PSA - Sex abuse at Washington Hebrew

[Anonymous]

People seem to have more information than I do based on the above thread. Does anyone actually know the alleged crime that took place? Obviously a ton of assumptions can be made, but is there any indirect or direct confirmation?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have information about the parent meeting yet?? It seems incredibly cagey that it hasn’t been publicized yet, given that it’s nearly COB on Tuesday. For those posters who seem to entrust DJ still, the lack of notice about this meeting, seemingly designed to keep available parent participants down, should be a huge red flag. Huge. The longer the temple blindly supports her, the more they put themselves at risk. WHC is a behemoth of a temple with a lot of influence it stands to lose over those. The temple should consider its larger legacy and protect the congregation.

[Anonymous]

They just sent an email about the parent meeting on Wednesday night and said that they are working on a meeting for Thursday night to address this issue.

"Dear New Parents,

We want to remind you about our New Parent Orientation tomorrow night at 6:30 pm. We will be meeting on the Temple level, so please go down the stairs as you enter and follow the signs.

New parent orientation is your chance to meet other new families and to learn about all the details surrounding your child’s day. You will learn about drop off and pick up, snacks and meals, how to communicate with your child’s teachers, as well as our curricular approach. Our PLUS program coordinator, Melissa Lazo, will be there to answer any of your questions about after care.

Wednesday’s meeting will focus on your upcoming school experience. We are scheduling a separate meeting for the entire school community on Thursday evening to discuss the matter addressed in Sunday’s e-mail. We will have both outside professionals and internal resources available. Please be on the lookout for the invitation and more details surrounding this additional Thursday meeting. "

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a horrible experience at WHC, but comparing to Catholic Church is a bit far fetched. Some one with less hubris should run the place.

PP here - I said "IF" they don't make any changes. I'm not comparing them now. But if it turns out that the allegations are true, and they don't remove her, or just move her to Potomac campus only, how is that not *exactly* what the catholic church has done? Because it's "only" 1 victim (that we know of)? Because it hasn't been going on for years (that we know of)? Because she didn't want it to happen and feels bad?

There needs to be a zero tolerance policy here - as soon as this kind of thing happens, the director is out. Period. Someone has to be accountable, and if not the director, then who? Especially if she has a history of not even being aware of what goes on in her school, not communicating to parents, covers for her teachers even when they are in the wrong, etc. If she stays, then my comparison still stands and they are choosing the director over the children, and that is unacceptable. Hubris or not, this is on her.

You clearly have an axe to grind against DJ. Let's wait and see what actually transpired, who did or should have known about it, whether certain precautions (such as background checks) were not taken, etc.

Maybe she should go based on what happened, either because of what she did or did not do directly, or because it was something egregious enough that the buck should stop at the top.

But your current statement that, as director, she should lose her job if something occurred under any circumstances, reeks of you having issues with DJ unrelated to this incident.

Nope. I'm not the PP who complained about her but nice try. My personal interactions with her have always been fine, I think she seems nice on the surface and excited about running a Jewish school. But I don't tolerate child abuse, and to me, the head of school bears the ultimate responsibility. If the allegations are false, then I am not calling for her to be fired. If they are, yes she needs to be fired.

I would say this about any school director, whether I thought they were fantastic or not. Also there are clearly other parents who have had serious issues with her lack of oversight/management, her unwillingness to communicate to parents and her support of teachers when the support is not warranted. These are all major problems in and of themselves that it sounds like WHC has completely ignored - which is very troubling.

It's a little frightening to me that you are so willing to go to bat for her considering that, even in the best of news, she was just really wholly unaware that someone at her school was doing something bad. As to your comment "who did or should have known about it" - I don't understand parents like you. At the end of the day, the school director is responsible for knowing everything that goes on. Period. If there is no system of accountability, the higher ups can always just claim "well i had no idea!".

And I don't understand parents who claim that, ipso facto, an incident of abuse should lead to a director's dismissal, regardless of the facts and circumstances of the incident and other aspects of someone's performance.

Should the principal of Sandy Hook, or any other school where there was a school shooting, necessarily lose his or her job because something terrible happened on his or her watch?

The principal of Sandy Hook was murdered during the shooting so no, she shouldn't lose her job.

[Anonymous]

Good grief. I really don’t see how Sandy Hook OR the Catholic Church is relevant here. Extreme much? This seems to be more that a tragedy MIGHT have happened at a school that happens to have an ego-maniacal headmistress. It may or may not have happened at all and may or may not have anything to do with her...

[Anonymous]

Has anyone else heard that DJ has resigned, or is being asked to do so? Who would be next in line?

