In the wake

of recent criminal charges brought against a substitute teacher at a county

middle school, officials may take a look at age guidelines regarding substitutes

in general.

Charlie Sheets,

19, allegedly showed indecent pictures from the Internet to a class of

seventh- and eighth-graders at Whitewater Middle School three weeks ago.

He turned himself in March 30 and was released on bond, and the case remains

in Fayette County State Court.

State law requires

that substitute teachers at any level be at least 18 years of age and

have a high school diploma. The Fayette County School System requires

that its high school teachers be at least 21.

Board members

have requested that the issue be revisited to see if a change in the minimum

age at the middle school level should be made. No one on the board has

made a specific recommendation and there is currently no timetable for

when or if the matter might be discussed at a board meeting.

"We are

going to relook at the policy to see if anything needs to be changed or

tightened up, so we can be as careful as possible about choosing substitutes,"

said Superintendent John DeCotis.

While pointing

out that this is the first incident of this type involving a substitute

teacher, DeCotis added that finding qualified subs for the entire system

is a constant challenge because of a sizeable shortage. Substitutes' daily

pay ranges from $52 (high school diploma) to $57 (four-year degree) to

$62 (certified teacher).

The county

conducts a training session each month, typically drawing 40-50 people,

DeCotis said, but many of them drop out soon afterward because of permanent

job opportunities or other factors. "So we're constantly retraining,"

he said.

State standards

require four hours of training for new substitutes who do not hold valid

or expired teaching certificates, according to the county school system.

Substitutes who hold certificates are required to view a sexual harassment

video before entering the classroom.

Because of

state guidelines regarding minimum age, the county must be careful not

to arbitrarily reject someone and risk an age discrimination lawsuit,

DeCotis said.

As for the

technological aspects of the Sheets incident, officials also are looking

into safeguards that can be placed on computers to prevent unwanted material

from showing up on the screen. "We had some things in place before,

but they were insufficient," DeCotis said.

A new bill

that recently passed in the U.S. Congress requires school systems to take

a more active role in this regard, so the system was already looking into

the matter, according to DeCotis.

But the technology

can be difficult to handle. Some filtering programs block out key words

or phrases and could prevent a legitimate site from being accessed for

academic purposes, while other improper sites can be accessed through

links from other sites and sometimes slip through the cracks of any preventive

software.

While these

issues are being considered at the staff level right now, they could surface

at a future board meeting, especially if a large expenditure is required

or a policy change is considered, DeCotis said.