FL - Should Durand Brown be allowed to teach?

believe09

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Mr. Brown is a Eustis Middle School teacher who was charged with child neglect this weekend. Mr. Brown's 1 year old was found wandering at 530PM outside of an apartment complex wearing only a soiled diaper. Someone notified the manager that the baby was outside of the gate, and she went to him, fed him and changed his diaper. Then she called 911.

At 830PM Officers responded to a call for a missing 1 year old who was last seen only wearing a diaper.

The caller was Mr. Brown. He claimed that he was left alone to watch his 6 children, left the residence to food shop and put the 12 year old in charge. Somewhere around 830PM he realized the 1 year old child was missing. That he in fact had 5 children home with him. Rut-roh: investigation by the police uncovered the fact that he had actually been home, not grocery shopping. So not only was it his watch, he lied about it.

The child was returned to the custody of Mom who was working at the time...the kicker? She has 7 children with this charmer.

http://www.clickorlando.com/education/25272718/detail.html
 
So, the guy says that he left for 20 minutes to get some groceries at 6:30 and noticed at 8:25 that the baby was missing. Not OK. A father who doesn't know where a one year old is for two hours? But wait, that's all a lie. The little guy was actually missing since 5:30. Dear Lord.

There's a lot in this story that doesn't jive for me. This is not an accident as the baby would and should get the highest level of supervision. This man is a teacher and his wife works AND they live in an apartment with 6 or 7 children? Something just isn't right. Is there a drug or alcohol problem in the home? I admit, that's a lot of little ones to keep track of but the guy is a teacher, after all.

I'm not saying that the same "accident" could happen with middle school kids so I'm not sure he's a danger in the classroom. I just think that this "accident" is a red flag that things at home need to be checked out. The soiled diaper (as all diapers will be soiled sooner or later) doesn't bother me as much as the child had just a diaper in the late afternoon. The little guy must have been getting cold. Thank God he didn't wander into a swimming pool or out into the street.

There's several of us on board who have large families and I simply cannot imagine misplacing the baby and not calling out the National Guard within minutes--especially when you are the only parent in the home!! It's not like one parent thought they had him and the other thought the same. I think this guy was passed out on the couch.
 
Miss Izzy, the police proved that Dad lied. He was not gone from the apartment when the child was missing. He was there inside of the apartment. The whole time.

So who knows how long little baby was gone, wandering the streets in a dirty diaper. However long it was, dad did not notice.
 
I don't think he should lose his job. I do believe it was a mistake that he will never make again.

I think LYING about his whereabouts is troubling.
 
Comments imply he has a record or at least a history with LE(i.e arrests).
I am NOT being racist or judgmental at all *however* his mugshot surprised me as he doesn't look like we have been 'taught' (rightly or wrongly)to think a teacher should look like.
I truly hope the man is a great teacher & this was just a 'lapse'(can you tell I'm biting my tongue?).
I do question(I said question not judge!)his having a full gold "grill" when he has 7 children to look after as ,in my mind,I'd buy diapers before I'd buy myself gold teeth!
From the video of Mom & her attitude & what she has to say I will simply say that this family has ALOT going on ,imo,and I will not be surprised if ,in the future,we hear further news about this family.
I'm trying so hard NOT to judge as hey I 'm a former foster kid who dropped out of high school/was a teenage Mom,I was divorced & was by myself with 4 kids & I have alot of tattoos so I know what it's like to be judged wrongly simply by my appearance & background .
I'm just not getting good vibes from the whole situation but that's me.
 
I agree we will be hearing more about this family, VE-I think they are lucky that fate intervened and a tragedy was averted. But he didnt miss the child for more than 3 hours? Was he sleeping?
 
Comments imply he has a record or at least a history with LE(i.e arrests).
I am NOT being racist or judgmental at all *however* his mugshot surprised me as he doesn't look like we have been 'taught' (rightly or wrongly)to think a teacher should look like.
I truly hope the man is a great teacher & this was just a 'lapse'(can you tell I'm biting my tongue?).
I do question(I said question not judge!)his having a full gold "grill" when he has 7 children to look after as ,in my mind,I'd buy diapers before I'd buy myself gold teeth!
From the video of Mom & her attitude & what she has to say I will simply say that this family has ALOT going on ,imo,and I will not be surprised if ,in the future,we hear further news about this family.
I'm trying so hard NOT to judge as hey I 'm a former foster kid who dropped out of high school/was a teenage Mom,I was divorced & was by myself with 4 kids & I have alot of tattoos so I know what it's like to be judged wrongly simply by my appearance & background .
I'm just not getting good vibes from the whole situation but that's me.


Chica, you so have to get yourself a grill. Oh with a diamond for both front teeth.;)

He's a teacher of special needs students. So, if one of those kids happens to wander off ya'd have to wonder if he'd miss the student.

He's a liar. O.K. he tried to save his own tail. However, he was going to let a 12 year old take the blame. Excellent.

The school district has reassigned hom until "they know what to do with him". Alrightie.

He's got a wife/lady friend/mom of his kids who is enabling him. "Sheesh it's no big deal. babies in diapers wander off for hours all the time".

