BISMARCK – The board responsible for licensing teachers and education administrators in North Dakota voted Thursday to delay taking action on state Superintendent of Public Instruction Kirsten Baesler or her fiancé until an assault charge against Baesler is resolved in court.
“As is our policy, normally we wait to get more information before making any sort of decisions on these things,” said Assistant Attorney General Sandra DePountis, legal counsel for the Education Standards and Practices Board.
Authorities arrested Baesler on Feb. 15 at her Mandan home on suspicion of simple assault, a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine.
Bismarck police said her fiancé, Todd Tschosik, a teacher at Simle Middle School in Bismarck, reported that Baesler had assaulted him at his home early that morning. Police said Tschosik had a visible injury and dried blood on his face.
The complaint filed against Baesler in Bismarck Municipal Court alleges she struck Tschosik “with an object causing injury to his face.”
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DePountis said the board may discipline a licensee if they have been convicted of an offense deemed to have a direct bearing on their ability to serve as a teacher or administrator and they haven’t been sufficiently rehabilitated.
Baesler, who attended Thursday’s board meeting at the Radisson Hotel in Bismarck, has pleaded not guilty to the assault charge. A court trial is scheduled for March 23 in Bismarck Municipal Court, but her attorney has said there’s a strong likelihood she will seek to have the case transferred to district court.
Baesler said in a previous statement that an argument with Tschosik “escalated to the point where I was concerned for my safety,” and that it wasn’t the first situation where she felt at risk.
The board will follow Baesler’s court trial and Tschosik’s status, DePountis said, adding there has been “some information coming to light about his work as a teacher.”
Baesler was at the hearing but did not speak. Tschosik did not attend.
DePountis reviewed the criminal histories of Baesler and Tschosik for the board, including a first-degree misdemeanor battery charge filed against Tschosik last summer in Orange County, Fla. Tschosik denied assaulting Baesler in a hotel room in that incident, and she refused to complete a statement and said she didn’t want to involve police, according to the police report. The charge was dropped.
Tschosik pleaded guilty in December to driving under the influence and was sentenced to a year of unsupervised probation, DePountis noted.
“Mr. Tschosik is in our schools, so therefore you do have an additional basis to seek disciplinary action against (him), if he violated a chapter rule adopted by the board,” she said. DePountis explained that the Educator’s Code of Ethics protects students from conditions detrimental to learning or their psychological or physiological well-being.
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Reach Nowatzki at (701) 255-5607 or by email at mnowatzki@forumcomm.com .
