Whitman Teacher and Crew Coach Arrested

[Anonymous]

Hello Everyone, I'm going to respond to the entirety of this thread and try to be as succinct as possible. I've been involved with this issue specifically with MCPS for since 2013. I am a Whitman alumni and the parent of one current and one former (just graduated) Whitman students. I'm going to request civility and discretion from this group as I am going to give you information regarding who I am. The civility and discretion comes in by me requesting you leave my children out of this conversation and any actions you may take moving forward. They have nothing (and everything) to do with what is happening.

In my personal and professional opinion, MCPS has ignored, hidden, brushed off and lied about abuse perpetrated by staff for decades. I have proof of that and everything I will state. I work in the field of abuse and have for the past 27 years. When I began to realize what was happening in MCPS (a lot of abuse) and what wasn't happening (any prevention, protection, action), I naively reached out to MCPS and asked questions / offered to help. I was dismissed, ignored and basically told to mind my own business. Long story short, fighting and exposing them literally became a part time job for me for many, many years. It is directly because of my advocacy (and others I met along the way) that MCPS started a Child abuse work group, implemented a prevention program, implemented training and wrote an employee code of conduct (which has massive loopholes and makes it virtually useless). They had none when I got involved.

I'm going to include a link so those of you who want more information can read a few letters and one other document I wrote (at the request of a school board member, who never acknowledged it once i sent it to them and the county council), it points out major flaws in the plan they put in place. Flaws that are still there and if you read it you can see clearly how and why this whole thing at Whitman was foreseeable, preventable and shows negligence on the part of the school system. I have met with the school board, superintendent, county council and police chief during this process. I have a lot of information to share with those whom wish to make change.

If there are people in this thread that want to implement change, I'm happy to provide documentation and information. Just let me know. I can say, without massive community and media pushback and pressure, they will never, ever change. They are invested in protecting themselves at all costs. I have a list of over 70 MCPS employees who have been identified / arrested / sanctioned in some way that spans past 10 years alone. Many of them were known to MCPS for many years as being abusive and they were left in the classrooms.

If you click on this link and go to the bottom where it says “Advocating for change in Montgomery County Maryland Public Schools” you can see my first outreach letters, subsequent letters and then at the very bottom you will see the document with recommendations I wrote at the bequest of a school board member. https://www.jennifergross.net/advocacy.html
I will end this post by adding, my son rowed on the team Shipley was the head coach for until he graduated this June. So, not only do I continue to have a professional / personal interest I have had for years and years, I also have a personal interest in that sense as well.

I hope some of you find this helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When there is a serious accusation of misconduct and there are competing interests between MCPS, a teacher/coach, and a student, then a neutral party such as an outside Inspector General needs to do the investigation after the police. That would bring objectivity and fairness to the process.

MCPS does not have an IG. They've rejected the idea time and again. Yes, a $2.5bln organization with no independent oversight. MoCo always keeps it loco!

Who can force their hand? The press can expose the need for one, but who has the authority to make it happen? It's past time.

A few candidates (not backed by the teachers union) were in favor of this in the last BOE election, but they lost. I don't think they lost due to this (it wasn't a hot topic), but just in general it's hard to beat anyone that's union-backed due to the resources they have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the County Council have the ability?

No. MCPS is independent. All the Council can do is give a yes/no vote on MCPS's proposed budget.

[Anonymous]

In other words parents need to mobilize when they have something to report. Share with the media and make sure MCPS knows it will be held to account. Trust is not a strategy here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:...

If you click on this link and go to the bottom where it says “Advocating for change in Montgomery County Maryland Public Schools” you can see my first outreach letters, subsequent letters and then at the very bottom you will see the document with recommendations I wrote at the bequest of a school board member. https://www.jennifergross.net/advocacy.html
I will end this post by adding, my son rowed on the team Shipley was the head coach for until he graduated this June. So, not only do I continue to have a professional / personal interest I have had for years and years, I also have a personal interest in that sense as well.

I hope some of you find this helpful.

Thank you for your advocacy. I'm a mom of 3 young children not yet in elementary school and I just read some of your articles at the link above. I'm very grateful for your advocacy and I am educating myself better to understand and prevent child sex abuse. I had no idea it was so widespread - the statistic of 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys hit me hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the County Council have the ability?

No. MCPS is independent. All the Council can do is give a yes/no vote on MCPS's proposed budget.

The County Council has oversight. They can hold hearings and subpoena documents, information and staff to appear. They never do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In other words parents need to mobilize when they have something to report. Share with the media and make sure MCPS knows it will be held to account. Trust is not a strategy here.

If your child comes forward with information about a well liked teacher/coach, how does one mobilize support?

Do you show everyone the text messages?

Tell all the other parents the coach would drive a child alone in his car?

Do you remind parents about the time the coach had a practice in his neighborhood and kids went to his house?

Or the time he stopped by unannounced at your house?

Or the really good players that would drop the team altogether?

The reality is that people will believe whatever they want to believe and some are likely to turn on the victim. The victim is then hurt by an adult they trusted as a teacher and a coach, but also by the community that ostracized the student for speaking up.

