Whitman Teacher and Crew Coach Arrested

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But isn’t MCPS funded with our taxes? Can we not lobby? Can we not vote out representatives? Can the state congress not mandate the Dept. of the education to do more and assign a budget? Can we not protest?

It's been tried. In the BOE election last year, we had some good candidates who were calling for independent oversight among other reforms. Instead, all the incumbents won and they were all backed by the teachers union.

If there was one election where parents were mad, it was last year because schools were closed, and still it's a difficult task. That's why we have BOE members like an 80 year old (Docca) who routinely falls asleep during meetings (I don't blame her.. she's 80!).

The County Council has little oversight, because MCPS is independent. The Council can only vote a yes/no on the MCPS budget request and that's the only control they have.

Thanks for sharing. MCPS is just such a huge school district, that the politics of it seem really removed from my day-to-day life. When I was growing up, my parents followed the things happening at my local board of ed. (1 hs, 2 MSs, 4 ESs). The implications of the board were more tangible. At one point I even went to a meeting because my (female) principal was being pressured to leave (I can't recall why, or if it was what I wanted to not!). I try to read the WaPo and similar, around election time, but otherwise I feel detached because I imagine they're dealing with issues that affect some of the many OTHER kids' situation. Like meals, special ed, boundaries in other places. Even more universal topics can seem dry.
If a new candidate said, "I'm running on a single-position platform--that MCPS should have an IG to prevent/reveal sexual predators within MCPS, and here's are some examples of why it's needed..." I'd be entirely for it. The candidate would need to provide facts about the past abuses within MCPS and explain the rationale (e.g. what you've explained above)--as well as explain how an IG-type position would work from parallels in other institutions....I think that would work. It would certainly raise awareness of the issue around election time since the local press evaluates candidates and provides voting guides.

Are you perhaps interested, PP?

[Anonymous]

It is a shame that Shipley answered to two different managing groups (MCPS and a parent-led crew board) and neither entity was able to detect what was going on.

Crew is a somewhat unique sport in terms of needing to communicate with students about changes in venue due to weather, etc at odd times and sometimes, at the last minute. If left to their own devices, coaches find it easiest to communicate via text (albeit to the whole team or at least captains). Other crew teams insist on alternative means of communication so that no one is vulnerable to what happened in this case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is a shame that Shipley answered to two different managing groups (MCPS and a parent-led crew board) and neither entity was able to detect what was going on.

Crew is a somewhat unique sport in terms of needing to communicate with students about changes in venue due to weather, etc at odd times and sometimes, at the last minute. If left to their own devices, coaches find it easiest to communicate via text (albeit to the whole team or at least captains). Other crew teams insist on alternative means of communication so that no one is vulnerable to what happened in this case.

Sadly, other crew teams, not just Whitman, also allow text communication either just between the coaches and group chat team or between coaches and individual student. Parents are frequently deliberately excluded from these means of communication in the name of supporting the growing independence of high schoolers. Parents are also officially discouraged from entering TBC boathouse. I don’t know if this is a team policy or boathouse policy. Personally, I think both these policies are dangerous, as the Whitman case illustrated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But isn’t MCPS funded with our taxes? Can we not lobby? Can we not vote out representatives? Can the state congress not mandate the Dept. of the education to do more and assign a budget? Can we not protest?

It's been tried. In the BOE election last year, we had some good candidates who were calling for independent oversight among other reforms. Instead, all the incumbents won and they were all backed by the teachers union.

If there was one election where parents were mad, it was last year because schools were closed, and still it's a difficult task. That's why we have BOE members like an 80 year old (Docca) who routinely falls asleep during meetings (I don't blame her.. she's 80!).

The County Council has little oversight, because MCPS is independent. The Council can only vote a yes/no on the MCPS budget request and that's the only control they have.