Should he still teach? For all we know he isn't teaching in the class.

One thing for sure he and the enabling momma should practice some da*n birth control at some point.


http://www.wesh.com/r/25285479/detail.html
 
No.

If he doesn't care enough about his own children to take care of them and not lie about it........I don't trust him around someone else's children.
 
Would you want this man to teach your child? Ummm....no way! Definitely should lose the job...and the kids, until he gets some help with the problems he's facing. I have a lot of compassion for people with issues....most of us have some. But being honest about them and dealing with them is a good sign of maturity....the kind of maturity it takes to be a good teacher and a decent parent.
 
Chica, you so have to get yourself a grill. Oh with a diamond for both front teeth.;)

He's a teacher of special needs students. So, if one of those kids happens to wander off ya'd have to wonder if he'd miss the student.

He's a liar. O.K. he tried to save his own tail. However, he was going to let a 12 year old take the blame. Excellent.

The school district has reassigned hom until "they know what to do with him". Alrightie.

He's got a wife/lady friend/mom of his kids who is enabling him. "Sheesh it's no big deal. babies in diapers wander off for hours all the time".

Should he still teach? For all we know he isn't teaching in the class.

One thing for sure he and the enabling momma should practice some da*n birth control at some point.


http://www.wesh.com/r/25285479/detail.html
Oh you have no idea how often I've thought bout getting me a grill!
If I won the lottery I would be dangerous!:dance:
 
No, not only should he be terminated from the school district, the State should revoke his teaching certificate. The big question is "will they"?

My bets are on NOPE. Not only will be probably not loose his job - the State most definitely will do very little than slap him on the wrist with a Letter of Reprimand.

This is the ugly, underbelly of what is wrong with our public schools. There are so many more like this guy in the classroom with our children everyday.

Even if the district fires him - he'll become a "dancing lemon". He will just move to a new district and get a new classroom. The movie "Searching for Superman" coined the phrase "Dancing Lemons" as "ineffective" teachers that just get shuffled from school to school. What they didn't reveal was there are a lot of these "lemons" that are criminals and that they just move about the country getting classrooms where they can until its time to move on again.

Just like that pedo creep in TX last week with the 70 kids. The "rules" have to change for our teachers.

This country and the school districts are really keeping the parents in the dark about what goes on with teachers everywhere.
 
To be clear, I've understood from the first that the man was lying. I was tying to point out that even the story he told was outrageous. The truth was totally unacceptable. I agree with Filly that it is reprehensible to place the blame on a 12 year old. I'm pleased that he's not in the classroom at the present time as I didn't originally note that he's a special ed teacher. Special ed classes require far greater supervision.

However, I want to know more about what actually was going on in that home before I scream for his license. That's a lot of children. Is this a blended family? If there are so many and both parents are working (many would be screaming if one or both weren't), are they totally exhausted? Does the man take meds which cause drowsiness? Has he recently started them. My son has multiple sclerosis and must take meds to sleep due to his tremors. If his wife is gone overnight, they have a friend sleep over as M wouldn't be able to make good decisions in the nighttime. He once got up at night and fell flat on his face requiring facial stitches. When they had their two infants, they had strongly delineated roles. He managed daytime care and his wife managed night time care. People with disabilities or med needs have done this since the dawn of time.

This could have been a horrid glitch and truly an accident. But it still needs to be checked out thoroughly. The lying really really bothers me as people rarely lie only once. It's usually a pattern of behavior. FWIW, I don't quite compare this guy with Alferez. I need to know more about this man before I judge.
 
First a question for those in Florida. Is ESE a term used for disabled special needs education? Exceptional Student Education (Brown's certification) can also mean teaching classes for the gifted and talented. I just want to be clear on that.

Secondly, it seems that Mr. Brown has even more children as he's being sued by a woman with the same last name for back child support. That case has been ongoing since last year and was reassigned to another judge three months ago.
 
And a domestic violence charge against the same woman in 2007 which was dismissed and marked "closed".
 
I'm not certain about this but the mother of the child calls herself "mommy of 7" on her MS page. This sounds as if it must be a blended family as there was a divorce for Brown in January 2007. He couldn't have had six children with this woman (including a 12 year) old since then. Possibly some of the answers lie in a shared custody situation which suddenly raises the number of children in home on certain days of the week or month.

NOTHING excuses missing the baby but I'm just looking for clues as to how this happened.
 
ESE is not a term I was familiar with as we don't use it in Oregon. However, Florida does. It is prudent to remove him from the classroom, IMO, until an investigation is completed as he is licensed to teach special needs children as young as Kindergarten level. FWIW, here are Brown's credentials:

Brown, Durand A
1024198
Lake Exceptional Student Education, (grades K - 12)
Professional
7/1/2009 - 6/30/2014


Brown, Durand A
1024198
Lake Middle Grades Integrated Curriculum, (grades 5 - 9)
Professional
7/1/2009 - 6/30/2014




[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exceptional_education[/ame]

"Exceptional Education, also known as Exceptional Student Education (ESE), usually refers to both the education of gifted / talented children and children with physical or mental disabilities...."
 

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