MCPS Teacher Charged with 14 Counts of Sex Abuse of a Minor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am have a toddler that I am planning on sending to MCPS when she is of age. Is it possible to request all female teachers? This happens way too frequently. Of course, crazy things could happen with female teachers as well but chances are 1 million times less.

Well for one thing, don't visit the White House as a tourist. The president is male, you know. Just looking out for you!

9/10 men in these fields are probably 100% innocent and well intentioned, it is the 1/10 that I would rather avoid working closely with my child. You cannot deny the facts that this kind of stuff is in the news all of time, and most often, we never know these things happen. This guy was doing this for 13 years without anyone having an inkling of what he was doing.

Citation needed. Please back your claim that 10% of men are child-molesters. Please use U.S. statistics.

I am a male ES teacher and your attitude and prejudice disgust me. I hope you DO request all female teachers because as a parent, you would be a nightmare to deal with.

To the scared PP: My son LOVES make teachers and really connects with them. He was lucky to have the same guy for two years in preschool. Sadly, there are nine in his elementary school. And I lived having male teachers as a kid, too. There is often a very different energy and dynamic.

I would hope if my son chose to be a teacher, he wouldn't face such paranoia about his sex

. There are many ways to teach your kid to be safe. Be proactive like that instead of condemning men just because they are men. "Protecting the Gift" is a great book if you are interested.

My mom was very paranoid as was her mom before her. There is a part of me that thought my mom was overprotective until you start meeting people that have a friend or relative that has had something like this happen. In one case, it was the niece's coach and the coach's daughter was on the team and friends with the niece. It was heartbreaking hearing about the story and the impact on the young life. It was also unsettling to find out how little jail time the person served that at the time had to do with hoe light MD sentencing was for that type of crime.

There has to be an element of not being completely trusting and assuming it would never happen but not so paranoid that you trust no one ever and never leave your home. I won't be around my kids all the time and so they have to develop judgement about things and feel open to coming to me if something feels uncomfortable or off. So I agree with PP about taking proactive steps to teach your kid ways to be safe. Also if your adult child will work around kids they also need to learn what could be interpreted as inappropriate and not cross that line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about video cameras in the classrooms?

+1

[Anonymous]

August 16th Washington Post editorial takes the position that the abuse was "preventable" and that The fact that many turned a "blind eye" is "shocking.". I cant figure out how to post the link, but it's worth a read. Echoes many of the sentiments from this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about video cameras in the classrooms?

+1

You want to put surveillance cameras in every classroom?

(How do you feel about speed cameras? How do you feel about the NSA reading your e-mails?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am have a toddler that I am planning on sending to MCPS when she is of age. Is it possible to request all female teachers? This happens way too frequently. Of course, crazy things could happen with female teachers as well but chances are 1 million times less.

No, this happens very infrequently. It's awful, but your suggestion is just nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:August 16th Washington Post editorial takes the position that the abuse was "preventable" and that The fact that many turned a "blind eye" is "shocking.". I cant figure out how to post the link, but it's worth a read. Echoes many of the sentiments from this thread.

This one?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/alleged-montgomery-county-sex-abuse-was-preventable/2013/08/16/f7a6b666-0519-11e3-a07f-49ddc7417125_story.html

[Anonymous]

This article is not an editorial, but still seems to hint that it may have been preventable:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/montgomery-county-teacher-charged-with-14-counts-of-sex-abuse-of-students/2013/08/13/547cc04c-041b-11e3-a07f-49ddc7417125_story.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about video cameras in the classrooms?

+1

You want to put surveillance cameras in every classroom?

(How do you feel about speed cameras? How do you feel about the NSA reading your e-mails?)

Yeah, I'm fine with it.

Fine with speed cameras as well. As long as they are clearly marked, and there are signs up saying 'photo enforced'. The NSA is a bit different.

Things like speed cameras (well-marked) and video cameras in the classroom are more equivalent to security cameras in stores. You are aware that there are cameras there - it's not a secret.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, the editorial from the 16th actually includes the word "preventable" in the headline. They refer back to some of the earlier coverage.

