Reply to Whitman Teacher and Crew Coach Arrested

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Sexual predators are often TEACHER OF THE YEAR award winners.  Look at John Vigna at Cloverly Elementary. He has a huge fan club of MCPS staff and parents who all showed up at his trial in matching tee shirts and wrist bands.  The Board of Education didn't even fire him. They LOVED him! Joshua Starr kept him in the classroom.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/he-was-warned-about-getting-too-close-to-students-but-this-maryland-teacher-was-allowed-to-stay-in-the-classroom/2017/08/25/5ac2ad76-7bbe-11e7-a669-b400c5c7e1cc_story.html[/quote]

Thank you for posting this link.  I am copying a paragraph here:

"This month, the district reported that seven employees were suspended without pay after allegations of abuse or neglect in the 2016-2017 school year and 29 resigned, retired or were terminated under similar circumstances. Forty-six others drew reprimands or disciplinary letters, and 180 required a conference or a written warning."[/quote]

I agree and I'm going to bump this post and suggest that everyone read it. I hadn't known of it before (I wasn't an MCPS parent in 2017 when this came out and didn't see this news at the time). And if I had, I would have thought this predator was sort of a rare incident and I wouldn't have zeroed in on some of the particulars in this article about how MCPS responded to this and the other case mentioned.

Now that I've read it, I see that it gives credence to the PP who's been telling us that [u][b]MCPS has a history of covering up known sexual abuse situations and letting them continue[/b]. [/u] (Although maybe the posts are from more than one PP who knows of this pattern). I'm not someone who likes to complain about MCPS; I tend to trust the institutions around me and give them the benefit of the doubt. However, it's seriously, seriously troubling that MCPS's response to reports of predatory behavior have repeatedly been to allow the person to stay in the position, with child interactions. As we can see, predators don't change their behavior based on internal warnings; they are pathological liars, by and large.

I consider myself a 'vigilant parent' (knock wood). But what about all the other kids in MCPS whose parents are not as vigilant for whatever reasons (e.g., a single parent juggling lots of responsibilities; or parents with severe illness in their family)? For the sake of these kids, we all need to stamp out these predators from our system. And I can't believe this predator's quote in defense:
[quote]"You can try and tell them not to sit on your lap, but if they’re affectionate to you and they have feelings toward you and they feel like that they can count on you, they’re going to come up and hop on your knee whether you want them to or not,” he said. “So it happened with some frequency.” [/quote]
No way. I had a male 3rd grade teacher. We liked him, and were happy with him. The thought of being physically 'affectionate' toward him, though, or 'hopping up on his knee' or sitting on his lap? Never, ever would have felt natural to do. Not even when I was in 1st grade. This man is trying to convince people that his 3rd graders are like pre-schoolers in their body language.

It's becoming crystal clear to me now that school systems are MAGNETS for abusers--an ever-replenishing supply of potential targets, a constant movement of kids through and out of the school (unlikely to compare notes with current students), victims too young to feel certain when something has crossed the line, and too young to feel confident in their judgment against a trusted teacher. Environments where 'caring' about students and/or being very warm/close to young kids is construed as a sign of great teaching/compassion. [i]So if one school system is known to be lenient toward known abusers, other predators will see it as an attractive place to seek employment[/i].

I think the PP(s) I mentioned is a whistleblower of sorts, and wants us to all realize this pattern for ourselves so that we can start pressuring MCPS to change its ways. Or at least raise awareness so that MCPS gets lots of heat. I know what it's like to have seen wrongdoing and everyone else is like, "Don't rock the boat" or "You're getting a reputation as a troublemaker." It's hard to be a single voice to challenge a whole system. We need to consider how to multiply these lone or separated voices.[/quote]

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