Article on Falsely Accused Washington Hebrew Congregation Preschool Teacher

[Anonymous]

This is a disturbing article all around, but seems like a WHC preschool teacher's life was ruined by a dad who falsely accused the male preschool teacher after the school reported the preschool kid “drew a picture of a snake between ‘daddy’s’ legs that ‘tickled’ the whole family” to DC Children Services.

https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/accusing-jordan-silverman

[Anonymous]

I know this person! Worked with him on our elementary school's PTA. Wow, poor man. I had no idea he was the person accused in the preschool investigations, which I did not follow closely.

Is it too much to hope that some of his accusers will apologize?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this person! Worked with him on our elementary school's PTA. Wow, poor man. I had no idea he was the person accused in the preschool investigations, which I did not follow closely.

Is it too much to hope that some of his accusers will apologize?

I don’t think they will ever apologize, especially after the lawsuit. No one seemed to acknowledge the investigation cleared him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this person! Worked with him on our elementary school's PTA. Wow, poor man. I had no idea he was the person accused in the preschool investigations, which I did not follow closely.

Is it too much to hope that some of his accusers will apologize?

I don’t think they will ever apologize, especially after the lawsuit. No one seemed to acknowledge the investigation cleared him.

The whole story is horrible. I know such things happen, but it's horrendous to think that posters on DCUM had a part in this and that it happened in my neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

What a heartbreaking story, especially his loss of his relationship with his own sons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this person! Worked with him on our elementary school's PTA. Wow, poor man. I had no idea he was the person accused in the preschool investigations, which I did not follow closely.

Is it too much to hope that some of his accusers will apologize?

I don’t think they will ever apologize, especially after the lawsuit. No one seemed to acknowledge the investigation cleared him.

The whole story is horrible. I know such things happen, but it's horrendous to think that posters on DCUM had a part in this and that it happened in my neighborhood.

The Salem Witch Trials of 2018-2023. This was definitely a case of mass hysteria. And interestingly the family leading the charge seemed to have their own secrets key to the whole case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a heartbreaking story, especially his loss of his relationship with his own sons.

Agreed. But I doubt mom’s boyfriend bothered to clear up all the lies he told the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a heartbreaking story, especially his loss of his relationship with his own sons.

Agreed. But I doubt mom’s boyfriend bothered to clear up all the lies he told the kids.

That's the thing though--the mom's boyfriend wasn't really lying, he was just repeating what he had heard. Obviously you should not just casually tell kids their dad is a pedophile, but if you heard that 5 or 15 children accused him, you would probably believe it, like the families at WHC and his neighbors and potential employers and everybody else presumably did.

When I read this today I vaguely remembered reading something about this case a few years back, and I assumed then that accusations were true. But if those stories had said this guy was accused of this BUT the kids were questioned in a leading way and there was no evidence found in all his hard drives and phones and communications, or in the video footage from the school, and multiple investigations found no evidence to support the accusations, that would have been a very different story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a heartbreaking story, especially his loss of his relationship with his own sons.

Agreed. But I doubt mom’s boyfriend bothered to clear up all the lies he told the kids.

That's the thing though--the mom's boyfriend wasn't really lying, he was just repeating what he had heard. Obviously you should not just casually tell kids their dad is a pedophile, but if you heard that 5 or 15 children accused him, you would probably believe it, like the families at WHC and his neighbors and potential employers and everybody else presumably did.

When I read this today I vaguely remembered reading something about this case a few years back, and I assumed then that accusations were true. But if those stories had said this guy was accused of this BUT the kids were questioned in a leading way and there was no evidence found in all his hard drives and phones and communications, or in the video footage from the school, and multiple investigations found no evidence to support the accusations, that would have been a very different story.

Yea, that’s the problem PP, and a large part of the point of the article. You (collectively - all of us) made assumptions before the investigation was done.

[Anonymous]

McMartin Preschool in LA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a heartbreaking story, especially his loss of his relationship with his own sons.

+1 That's the thing about the Internet. People jump to conclusions and spread rumors about people so quickly, and in this case, this preschool teacher lost custody of his sons, and if you look up news articles, there's quite a few about how he was accused, and literally none about him being cleared. And definitely nothing with the depth of the article the OP posted, which tells the whole twisted tale about how a different preschool teacher initially reported the dad and about the law firm who pushed the false suit having a partner who was later arrested for child pornography.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a heartbreaking story, especially his loss of his relationship with his own sons.

