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By Erick Posted in felons | Lynn Lang | State Politics | Tennessee — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

I mentioned this in my new column at Human Events, but it is worth sharing here.

Blue Collar Muse has the tale of Lynn Lang, a high school basketball coach and teacher turned felon.

Lynn, it seems, was paid over $100,000.00 to push a Memphis high school student to go to the University of Alabama. Besides pushing UA instead of Memphis or the Vols, there's the whole outrage of the money and the laundering that went into it.

Lang pled guilty and took a lifetime ban from basketball as well as turning in his teacher's license. As Blue Collar Muse tells us:

But Lynn Lang’s story is the most intriguing. He initially disputed the charges before finally pleading guilty. He, too, was banned from coaching for life and had his teaching license revoked. Despite facing decades in jail, Lang was ultimately sentenced to time served (all of about a day), two years probation, Community Service and a $2,500 fine. He did not have to repay the money he received from Young although the IRS says he owes them $60,000 on the income while Lang swears he has no money left having given much of it to the player’s family.

If the story ended here we’d use it to teach kids right from wrong. But Tennessee’s State Board of Education has a different lesson plan in mind. After revoking his license to teach following his conviction, the State Board denied a November, 2005 request from Lang for license reinstatement.

After all of this, Lang moved to Michigan. He applied for a teaching job, got the job, then was forced to resign when someone realized Lang never bothered to mention the whole felony and money laundering thing.

So what did Lang do? He went back to Tennessee, and the State Board of Education welcomed him with open arms, giving him back his teacher's license.

The moral of the story: if you want to commit a felony, be a teacher in Tennessee.