[Anonymous]

I've heard of daycares with video streaming parents can watch from their desktops at work. Parents love it! I suspect there's some element of consent that makes it difficult to introduce into a public school setting. The disgusting part is that every cellphone there days has video capability, meaning kids can get secretly videotaped without a parent's consent all the time (in totally innocent and not so innocent contexts). At a certain point, maybe we've waived the right to not have video cameras in public settings (including schools).

[Anonymous]

It would be very expensive to wire every classroom in 200+ schools. And are they monitored real time? Huge personnel cost, too. Or only if there is a problem? If only then, how long do they keep the tapes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I personally think we should not have teachers in a room alone with kids unless there is more than say 10 kids in the room. If there is < 10 for a lunch bunch or something, then two teachers need to be in the room. If you want a different number then 10, then that is fine.

HS teacher here. Your recommendation is totally untenable. How would we be able to work with students needing help during lunch and after school? Wait till 10 need it?

I said 10, you could make it less as I mentioned. MAybe just never have an adult alone with a child. I am a scout leader and they won't ever let an adult be alone with a kid under 18 unless it is your kid. This doesn't just protect the kid, it protects you because sometimes an accusation is all it takes to ruin your reputation. I said a higher number like 10 because I was struck by the fact that this creep used lunch bunches to tickle and start breaking down barriers with the kid.

In my view, MCPS needs to have some policy about boundaries between teachers and kids. That policy needs to be taught to all the kids, teachers, and parents regularly. An ES child needs to know that it is not alright for a teacher to tickle or make them uncomfortable. The kids, teachers and parents also need to know what to do if something happens. I am torn a bit because my kid used to hug all the teachers back in early ES, so I hate to go into a draconian set of rules, but after what has happened in the catholic church and scouting organizations, I think you have to take this seriously.

Also, in my line of work, if someone even casually mentions some form of harassment or unethical behavior, I am trained to report it. That report then has to be investigated. My guess is that MCPS does not do any training on this topic. I think any organization that works with kids needs to take child abuse seriously and have specific policies and training. To me, it is incompetent not to have a detailed program on how to handle these cases. I don't think MCPS has this, but I welcome information that I am wrong.

The Scouting policy is excellent. It calls for always being "two deep" in adults when any kid is around. That is to say, no adult is ever alone with a child. There must always be two adults present. This would not be difficult at a school, as teachers could just double up with their next door colleague before and after school or during lunch. Besides, at many middle schools, appointments are required for children to come in for extra help before or after school because they require a hall pass to get to the classroom.

Also, at our child's camp, the parents, counselors and campers are explicitly told that it is not permitted for camp counselors to be in touch with campers outside of camp. No contact by facebook, email, text or whatever unless the parents are explicitly asked for permission. This should be true for all MCPS teachers.

Finally, your point about training is very important. There have been many student on student sexual harassment issues at Eastern Middle School in the last several years. These have not been taken seriously. These incidents have not triggered any additional training on harassment or reporting for teachers or administration. This is not the way sexual harassment/abuse should be treated. Any reports should immediately trigger review of standard policies and additional teaching/training for all.

I don't think this is an accurate picture of Eastern.

First of all -- these incidents are 10 years old, so it's really pointless to compare them with Eastern now.

Second of all, I know what kind of harrassment you are talking about, as my kid is an 8th grader there, and it was taken very seriously by the administration. I don't know why you think this wasn't done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about video cameras in the classrooms?

It's not secret that principals can and do listen to teachers on the intercom. Add to it the cameras and many teachers will feel completely nervous and won't be able to do a good job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be very expensive to wire every classroom in 200+ schools. And are they monitored real time? Huge personnel cost, too. Or only if there is a problem? If only then, how long do they keep the tapes?

Would it really? It's so easy to set up an inexpensive video set up. Just having the video cameras in place would be fine as a deterrent.

Colleges stream videos of lectures. Why can't classrooms do the same thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be very expensive to wire every classroom in 200+ schools. And are they monitored real time? Huge personnel cost, too. Or only if there is a problem? If only then, how long do they keep the tapes?

Would it really? It's so easy to set up an inexpensive video set up. Just having the video cameras in place would be fine as a deterrent.

Colleges stream videos of lectures. Why can't classrooms do the same thing?

Do you work out of the home? If so, what do you do, and does everything you do at work get recorded on surveillance cameras?