+1 That's the thing about the Internet. People jump to conclusions and spread rumors about people so quickly, and in this case, this preschool teacher lost custody of his sons, and if you look up news articles, there's quite a few about how he was accused, and literally none about him being cleared. And definitely nothing with the depth of the article the OP posted, which tells the whole twisted tale about how a different preschool teacher initially reported the dad and about the law firm who pushed the false suit having a partner who was later arrested for child pornography.

I wonder if the father retaliated and assumed the teacher that reported the father was Silverman.

[Anonymous]

Disturbing role of DCUM in this article too.

A few weeks later, on Halloween night, someone scattered dozens of flyers on Silverman’s lawn. They included his name and photo, with a warning to neighbors to beware of the predator who had been accused of “sexually abusing 2, 3, and 4-year-old children.”

The accusations then began to pop up in online forums, particularly on Facebook and the forum DCUrbanMom.com. “They were accusing me of horrible things,” Silverman says. “There were threats and people posting that if the police don’t arrest me, someone ought to take matters into their own hands. Any posts that defended me were deleted.”

In late 2018, the harassment escalated. Silverman received threatening letters spelled out with characters cut from magazines, similar to a ransom letter. One read, “Evidence is mounting you sick f***.” Another included the line, “You aint worth the blood that runs in your veins.” In mid-December someone spray painted “child rapist” in front of Silverman’s home — the first of several such incidents. On Christmas night, his security camera caught a man smashing out the window and taillight of his car with a club. A month later, someone busted the back window and one of the headlights.

In late January 2019, on the advice of his attorney, Silverman documented 11 incidents of harassment and sent them to local police. During one spray painting incident, he was actually able to take a photo of the perpetrator’s license plate. He would later send that information to a private investigator, who found that the car had been rented by a father whose kids attended WHC — and who was friendly with Robert and Alison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Disturbing role of DCUM in this article too.

A few weeks later, on Halloween night, someone scattered dozens of flyers on Silverman’s lawn. They included his name and photo, with a warning to neighbors to beware of the predator who had been accused of “sexually abusing 2, 3, and 4-year-old children.”

The accusations then began to pop up in online forums, particularly on Facebook and the forum DCUrbanMom.com. “They were accusing me of horrible things,” Silverman says. “There were threats and people posting that if the police don’t arrest me, someone ought to take matters into their own hands. Any posts that defended me were deleted.”

In late 2018, the harassment escalated. Silverman received threatening letters spelled out with characters cut from magazines, similar to a ransom letter. One read, “Evidence is mounting you sick f***.” Another included the line, “You aint worth the blood that runs in your veins.” In mid-December someone spray painted “child rapist” in front of Silverman’s home — the first of several such incidents. On Christmas night, his security camera caught a man smashing out the window and taillight of his car with a club. A month later, someone busted the back window and one of the headlights.

In late January 2019, on the advice of his attorney, Silverman documented 11 incidents of harassment and sent them to local police. During one spray painting incident, he was actually able to take a photo of the perpetrator’s license plate. He would later send that information to a private investigator, who found that the car had been rented by a father whose kids attended WHC — and who was friendly with Robert and Alison.

I think it’s less about the forum and more about the mob mentality of online spaces. Reddit and Facebook also had many active discussions condemning this man and the school director.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disturbing role of DCUM in this article too.

A few weeks later, on Halloween night, someone scattered dozens of flyers on Silverman’s lawn. They included his name and photo, with a warning to neighbors to beware of the predator who had been accused of “sexually abusing 2, 3, and 4-year-old children.”

The accusations then began to pop up in online forums, particularly on Facebook and the forum DCUrbanMom.com. “They were accusing me of horrible things,” Silverman says. “There were threats and people posting that if the police don’t arrest me, someone ought to take matters into their own hands. Any posts that defended me were deleted.”

In late 2018, the harassment escalated. Silverman received threatening letters spelled out with characters cut from magazines, similar to a ransom letter. One read, “Evidence is mounting you sick f***.” Another included the line, “You aint worth the blood that runs in your veins.” In mid-December someone spray painted “child rapist” in front of Silverman’s home — the first of several such incidents. On Christmas night, his security camera caught a man smashing out the window and taillight of his car with a club. A month later, someone busted the back window and one of the headlights.

In late January 2019, on the advice of his attorney, Silverman documented 11 incidents of harassment and sent them to local police. During one spray painting incident, he was actually able to take a photo of the perpetrator’s license plate. He would later send that information to a private investigator, who found that the car had been rented by a father whose kids attended WHC — and who was friendly with Robert and Alison.

I think it’s less about the forum and more about the mob mentality of online spaces. Reddit and Facebook also had many active discussions condemning this man and the school director.

I don’t know how to break this to you, but DCUM is an online space.

One that has certainly demonstrated mob mentality at times over the past 20 years.