Post by Chris_Wendt on Jul 16, 2009 15:03:18 GMT -5
The FBI arrested an Island Trees School District Teacher for distributing child pornography. The man lives in Lindenhurst and was an experienced teacher.
The media reported that a memo, warning this man about “inappropriate behavior” with children was noted in the arrest report.
Here’s the problem. The warning memo was dated in April 2000, over NINE YEARS AGO! But that memo was NOT placed in the teacher’s personnel file, but instead was retained in the private file of the Middle School Principal. By burying the warning memo in his own files, the Principal effectively prevented charges being filed against this teacher—NINE YEARS AGO—and kept the Superintendent and the Board of Education in the dark about this man’s record and his nefarious behavior for the past 9 years.
It is more than a little curious how and why the buried memo surfaced at the time of the teacher’s eventual arrest, now, especially since the immediate past Superintendent claims to have had no prior knowledge of its existence. I mean, someone in the school district administration HAD to have known the memo was hidden in the Middle School Principal’s private files! Otherwise, the memo would still be hidden.
This is, in my opinion, an outrageous example of placing the interests of a school employee, in this case a teacher who, as it turns out, is bad news for children, above the interest of all those children who were exposed to this teacher, and, above the duty which all the administrators of that school district, but especially the DUTY the Middle School Principal had to protect ‘The Children’.
I think the District Attorney and the State Education Department should investigate the administrators who buried the memo and who let the prior misconduct slide. This may have violated mandatory reporting laws. They need to shine the light on how this memo surfaced, now, after all this time, despite the outgoing Superintendent’s claim of ignorance of its existence...but not of its contents!
Shocked, but not awed,
Chris Wendt
The media reported that a memo, warning this man about “inappropriate behavior” with children was noted in the arrest report.
Here’s the problem. The warning memo was dated in April 2000, over NINE YEARS AGO! But that memo was NOT placed in the teacher’s personnel file, but instead was retained in the private file of the Middle School Principal. By burying the warning memo in his own files, the Principal effectively prevented charges being filed against this teacher—NINE YEARS AGO—and kept the Superintendent and the Board of Education in the dark about this man’s record and his nefarious behavior for the past 9 years.
It is more than a little curious how and why the buried memo surfaced at the time of the teacher’s eventual arrest, now, especially since the immediate past Superintendent claims to have had no prior knowledge of its existence. I mean, someone in the school district administration HAD to have known the memo was hidden in the Middle School Principal’s private files! Otherwise, the memo would still be hidden.
This is, in my opinion, an outrageous example of placing the interests of a school employee, in this case a teacher who, as it turns out, is bad news for children, above the interest of all those children who were exposed to this teacher, and, above the duty which all the administrators of that school district, but especially the DUTY the Middle School Principal had to protect ‘The Children’.
I think the District Attorney and the State Education Department should investigate the administrators who buried the memo and who let the prior misconduct slide. This may have violated mandatory reporting laws. They need to shine the light on how this memo surfaced, now, after all this time, despite the outgoing Superintendent’s claim of ignorance of its existence...but not of its contents!
Shocked, but not awed,
Chris Wendt