Guilty teacher keeps on teaching

A teacher convicted of receiving stolen property in the theft of a laptop computer from a Yuba City elementary school was teaching Thursday at the Alternative Education Placement Center of the Marysville Joint Unified School District.

Lamont Joseph Norene, 53, of Yuba City is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 8 in Yuba County Superior Court for the misdemeanor conviction. He pleaded guilty Wednesday.

Ramiro Carreon, assistant superintendent for personnel in the Marysville school district, said, "A teacher, even after a criminal conviction, is still an employee by law and by contract."

Public employees, including teachers, are afforded various levels of due process regarding their employment status, Carreon said.

"We will continue to monitor and investigate this situation," he said.

Lee Pope, assistant general counsel for the Sacramento-based Commission on Teacher Credentialing, said the commission should be officially informed of Norene's misdemeanor conviction. A seven-member committee that screens credential-related issues would review the teacher's status, Pope said.

The panel in its review of a misdemeanor conviction can recommend actions ranging from no discipline to revoking credentials, he said. Some criminal convictions, such as murder or manslaughter, require revocation of teaching credentials.

Norene and his attorney, former Sutter County judge Timothy Evans, did not return phone calls Thursday seeking comment.

Olivehurst resident Larry Patty, a candidate for the Marysville school board in the Nov. 4 election, said he is concerned "that any instructor was convicted of a crime and still influencing students."

"We're supposed to be setting examples — the right examples," said Patty, who taught for 39 years in the Marysville school district before retiring from Lindhurst High School.

He was the department head of vocational education at Lindhurst High when Norene taught computer science there. Patty said he couldn't comment specifically about Norene.

Michael Schlusser, president of the teachers association in the Marysville school district, said the credentials of teachers should be reviewed case by case as the state panel does.

"Teachers are on a pedestal," Schlusser said of their status in a community. "That has its benefits and its burdens."

"The guy driving the garbage truck is making more money than I am," he said as an example, and "is held to a lower standard of expected behavior than I am."

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or at rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com.