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Teacher splits time between classroom, jail
BY ERICA ERWIN Erie Times-News ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA -- James Born spends his weekdays teaching English at the Harbor Creek junior high school.
He spends his nights behind bars at the Erie County Community Corrections Center.
The veteran teacher is serving a sentence of 30 days to six months, with work-release privileges, for violating a protection-from-abuse order filed against him by his estranged wife, Kaye Born, according to court documents.
What the sentence means for his Pennsylvania teaching certificate remains unclear.
By law, the state Department of Education can suspend or revoke a teacher's certificate if that teacher has been convicted of certain crimes or of incidents involving "moral turpitude," department spokesman Michael Race said. Districts have 30 days to report the offense to the state; members of the public also can report suspected abuses.
Race would not comment on whether violation of a PFA order could warrant suspension or revocation of a teaching certificate.
Erie lawyer Jeff Connelly, who is representing Born in ongoing divorce proceedings between Born and his wife, said he doesn't think the sentence will affect Born's license and said he sees no reason why Born shouldn't be in a classroom.
If Erie County Judge Stephanie Domitrovich believed allowing Born in the classroom "would be a threat or in any way not conducive to the safety of kids, she certainly wouldn't have put him on work release," Connelly said.
He added that the District Attorney's Office did not oppose work-release privileges.
Harbor Creek schools Superintendent Rick Lansberry said the situation is "not something the district is happy about." District Solicitor Mark Wassell advised the district to allow Born to keep working in the classroom, Lansberry said.
"He is here today doing an effective job teaching," Lansberry said of Born. "At this point, our primary concern is performance."
Wassell could not be reached for comment. Born declined comment.
Under the terms of the sentence, Born is allowed to teach at the school but must return to the Community Corrections Center during nonworking hours. The minimum sentence expires May 15; the maximum on Oct. 15.
The prerelease center, a new, $3.5 million facility on East 16th Street between Parade and Wallace streets, houses prisoners serving county time for nonviolent offenses, including minor drug crimes, drunken driving, or failing to pay child support.
In a complaint filed on March 31, Kaye Born claimed that James Born violated an April 5, 2007, PFA order by sending her a harassing text message on March 28. When she ignored the message, he called her twice, Kaye Born said. She also lists two other instances, on March 19 and March 20, in which she said James Born yelled at her using expletives.
The PFA order, which expired April 5, forbids James Born from having any contact with Kaye Born except to discuss the children or the children's schedules, and then only through e-mail or U.S. mail.
James Born did not attend an April 16 hearing on the complaint because of "miscommunication" over the date of the hearing, Connelly said, so he did not answer the charges in person.
Born is the same teacher who was accused of sexually assaulting two female students in his 11th-grade English class during separate incidents in January 1999 and March 1999. A jury found him not guilty of all charges -- two counts of indecent assault, two counts of corruption of a minor and one count of luring a child into a motor vehicle -- in May 2001.
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