Thanks for sharing. MCPS is just such a huge school district, that the politics of it seem really removed from my day-to-day life. When I was growing up, my parents followed the things happening at my local board of ed. (1 hs, 2 MSs, 4 ESs). The implications of the board were more tangible. At one point I even went to a meeting because my (female) principal was being pressured to leave (I can't recall why, or if it was what I wanted to not!). I try to read the WaPo and similar, around election time, but otherwise I feel detached because I imagine they're dealing with issues that affect some of the many OTHER kids' situation. Like meals, special ed, boundaries in other places. Even more universal topics can seem dry.
If a new candidate said, "I'm running on a single-position platform--that MCPS should have an IG to prevent/reveal sexual predators within MCPS, and here's are some examples of why it's needed..." I'd be entirely for it. The candidate would need to provide facts about the past abuses within MCPS and explain the rationale (e.g. what you've explained above)--as well as explain how an IG-type position would work from parallels in other institutions....I think that would work. It would certainly raise awareness of the issue around election time since the local press evaluates candidates and provides voting guides.

Are you perhaps interested, PP?

There were some good candidates last go-round. The issue is most voters don't really care about the BOE. If you don't have kids in MCPS, you probably don't care (even though you should). Even if you do, there are a million other items on the ballot. Basically people just vote for the name they saw on a flyer (the teacher's union paid to send flyers to every voter in the county with their endorsements).

Sure, you have a fraction of the population that really cares about the BOE, but that's just a fraction.

If you dont' believe me, go ask 5 random people at your place of worship or the mall to name even 1 member of the BOE. I bet they can't.

Same with other county politics like the county council -- people just vote for the person with a (D) next to their name, so whoever wins in the primaries wins the general (this principal does not apply to BOE, as it's non-partisan). Elrich is in power because he won the primary by 72 votes over Blair, in a crowded field of 6 candidates. Elrich smartly courted one specific bloc -- unions -- while the other candidates were more moderate and the moderate vote got split among a few good candidates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

1) The Whitman teacher ( Kirkland) showed a pattern over at least 8 years of inviting/ allowing female students who were in his Junior Year History class to hang out in his classroom during Free Periods. HELLO MCPS Principals and Superintendant NOT enforcing basic protocols to prevent sexual abuse. The red flag is why is this 39 year old male teacher giving up his break time ( Free period) to socialize with 16, 17, 18 year old girls ? What's he getting out of that ? Is he tutoring ? Do the parents know? Is anyone clocking the time in/out ? NOPE Shouldn't a NORMAL adult prefer the company of his ADULT colleagues in the Staff lounge ?? How could a school principal miss this one ?

Obviously this predator was abusing his position, but I'd like to unpack the above a little bit more. How was he only inviting female students?

I'm coming to this as an adult whose life and mental health were absolutely saved by kind teachers who let me hang out in their classrooms before school, and sometimes during lunches. As a queer weirdo in a rural nightmare of a town, I didn't have a lot of friends my own age and was subjected to vicious bullying in the halls, at free periods, etc. Just having a teacher open up a classroom to me where I could do my work, and maybe chat a little if they weren't busy was life-changing.

Have we lost the ability to extend that to kids, under the circumstances?

What you describe shows that your own teachers respected the boundaries and signaled to you that there were boundaries. As you recall it, they would chat “a little if they weren’t busy” which indicates that they somehow conveyed to you, whether via words, actions, or body language, that their first duty was their teaching responsibilities/paperwork, etc. And that spending time in their classroom was an exceptional allowance that wasn’t always the norm.
They weren’t making you feel that the classroom was an extension of socializing space. Nor that you were their social equal, close confidant, or pal. In contrast, the Whitman teacher apparently treated his role that way.
Could teachers be prevented from the latter approach, while still allowing for situations like you had? I think so—as the PP above said, things like having a second teacher present would be one potential way to address it.

Yes, key difference .