[Anonymous]

The only “coverage” I can find on this is here on DCUM. I wanted to send a newspaper article to an out of town friend who is convinced this only happens in Catholic schools.

[Anonymous]

To the posters calling for DJ's head if something is did happen, unless she had direct knowledge of the situation and failed to do something about it, your expectations about what anyone in a school or other setting can prevent or control are very unrealistic. I have been a teacher and an administrator in several schools and no matter how closely you follow procedures and how thorougly you check backgrounds,you can't guarantee no harm will be done. Short of putting body cams on every adult in the building and hiring people to sit and watch the footage in real-time, there will always be the potential for someone to exploit a child. That's true in your home, in the homes of your friends and family, at school, at camp, at music lessons and even the doctor's office. Unless there was egregious neglect in this case (hired someone with a known history as an abuser, ignored multiple complaints from parents and faculty, walked in on something suspicious and looked the other way), the standard you are trying to hold DJ to isn't attainable by anyone.

[Anonymous]

If further information is provided either through email communications or at the orientation tomorrow, will someone please provide an update? We sent our child to 1 session of summer camp and did confirm with the Congregation's General Counsel that the alleged perpetrator was employed through the summer sessions. We are not enrolled in preschool this fall....the logistics of the program do not meet our needs but I am worried that we are going to be left out of important communications because we are no longer enrolled at the school. (I believe we were notified of the incident later than the parents of current enrollees.) We would like to attend the meeting on Thursday but have heard nothing from WHC on that matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the posters calling for DJ's head if something is did happen, unless she had direct knowledge of the situation and failed to do something about it, your expectations about what anyone in a school or other setting can prevent or control are very unrealistic. I have been a teacher and an administrator in several schools and no matter how closely you follow procedures and how thorougly you check backgrounds,you can't guarantee no harm will be done. Short of putting body cams on every adult in the building and hiring people to sit and watch the footage in real-time, there will always be the potential for someone to exploit a child. That's true in your home, in the homes of your friends and family, at school, at camp, at music lessons and even the doctor's office. Unless there was egregious neglect in this case (hired someone with a known history as an abuser, ignored multiple complaints from parents and faculty, walked in on something suspicious and looked the other way), the standard you are trying to hold DJ to isn't attainable by anyone.

That may all be well and true, but she should at least pause for a moment and reconsider the high handed (trumpian, really) way she handles families and staff who in any way question her. If you are going to be that high handed and smug, you better hope everything is perfect in your little fiefdom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the posters calling for DJ's head if something is did happen, unless she had direct knowledge of the situation and failed to do something about it, your expectations about what anyone in a school or other setting can prevent or control are very unrealistic. I have been a teacher and an administrator in several schools and no matter how closely you follow procedures and how thorougly you check backgrounds,you can't guarantee no harm will be done. Short of putting body cams on every adult in the building and hiring people to sit and watch the footage in real-time, there will always be the potential for someone to exploit a child. That's true in your home, in the homes of your friends and family, at school, at camp, at music lessons and even the doctor's office. Unless there was egregious neglect in this case (hired someone with a known history as an abuser, ignored multiple complaints from parents and faculty, walked in on something suspicious and looked the other way), the standard you are trying to hold DJ to isn't attainable by anyone.

That may all be well and true, but she should at least pause for a moment and reconsider the high handed (trumpian, really) way she handles families and staff who in any way question her. If you are going to be that high handed and smug, you better hope everything is perfect in your little fiefdom.

DP. But these are two separate issues. One is whether she should be held accountable (and how) for whatever happened with this recent incident. A separate issue is whether she more broadly handles parents and staff in an appropriate manner. Your feelings on the second issue are unduly clouding your views on the first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the posters calling for DJ's head if something is did happen, unless she had direct knowledge of the situation and failed to do something about it, your expectations about what anyone in a school or other setting can prevent or control are very unrealistic. I have been a teacher and an administrator in several schools and no matter how closely you follow procedures and how thorougly you check backgrounds,you can't guarantee no harm will be done. Short of putting body cams on every adult in the building and hiring people to sit and watch the footage in real-time, there will always be the potential for someone to exploit a child. That's true in your home, in the homes of your friends and family, at school, at camp, at music lessons and even the doctor's office. Unless there was egregious neglect in this case (hired someone with a known history as an abuser, ignored multiple complaints from parents and faculty, walked in on something suspicious and looked the other way), the standard you are trying to hold DJ to isn't attainable by anyone.

That may all be well and true, but she should at least pause for a moment and reconsider the high handed (trumpian, really) way she handles families and staff who in any way question her. If you are going to be that high handed and smug, you better hope everything is perfect in your little fiefdom.

