From Sex to Assault: What's Up With America's Teachers?

June 4, 2009— -- For a 5-year-old Miami student who came home from school with a cut lip from being kicked in the face, the bully wasn't a playground menace -- it was, she alleges, her teacher.

The preschooler's offense? Using the restroom without permission during naptime.

Miami police arrested Head Start teacher Jean Dorvil, 56, on child abuse charges. Miami-Dade Schools Police Sgt. Ivan Silva told ABCNews.com that detectives found during the course of their investigation that Dorvil had allegedly kicked two other students during the school year.

Dorvil's alleged acts were just one of many headlines this year that about teachers accused of dangerous or, at best, wildly inappropriate behavior inside the classroom and out.

Teachers this year have been accused of punching students and having sex with them, wrapping duct tape around their students and showing up drunk in the classroom.

Some incidents border on humorous – like the Ohio teacher who reportedly resigned after taking four female students to a male strip club. Others, like the Washington state teacher who was accused of sending a student's feces home in his backpack, appear to be just plain mean.

"I don't understand what some of these people are thinking," said Anthony David Adams, who has made a career out of exposing school wrongdoings by both teachers and students on the Web site DetentionSlip.org.

Adams, who jokingly calls himself the "Perez Hilton for education," told ABCNews.com that he co-founded the site just over a year ago to shed a spotlight on "embarrassing, crazy situations."

While in reality schools are still one of the safest places for children to be and the vast majority of teachers are responsible and dedicated, "some teachers are just not thinking as well as they should," he said.

Francisco Negron, general counsel for the National School Board Association, said that while the group is aware that inappropriate behavior occasionally occurs in America's schools.

"There will always be the case, as in every part of society, where there are a few bad apples," he said. "Those bad apples are not representative of the profession as a whole."