We had a pedophile PE/ Health teacher in my MS in Suburban Philadelphia . His 1st writing assignment in MS health class was to assign everyone an essay to write, “ what has been the most challenging emotional experience of your life so far and how did it affect you “ - these essays were then “ submitted to him to read

In other words, “ tell me where you are wounded most , reveal to me if you have home supports or lack them and share with me how neady you might currently be ?”

No Principal, division leader or Anyone supervised him . He then honed in on the girls who - based on their essay - were vulnerable - knowing as a man also 30 years or so their senior - just what buttons to push .

He would sit in the student seating with the HS girls at assemblies, he would sit back with the students in the bus on school trips ( not with the faculty up front ) He planned his route to work in his car based on the walking commute of MS girls he was targeting

He was married with 4 kids - and the kicker - NONE of his colleagues or supervisors said a word - for almost 20 years until he got a teen Pregnant

Bottom
Line : schools are places where adults who couldn’t make it in an adult only work force go to prey upon the vulnerable and hide - not because people don’t believe kids - but because of something more cynical : teachers value their quote “ relationships with their colleagues “ and their job security MORE than kids pr anything that got them into the teaching profession .

Given the choice between a colleague and a kid - they choose to stick with the “ faculty club “ at their school

Yes, we have Pedophiles, but they can only operate where their adult colleagues let them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who decided the age of consent and based on what?

Psychologists, health professionals, social workers? research studies? men?

The brain doesn’t fully develop until we are 25 and we are not allowed to drink alcohol until we are 21.

The current age of consent is outdated and arbitrary, it doesn’t consider personal characteristics.

You can not consent something you do not understand. Age is not enough to determine whether a person can consent.

There is no excuse for a 30/40 man to date young girls instead of women his age who can consent. The only people sexually attracted to minors are pedophiles.

We have to draw the line somewhere. If you want to raise the age of consent, then should we raise the age to vote also? How about the age to hold a full-time job or enlist in the military? Or to be charged as an adult for a crime? All those require the ability to make important decisions.

If 16 year olds can be charged as an adult for homicide, can't they also decide about having sex?

Again , yes 17 year olds can have sex - WITH EACHOTHER , but a 47 year old perve shouldn’t be only able to get it up if his “ date” is a 17 year old who’s History paper he is grading and sho he is coaching as part of his pay check - get it ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is a shame that Shipley answered to two different managing groups (MCPS and a parent-led crew board) and neither entity was able to detect what was going on.

Crew is a somewhat unique sport in terms of needing to communicate with students about changes in venue due to weather, etc at odd times and sometimes, at the last minute. If left to their own devices, coaches find it easiest to communicate via text (albeit to the whole team or at least captains). Other crew teams insist on alternative means of communication so that no one is vulnerable to what happened in this case.

You communicate through the parents, not students. How is this even a question that you communicate through parents.

[Anonymous]

This makes me feel like we need a “town hall” of some sort to have an open dialogue with other teachers to ask them why this tends to be the case. I mean, maybe it would be suitable at Whitman because every single teacher should have known that Shipley’s behavior was unusual. And yet they let it happen under their noses. I don’t think it’s a teacher’s job to police/catch other teachers that are abusers….but surely if enough teachers saw red flags with Shipley’s behavior, or even yellow or orange flags…over the course of 20 years….and discreetly mentioned these to peers….surely he was already someone who they must have had suspicions about. And no one was brave enough to test their suspicions with him—say, by “accidentally” dropping by his classroom at lunchtime to let him know that people found his behavior unacceptable or to simply scope out to confirm a hunch.
I’d want to have an open discussion—why did teachers look the other way? Not all Shipley’s stuff was out in the open, but he sure must have caused suspicion by hanging out with girls all the time. Even the PP from Philly remembers her MS teacher’ inappropriate behavior! I remember the inappropriate behavior of mine (in NJ)…taking 2 girls aside 1 week to photograph them doing gymnastic poses, for a “project”.

