Music teacher who sold school-owned band instruments gives up license

OLENTANGY SCHOOLS
Music teacher who sold school-owned band instruments gives up license
Man sold school's instruments on auction-site eBay
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 3:05 AM
BY JENNIFER SMITH RICHARDS
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
A former Olentangy band director who sold a dozen school-owned band instruments has lost his right to teach in Ohio.
Brian J. Bell resigned from his Hyatts Middle School job in February after paying the school nearly $25,000 for French horns, oboes, piccolo trumpets, a clarinet and a bassoon that had been taken from Olentangy High School.

The State Board of Education accepted Bell's voluntary surrender of his educator license, which formally is considered a permanent revocation, at Sunday's business meeting. The district had reported the theft to the state's educator-misconduct office in February.

It seems Bell sold at least some of the instruments on eBay, where he operated an online business on the side. He was never arrested. The Delaware County sheriff's office considers its investigation closed, and criminal charges never were filed.

Bell couldn't be reached for comment yesterday. Bell's attorney, Robert L. Washburn, said he could not explain his client's actions.

"When I met Brian, it was very difficult to equate the person I was talking to with the conduct. He was a very matter-of-fact, level-headed, impressive young man," Washburn said. "I know he at all times told me that he intended to replace the instruments that he had sold."

In a series of text messages with the high-school band director, who had asked about the instruments' whereabouts, Bell lied and said they had been stolen from his car.

"I think I left my car unlocked one night," Bell said in one message. "I guess I didn't think you would figure out until the end of the year when you did inventory again."

Bell, 27, had worked in the district since 2004. In addition to directing several middle-school bands, he taught guitar and general music at the middle school. He was a percussion instructor at Olentangy High.

The money Bell repaid was set aside to buy replacement instruments, district spokeswoman Karen Truett said.

Also at Sunday's meeting, a teacher who used to work in Columbus and for an online charter school lost his right to teach.

Gerald A. Baker, 40, who the Education Department said lives in Worthington, was convicted twice in 2008 of assault and once of drunken driving; the incidents all occurred in 2007. Baker could not be reached for comment.

Department records show that Baker taught middle-school special education in Columbus schools from 1996 to 2002 and then at TRECA Digital Academy from 2002 to 2005, when he stopped teaching to attend law school.

He was convicted of assault in May 2008 after hitting his wife. In November, he was stopped by police for driving erratically; he then head-butted an officer. Baker said he was suffering an alcoholic blackout.

A conviction for driving under the influence typically won't lead to state action against a teaching license. But assault convictions often will because they are violent offenses and considered "unbecoming the teaching profession."

jsmithrichards@ dispatch.com