DP. But these are two separate issues. One is whether she should be held accountable (and how) for whatever happened with this recent incident. A separate issue is whether she more broadly handles parents and staff in an appropriate manner. Your feelings on the second issue are unduly clouding your views on the first.

No. If she spends the preponderance of her time huffing around and blowing hot air, she is not spending enough time popping in on classes and vetting employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the posters calling for DJ's head if something is did happen, unless she had direct knowledge of the situation and failed to do something about it, your expectations about what anyone in a school or other setting can prevent or control are very unrealistic. I have been a teacher and an administrator in several schools and no matter how closely you follow procedures and how thorougly you check backgrounds,you can't guarantee no harm will be done. Short of putting body cams on every adult in the building and hiring people to sit and watch the footage in real-time, there will always be the potential for someone to exploit a child. That's true in your home, in the homes of your friends and family, at school, at camp, at music lessons and even the doctor's office. Unless there was egregious neglect in this case (hired someone with a known history as an abuser, ignored multiple complaints from parents and faculty, walked in on something suspicious and looked the other way), the standard you are trying to hold DJ to isn't attainable by anyone.

That may all be well and true, but she should at least pause for a moment and reconsider the high handed (trumpian, really) way she handles families and staff who in any way question her. If you are going to be that high handed and smug, you better hope everything is perfect in your little fiefdom.

DP. But these are two separate issues. One is whether she should be held accountable (and how) for whatever happened with this recent incident. A separate issue is whether she more broadly handles parents and staff in an appropriate manner. Your feelings on the second issue are unduly clouding your views on the first.

No. If she spends the preponderance of her time huffing around and blowing hot air, she is not spending enough time popping in on classes and vetting employees.

Your response perfectly illustrates my point. You clearly don't like her, and for all I know your reasons to dislike her are absolutely valid. But that is different from the present issue.

Based on what we know -- and more importantly what we don't know -- there is no reason to believe that her "popping in on classes and vetting employees" would have made a difference here. We don't know the position of the alleged perpetrator. We don't know anything about how he was hired at the school or the vetting done. We don't know what, if any, direct role DJ had. We don't know whether, given her position, it would have been reasonable for her to have a direct role. We don't know where and when the alleged conduct occurred. Therefore, we don't know whether her popping in on something would have had any impact.

We have no way to tell whether he "huffing round and blowing hot air," accepting your account as valid for the time being, had any impact on what happened at the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the posters calling for DJ's head if something is did happen, unless she had direct knowledge of the situation and failed to do something about it, your expectations about what anyone in a school or other setting can prevent or control are very unrealistic. I have been a teacher and an administrator in several schools and no matter how closely you follow procedures and how thorougly you check backgrounds,you can't guarantee no harm will be done. Short of putting body cams on every adult in the building and hiring people to sit and watch the footage in real-time, there will always be the potential for someone to exploit a child. That's true in your home, in the homes of your friends and family, at school, at camp, at music lessons and even the doctor's office. Unless there was egregious neglect in this case (hired someone with a known history as an abuser, ignored multiple complaints from parents and faculty, walked in on something suspicious and looked the other way), the standard you are trying to hold DJ to isn't attainable by anyone.

That may all be well and true, but she should at least pause for a moment and reconsider the high handed (trumpian, really) way she handles families and staff who in any way question her. If you are going to be that high handed and smug, you better hope everything is perfect in your little fiefdom.

DP. But these are two separate issues. One is whether she should be held accountable (and how) for whatever happened with this recent incident. A separate issue is whether she more broadly handles parents and staff in an appropriate manner. Your feelings on the second issue are unduly clouding your views on the first.

No. If she spends the preponderance of her time huffing around and blowing hot air, she is not spending enough time popping in on classes and vetting employees.

Your response perfectly illustrates my point. You clearly don't like her, and for all I know your reasons to dislike her are absolutely valid. But that is different from the present issue.

Based on what we know -- and more importantly what we don't know -- there is no reason to believe that her "popping in on classes and vetting employees" would have made a difference here. We don't know the position of the alleged perpetrator. We don't know anything about how he was hired at the school or the vetting done. We don't know what, if any, direct role DJ had. We don't know whether, given her position, it would have been reasonable for her to have a direct role. We don't know where and when the alleged conduct occurred. Therefore, we don't know whether her popping in on something would have had any impact.

We have no way to tell whether he "huffing round and blowing hot air," accepting your account as valid for the time being, had any impact on what happened at the school.

+100.

[Anonymous]

I would like to know whether this was a summer employee or ssomeone employed for prior school years.