[Anonymous]

A quick look at Shipley’s LinkedIn is interesting:

Looks like he may be angling for a job in a school in Hungary or PA

Also, lots of possible former students in his contacts - again - ICK on a 50 year old man trying to prop himself up on teenage girls

[Anonymous]

Kirkland Shipley seems to be looking for a new job in Hungary
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirk-shipley-b18842174?trk=people-guest_people_search-card" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirk-shipley-b18842174?trk=people-guest_people_search-card

Likely he’ll try to have his Internet profile scrubbed like a certain HOS at Sheridan did several years ago ….before landing a job in Africa

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a shame that Shipley answered to two different managing groups (MCPS and a parent-led crew board) and neither entity was able to detect what was going on.

Crew is a somewhat unique sport in terms of needing to communicate with students about changes in venue due to weather, etc at odd times and sometimes, at the last minute. If left to their own devices, coaches find it easiest to communicate via text (albeit to the whole team or at least captains). Other crew teams insist on alternative means of communication so that no one is vulnerable to what happened in this case.

You communicate through the parents, not students. How is this even a question that you communicate through parents.

My kids ran track and cross country. Various meet-day texts filtered through me would have not have reached my kids. Coaches do need to reach kids, just not one-to-one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a shame that Shipley answered to two different managing groups (MCPS and a parent-led crew board) and neither entity was able to detect what was going on.

Crew is a somewhat unique sport in terms of needing to communicate with students about changes in venue due to weather, etc at odd times and sometimes, at the last minute. If left to their own devices, coaches find it easiest to communicate via text (albeit to the whole team or at least captains). Other crew teams insist on alternative means of communication so that no one is vulnerable to what happened in this case.

You communicate through the parents, not students. How is this even a question that you communicate through parents.

My kids ran track and cross country. Various meet-day texts filtered through me would have not have reached my kids. Coaches do need to reach kids, just not one-to-one.

I would imagine that you communicate to kids in a format where parents are automatically copied. My kids aren’t on HS teams, but i would imagine that it is not that hard. Am I missing something ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kirkland Shipley seems to be looking for a new job in Hungary
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirk-shipley-b18842174?trk=people-guest_people_search-card" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirk-shipley-b18842174?trk=people-guest_people_search-card

Likely he’ll try to have his Internet profile scrubbed like a certain HOS at Sheridan did several years ago ….before landing a job in Africa

Ew, really ? That’s a story I hadn’t heard. Care to elaborate ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a shame that Shipley answered to two different managing groups (MCPS and a parent-led crew board) and neither entity was able to detect what was going on.

Crew is a somewhat unique sport in terms of needing to communicate with students about changes in venue due to weather, etc at odd times and sometimes, at the last minute. If left to their own devices, coaches find it easiest to communicate via text (albeit to the whole team or at least captains). Other crew teams insist on alternative means of communication so that no one is vulnerable to what happened in this case.

You communicate through the parents, not students. How is this even a question that you communicate through parents.

My kids ran track and cross country. Various meet-day texts filtered through me would have not have reached my kids. Coaches do need to reach kids, just not one-to-one.

I would imagine that you communicate to kids in a format where parents are automatically copied. My kids aren’t on HS teams, but i would imagine that it is not that hard. Am I missing something ?

This will make more sense once your kids are in high school. You definitely don't want to be copied on every message from coaches and teachers. Nor should you be. There is a certain degree of official information that students should receive and handle themselves. Its just that coaches and teachers should never exchange texts with individual students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kirkland Shipley seems to be looking for a new job in Hungary
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirk-shipley-b18842174?trk=people-guest_people_search-card" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirk-shipley-b18842174?trk=people-guest_people_search-card

Likely he’ll try to have his Internet profile scrubbed like a certain HOS at Sheridan did several years ago ….before landing a job in Africa

Ew, really ? That’s a story I hadn’t heard. Care to elaborate ?

I don't know about scrubbing his internet image, but he never hurt children. He made different mistakes. This was 7 or 8 years ago. The new head has been there for 6 or 7 years.