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Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
Freedom Hill principal going to Haycock
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Anonymous
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pp can you explain what you mean about Fairfax Police and the DA running a dog-and-pony? Are you saying nothing would have happened if it was never reported to the police? I'm curious as to who contacted whom and when.
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Anonymous
Any human being with a heart should be outraged. |
Anonymous
| This isn’t an isolated incident. Fcps has a history of covering up incidents of violence against students. There was the incident earlier this year at the Great Falls Elementary, I personally know of incidents at McNair, and god knows where else. |
Anonymous
But none of us know what those "complaints of suspected abuse" were. What if the health aid had a list of days that a particular kid had a bruise on his/her arm? And showed that to the principal saying "I don't know if this means anything, but I have noticed that this kid has had a bruise three times." The information that the principal had at the time may not have been screaming "ABUSE!". People could look at it different ways. Has your kid ever had several bruises over several weeks? Given what we now know, there was definitely abuse. But, what did the principal know at the time? I just think it is easy to look back at actions with the knowledge that we have now and be all "HE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!!" Sometimes things look very different from the front end of a difficult situation. We do not have the details of what the principal was told, or the timing. The strength of the information he had matters to his guilt or innocence. But, I think we should be focusing the bulk of our outrage and judgment on those two teachers who actually assaulted defenseless kids. The facts will either exonerate or convict the principal. It should not be lost in the discussion that failing to report suspicions of abuse is minor compared to ACTUALLY ABUSING kids. |
Anonymous
Fairfax Police/DA's Office put out a Tweet, published on FB, held multiple news conferences (inviting reporters to cover the story) and published a press release. Criminals get caught daily, and I'm not sure many get this much publicity. Obviously, FCPD realized the story was big. And, maybe FCPD also thought if they didn't go *full scale* public, FCPS may have "buried the case". [Yes, I'm conjecturing! I don't know for sure!] I don't work there, but I think their publicity is what caused FCPS to "own" this situation, otherwise, it would have simply gone unknown. Not for a second do I think FCPS would have come clean about Bloom or the other workers, if their hands weren't forced to do it. |
Anonymous
Haycock parents would never allow FCPS to bury this story. Are you new here? |
Anonymous
A lot of truth to this. FCPD aren't know to have a news conference regarding non violent crimes, let alone indictment served to FCPS employees. Recently there was a teach arrested for having a "relationship" with a student. While back one was arrested for trying to flee the country for child porn. Neither of them had any news conference and even close to the media attention this case is having. I also heard of a lot of teachers who mess up with the students being either transferred to a different school or FCPS moving them to an administrative role. Their stories never ever make the news. There is definitely more to do this case. Not just with what happened, but with who is actually pushing FCPD. |
Anonymous
In this case, "failing to report suspicions of abuse" directly led to further abuse, so while his hands physically didn't touch those kids, don't equate that to him being "less guilty" ... he certainly aided in furthering the abuse. He obviously had enough information presented to him where filing a report with CPS/Police was the obvious next step. The Police found probable cause to charge him with a misdemeanor of failure to report. So, it's clear that he was presented with some allegations. It wasn't his place to adjudicate or verify. His ONLY responsibility is to report. The law is black and white on this. He failed to report. Medical and school professionals have this drilled into them in training. If he took it upon him to do nothing, he is AT FAULT. None of us are saying "he should have known." We are saying HE BROKE THE LAW BY NOT REPORTING AN INCIDENT THAT WAS REPORTED TO HIM, even if it was a ledger with a bunch of dates noting bruising on a child. That, in an of itself, should have been reported. If he didn't want to call CPS, he should have called his superiors for guidance. [And, maybe he did, and the buck doesn't stop at Bloom. That is what the DA is going to go fishing for during discovery.] The police don't just go around investigating people without probably cause. Then he got indicted. That means a bunch of men and women sat in a room and saw whatever evidence the DA's office was able to gather and present and on the basis of that [little] evidence handed down an indictment on his failure to report charge. So, put the pieces together, he knew enough to have filed the report. And, had he filed the report in the 2018-2019 school year when he heard about this, those six kids would have been saved from additional hours/days/weeks/months of abuse. So please don't post on this thread saying that Scott Bloom deserves some mercy. He deserves exactly what has been meted out to him--statewide coverage of the issue, his face planted on the charge as soon as anyone types in his name in a Web search. FCPS has its day coming as well. |