MCPS has the text messages which are black and white but just be warned, MCPS didn’t do anything. The teacher/coach is still working with students in MCPS. It’s more than just the Principal who know the evidence my child had on a cell phone. Try Central Office and even members of the Board of Ed knows. MCPS will keep a staff member who is checking off all the boxes as a child predator until the police make the arrest.

[Anonymous]

PP, where is this person teaching or coaching? Perhaps others will have a similar experience and added evidence will support your story. I’d also reach out to Caitlynn Peetz at Bethesda Beat who covers local education issues. I’m sure you’re not the only one. Thank you to the Whitman parent who has been advocating since 2013. Your persistence will eventually pay off. The world is changing. Too slowly, but it is changing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:...

If you click on this link and go to the bottom where it says “Advocating for change in Montgomery County Maryland Public Schools” you can see my first outreach letters, subsequent letters and then at the very bottom you will see the document with recommendations I wrote at the bequest of a school board member. https://www.jennifergross.net/advocacy.html
I will end this post by adding, my son rowed on the team Shipley was the head coach for until he graduated this June. So, not only do I continue to have a professional / personal interest I have had for years and years, I also have a personal interest in that sense as well.

I hope some of you find this helpful.

Thank you for your advocacy. I'm a mom of 3 young children not yet in elementary school and I just read some of your articles at the link above. I'm very grateful for your advocacy and I am educating myself better to understand and prevent child sex abuse. I had no idea it was so widespread - the statistic of 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys hit me hard.

You are very welcome. One of the best ways I can recommend for you to continue to educate yourself on this issue is to take the training, Stewards of Children. To get the code to take if for free google "Stewards of Children, Flip the Switch" here's the link: https://www.d2l.org/flip-the-switch/ Once you take that, the same company Darkness to Light has supplemental trainings that expand on what is in the Stewards of Children class. The ones I recommend most are: Talking With Children, Healthy Touch for Children, and Bystander Intervention. I think those cost $5.00 but if you follow them on social media they sometimes give codes to take them for free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:...

If you click on this link and go to the bottom where it says “Advocating for change in Montgomery County Maryland Public Schools” you can see my first outreach letters, subsequent letters and then at the very bottom you will see the document with recommendations I wrote at the bequest of a school board member. https://www.jennifergross.net/advocacy.html
I will end this post by adding, my son rowed on the team Shipley was the head coach for until he graduated this June. So, not only do I continue to have a professional / personal interest I have had for years and years, I also have a personal interest in that sense as well.

I hope some of you find this helpful.

Thank you for your advocacy. I'm a mom of 3 young children not yet in elementary school and I just read some of your articles at the link above. I'm very grateful for your advocacy and I am educating myself better to understand and prevent child sex abuse. I had no idea it was so widespread - the statistic of 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys hit me hard.

You are very welcome. One of the best ways I can recommend for you to continue to educate yourself on this issue is to take the training, Stewards of Children. To get the code to take if for free google "Stewards of Children, Flip the Switch" here's the link: https://www.d2l.org/flip-the-switch/ Once you take that, the same company Darkness to Light has supplemental trainings that expand on what is in the Stewards of Children class. The ones I recommend most are: Talking With Children, Healthy Touch for Children, and Bystander Intervention. I think those cost $5.00 but if you follow them on social media they sometimes give codes to take them for free.

Thank you so much.
You could have stopped advocating when your children graduated and nobody would have faulted you, since it seems you were banging your head against a brick wall.

But you continue on, advocating for children that aren't your own, but need you there to help protect them.

Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart. ❤

[Anonymous]

Any further updates on this case? Isn't today the court date for it?

[Anonymous]

I also hope that the same reporters who covered covid will now look into how MCPS investigates accused teachers and coaches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:...

If you click on this link and go to the bottom where it says “Advocating for change in Montgomery County Maryland Public Schools” you can see my first outreach letters, subsequent letters and then at the very bottom you will see the document with recommendations I wrote at the bequest of a school board member. https://www.jennifergross.net/advocacy.html
I will end this post by adding, my son rowed on the team Shipley was the head coach for until he graduated this June. So, not only do I continue to have a professional / personal interest I have had for years and years, I also have a personal interest in that sense as well.

I hope some of you find this helpful.

Thank you for your advocacy. I'm a mom of 3 young children not yet in elementary school and I just read some of your articles at the link above. I'm very grateful for your advocacy and I am educating myself better to understand and prevent child sex abuse. I had no idea it was so widespread - the statistic of 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys hit me hard.

I am another mother and I closely looked at your website and the links. I had NO idea. Thank you for your work for our children.

[Anonymous]

Every school should have a yearly parent meeting for training on signs to look out for and what to do when an MCPS employee is violating the Code of Conduct. Perhaps it could be spearheaded through the PTA.

People like the Whitman teacher/coach thrive where parents can be lulled into a false security. Pedophiles groom the parents into trusting them so they have access to children in ways a teacher/coach should not.

[Anonymous]

There are others.