RICHMOND, Va. β Every year, millions of students around the country report what is known as "educator sexual misconduct."
Misconduct like a Surry County mom said her daughter reported for three years β beginning in the second grade.
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Va. mother says she repeatedly warned school of teacher facing child sex crime
Those allegations involved her then elementary school physical education teacher Joshua Lashbrook.
"He was bouncing my daughter on his knees and several girls," the mother told me.
Lashbrook was never charged in Surry during his six years working there.
He's now charged with a felony sex crime involving a minor in Prince George County where he later worked as a physical education teacher.
"Many schools feel they're safe if they're doing a criminal background check, you're not. The majority of the abuse happens from people who would never be identified as a pedophile," said retired VCU School of Education Professor Dr. Charol Shakeshaft, who dedicated her career researching this topic. "We see some of the same patterns of institutional cover ups that the Catholic Church, we've documented that those were cover ups and people were taken away, but nothing was really done. The same has happened in schools."
In a separate case involving Prince George County, former Assistant Superintendent of Schools William Barnes was arrested on child sex charges last July. The former educator of close to 50 years is facing three criminal trials next year.
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The Commonwealth says he sexually assaulted his adopted son and two other men when they were teenagers.
Police say the first report was made in 2014.
But a formal investigation was never conducted from the anonymous tip.
Former Prince George Elementary School teacher Miranda Janeway was indicted on multiple child porn charges last October.
And two years and three months after he left Surry County Elementary, Lashbrook was put on leave at N.B. Clements Junior High in Prince George and he'd later be arrested for sexually abusing a child in July.
"They allowed this to flow over to another neighboring county," the Surry County mother said. "I myself reported three incidences and still nothing was done."
Under the Freedom of Information Act, CBS 6 obtained a licensure report from the Virginia Department of Education that confirms the state took no action against Lashbrook's license while he was employed in Surry.
"What happens is we start with these little boundary crossings that aren't interrupted, and we end up with a student who's been sexually abused," Shakeshaft said.
The most recent alleged educator misconduct arrests were in August, when Chesterfield teachers Richard Franklin Troshack and Shaun Jason Adams were taken into custody on child porn and sex charges.
The Commonwealth of Virginia is a member of the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education or NASDTEC.
"When you compare that to the 3.5 million public school educators, you're talking about 1700s of 1%, and the vast majority of what I'm talking about there have nothing to do with hurting a child in any way," NASDTEC Executive Director Jimmy Adams said.
The VDOE uses its national database or "clearinghouse" to screen educators before issuing a license. It provides an immediate alert of individuals who have had their professional educator license or certificate annulled, denied, suspended, revoked or otherwise invalidated. About 6,000 educators lose their license each year due to serious misconduct that deems them unsafe to be in the classroom.
"All applicants should be run against the clearinghouse," Adams said. "What you'll find in the clearinghouse may not show up, most likely will not show up in a criminal background records check. What we have are administrative actions where a criminal case may never have been brought or charged may never been brought."
According to the state budget, the Commonwealth set aside $93,000 for 2025 and 2026 so local school divisions can use the clearinghouse to research educator misconduct as part of their hiring process in addition to required criminal background checks.
"You have to do much more in depth looking. you need to call up and ask specific questions. And if the person says, I don't know, you need to get to the person who does know," Shakeshaft said. "It's somewhat unusual for a veteran teacher to move to another school district that, in and of itself, is a red flag."
Shakeshaft says training the student and the staff about boundaries is also imperative.
"What we see is that by not calling out the boundary crossing, by not stopping it, by not moving in, the whole system allows it to happen," she said.
A systemic failure the mother I spoke with believes is preventable.
"[The school system] should have taken us seriously. They should have removed him immediately," the Surry County mom said.
I reached out to the Virginia Department of Education on the cluster of educator arrests in our area and what if any guidance they give.
Despite multiple attempts to get comment from the I have not had our questions answered. The last state superintendent memo I found on the topic was published in 2022.
Lashbrook who is out on bond, and Janeway are due back in court on Thursday.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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