Anonymous
Haycock parents had no clue! I'm a Haycock parent. There was a cone of silence. We get a really bad rep, but the fact is, most of us don't care as much as everyone makes it out to be. There are a handful of strong advocates, and even they wouldn't have pieced this together. Luckily no one had to worry about it, since FCPD didn't allow this to get buried. |
Anonymous
You again. The principal worked to cover up and did not report the abuse. You are either his spouse, ap, or associated with his lawyer. He needs to be fired. |
Anonymous
you don't know what was reported to him. You are making ALOT of logical leaps and jumps to conclusions --- and the mob is saying "He must be fired!" based on assumptions and jumping to conclusions. |
Anonymous
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Dear FCPS Families,
You may be hearing news reports about FCPS employees who now face charges in connection with allegations of child abuse and failure to properly report the abuse in a timely manner as required under the law. Our leadership was made aware of these allegations in September and we took immediate steps to address the situation, including: Staff members under investigation were immediately removed from the school and placed on leave for the duration of the investigation. FCPS immediately began an administrative investigation concurrently with the police investigation. Experienced special education teachers were assigned to the impacted classroom to provide support and instruction to the students. Families were contacted regarding the staffing changes and additional supports, including social work staff, will continue to be made available for students and staff. Two of the employees are no longer with FCPS and the third remains on leave. Our teachers and staff have been trained in best practices and in legal requirements regarding mandated reporting of suspected abuse. We are in the process of updating the policy and regulation that covers the procedures for reporting cases of suspected child abuse or neglect, to ensure that all of us fully understand our reporting obligations. In addition, two classroom teachers at other schools are facing criminal charges in connection with recent allegations of sexual misconduct involving students as the victims. Both individuals were immediately suspended from their classroom assignments once charges were announced. The allegations are disturbing and betray the moral and legal responsibility we have to protect our students. The responsibility to protect students from sexual misconduct and abuse of any type is shared by the School Board and by my office. We have a regulation in place that establishes procedures regarding the prevention of sexual misconduct and abuse and outlines clear and reasonable boundaries for interactions between students and employees. Employees must ensure that their conduct is professional and proper given the context of each situation and that reasonable boundaries are maintained when interacting with students. Any violation of the regulation will be dealt with accordingly and could also lead to criminal charges. We are saddened and distressed by these recent allegations against our employees. I want to apologize to the students and families impacted by these events. There is no greater responsibility of a school system than the safety and well-being of our students and, as a result of these recent incidents, we have learned that we need to do more. We must do everything in our power to protect the children in our care every day. There are no exceptions, and there are no excuses. We will continue to work to ensure that our students are learning in a safe environment where they trust the teachers and the staff who serve them. Thank you very much. Scott Brabrand Superintendent, Fairfax County Public Schools ++++++++++++++ Note that Bloom is still being "paid" ... and how they decided to get ahead of another brewing scandal by causally adding the clause "in addition" where a separate set of teachers are being charged with sexual misconduct. And, specifically, total radio silence on whether they are on the payroll by only noting they were removed from classroom. Anyone else think this is all just a tad bit disingenuous?!! |
Anonymous
They haven't fired him yet? Why haven't the Fairfax schools fire him already? This looks really bad on them. Especially with the lawsuit they are facing with mishandling of special need kids. |
Anonymous
You're... not getting the whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing, are you? There may be evidence he did something bad, but whether or not there is proof is exactly what the trial will establish. |
Anonymous
No there are a bunch of people on this forum making excuses for someone who is owed nothing. Ask the parents of the six kids how they felt to know that Bloom had some information last school year. All he had to do was pick up the phone and report it. Please don't get on here and say we don't know the facts. The facts are: he didn't pick up the phone when someone went to him. Those are the facts. I'm not making any leaps on anything. He should be fired! People in that position should be held 100% accountable. |