaluable lesson, in that what he
will lose (his profession, family, etc.) far outweighs anything else,"
she wrote to the judge.
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MAP posted-by: Derek