A lawyer for the Utah Professional Practices Advisory Commission, which monitors teacher misconduct and licensing, will spend the next month investigating the situation.

Depending on the findings of the investigation, the commission could recommend that the Utah State Board of Education take disciplinary actions ranging from a letter of warning to suspending Tabiona School teacher Glenda Norviel's license.

The Duchesne School District already has given Norviel a letter of reprimand to be placed in her personnel file.

Attempts to reach Norviel for further comment today were not immediately successful.

The Duchesne School District forwarded the issue to the commission after a student, a rape victim, complained that Norviel reacted inappropriately after her mother complained about a book assigned to the girl's English class. The girl's mother told the teacher she didn't want her daughter reading "My Sister's Keeper," a best-selling novel by Jodi Picoult, because of profanity and possible sexual situations in the book.

As an alternate assignment, the girl wrote an essay about being raped and having a baby. The girl and her mother say Norviel assigned her the essay topic in front of the class. Norviel has said she and girl decided on the topic in private.

"We need to have more information from both sides," commission member JoAnn Nelson said of the decision to investigate.

Norviel, a first-year teacher, has said she didn't think the girl would be offended by the book, which she hadn't read before assigning to the class.

"The girl is not an innocent. ... If she has just had a baby six weeks ago, is reading the f-word going to cause her emotional trauma for the rest of her life?" Norviel told The Tribune recently. "It wasn't the f-word that caused the trauma; it was other things in her life."

Norviel has said she assigned the book because she felt it would appeal to her teenage English class and deals with emotional issues, decision making and personal relationships. She said an education speaker at a seminar first brought the book to her attention.

The girl's mother said she's happy the commission has decided to investigate and would like to see more done.

"I still think they should go further and fire her," the mother said. "I don't think they'll do enough until she is gone." The Tribune has a policy of not identifying rape victims. Identifying the girl's mother could identify the girl.

"My Sister's Keeper" ultimately was pulled from Norviel's classroom, and the district is now creating a policy to guide teachers when choosing materials. The girl has since transferred to a different school.

The girl and her mother also have accused a substitute teacher, Gala Hamilton, of telling the girl she shouldn't be offended by the book because she had already had sexual experience and of telling the girls' classmate the identity of her rapist.

Hamilton told The Tribune this week she never suggested the girl shouldn't be offended because of her rape. Hamilton also said she didn't reveal the name of the girl's rapist to a classmate but did direct him to the newspaper after he asked repeatedly who fathered the girl's baby. Hamilton said she regretted directing the boy to the newspaper and apologized to the girl for making her feel uncomfortable.

Attempts to reach Hamilton Thursday and Friday were unsuccessful, but Tabiona School Principal Robert Park said Hamilton has decided not to substitute teach any more at the school.