EXCUSE ME COACH, MY KNEE IS BLEEDING...

State teacher commission probes wound-licking practice by coach

By Karen McCowan The Register-Guard
March 8, 2005

HALSEY - The Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission is investigating a Central Linn High School teacher and coach accused of licking the bleeding wounds of his student athletes.



The commission is expected to take up the case of Scott Reed in a closed session Thursday in Salem. Its investigation began after a district parent filed a complaint in July, claiming "a pattern of willful, repeated inappropriate behavior, which has threatened student safety and health."



Reed remains a dean of students, science teacher and head football coach at the high school after being disciplined last year for licking the bleeding knee of an athlete. He acknowledged the May 2004 incident during school district and police investigations of another parent's complaint that he had licked blood from several students.

The Linn County sheriff's office found no basis for criminal charges in what Sheriff Dave Burright called "bizarre" conduct. The school district placed Reed on probation and required him to take a "bloodborne pathogens" course - a response some parents considered inadequate.
"If an incident like that had happened at my workplace, the person would have been fired," said one of the parents who complained to authorities. (The Register-Guard does not publish names or other information that could identify students in such investigations.)



He added that the coach should have already been well informed about the potential dangers of bodily fluid contact, since the school district policy conducts annual bloodborne pathogen training sessions for teachers. Hepatitis, meningitis and HIV are among serious infectious diseases that could possibly be transmitted through such contact.



Public health officials say saliva-to-blood contact probably poses only a slim risk, but that Reed's action violated standards for handling of bodily fluid that have been taught in basic first-aid classes for more than a decade.