Pubdate: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 Source: Baltimore Sun (MD) Copyright: 2006 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper. Contact: http://www.baltimoresun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37 Author: Matthew Dolan and Sara Neufeld Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) PRINCIPAL STANDS BY TROUBLED TEACHER Letter Asks Judge For Leniency For Convicted Felon A Baltimore principal used school stationery to request leniency for a teacher who had pleaded guilty in August to carrying 5 pounds of cocaine in his car and was allowed to continue teaching until his sentencing two weeks ago. The two-page letter of support from Principal Edith M. Jones defended Martius Harding as a talented but troubled teacher who shepherded his special education pupils and served as a role model for children and staff at Govans Elementary School. "Judge Bennett, Mr. Harding is a very kind, caring man, with an unbelievable spirit as a father and teacher," Jones wrote. "He is a young man, A young man, who, as intelligent as he is, having gone to some of the finest formalized schools, has done some very stupid things in his life." U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett made the letter public yesterday at the request of The Sun. The letter does not explain why Jones allowed Harding to teach at the North Baltimore school when he arrived with a felony conviction from 2001. It also does not detail why Harding failed to receive his state certification or why he continued teaching this year after an arrest on cocaine possession charges in February last year and a drug conviction in August. Schools officials have declined to say whether Jones acted appropriately. In August, Harding, 28, of Aberdeen, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to distribute cocaine. His lawyer Lawrence B. Rosenberg said yesterday that, at Bennett's request, he wrote a letter to Jones at the time with news about the plea. But Jones allowed Harding, who was hired in 2002, to continue to teach for the entire school year. He was sentenced on June 16 to serve seven years in prison. In her letter, Jones said any punishment for Harding should be tempered by his dedication to the school and his responsibilities to his family. "Mr. Harding has been devastated and perplexed since his arrest; however, he has managed to perform effectively in spite of his burden," Jones wrote to Bennett. "I feel he has made some absolutely terrible mistakes and horrible choices," she continued. " ... To take him from his five children at home and the staff and students, who depend on him at the school as well, will be a travesty for all. If there is some other way, I am believing God for it." Reached at her school office yesterday, Jones declined to comment. She demanded to know how a reporter had obtained a copy of the letter, and questioned whether it was legal for the newspaper to print it. Harding, who was arrested during a traffic stop in Cecil County, remains on home detention until his reporting date to prison, which is no later than Aug. 16, according to court records. Yesterday Harding did not return a phone message left with his lawyer. Rosenberg has said that Harding got into drug dealing as a way to make money and support an expensive legal fight to secure visitation with one of his children. That explanation is echoed in a letter written by his fiancee to the federal judge. "It is not a day that goes by that he does not talk about Ariel," Harding's fiancee, Jessica M. Evans, wrote to Bennett, in another letter released yesterday. "She is the missing piece in his life. Martius looks at Ariel's pictures daily, and I see the hurt in his eyes when he looks at them. Getting Ariel back is his number one priority." But Harding's federal court case in Baltimore wasn't his first brush with the law. Records show that Harding pleaded guilty in May 2001 to participating in an elaborate fraud using credit cards on the Internet, stealing tens of thousands of dollars worth of goods, including a late-model Jeep and two new motorcycles. Harding, who had wrestled for the University of Virginia and West Virginia University before his felony arrest, was sentenced to five years' probation and an indeterminate period of home detention. The next year, the Baltimore school system hired Harding as a special education teacher at Govans. Jones wrote in her letter that Harding taught 12 to 15 severely emotionally disturbed pupils. "Words can not express what his male influence has been on his students, many of whom do not have fathers in the home or male figures in their lives," she wrote. She added that "his professional responsibilities were consistently managed with care and efficiency." But the state said it had no record of a teaching certificate for Harding, a father of five who drove a Mercedes and oversaw a character-building club for boys called Govans Gentlemen. School system spokeswoman Edie House declined to comment on Harding's case and Jones' letter, saying the issues are personnel matters. She said only that the system follows Maryland law governing employment of teachers with criminal backgrounds. "Whatever the Maryland law says, that's where we are," House said. State law says that a school board "may" suspend or dismiss a teacher for grounds including "immorality." The law also says that a teaching certificate should be suspended or revoked if a teacher pleads guilty to a "controlled dangerous substance offense." But state officials have said that Harding did not have a certificate. School systems are required under state law to conduct criminal background checks on employees before hiring them. Harding was hired at Govans in 2002 despite a felony conviction for fraud during the previous year. A legislative audit released Friday concluded that the Maryland State Department of Education has not implemented adequate safeguards to prevent convicted criminals from working in schools. State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick said it is the responsibility of local school systems to conduct criminal background checks for all employees. For Jones, Harding is not beyond redemption. "I think that he has learned an invaluable lesson, in that what he will lose (his profession, family, etc.) far outweighs anything else," she wrote to the judge. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek