Reply to Whitman Teacher and Crew Coach Arrested

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Post article - https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/11/30/kirk-shipley-sex-abuse-whitman-coach-rowing/

The parents on the board of the Whitman Crew program seem toxic.  Of course we all know that parents at W schools have a "see no evil" attitude and that their instinct is always to circle the wagon, but this was more like circling the dumpster fire for several years.  No doubt they were blinded by the fact that Shipley was himself an Ivy graduate (Penn) and thought the program was their children's path to similar schools.  And the apologies that the board has made over the years seem pro forma and anything but heartfelt.

I am a Whitman rowing parent.

No one was circling any wagons.

The board parents are not toxic.

To the contrary, the board's leaders are hardworking, genuinely kind people who have dedicated themselves to the team because their children love rowing.

They've known some of the crew kids since elementary school.

None of the parents knew about Shipley's alleged abuse.

It's fair to argue that we were all blind. But it was not because of college ambitions for our kids.

It was because normal people cannot imagine the kind of behavior described in the charging documents unless there's evidence or a clear report of it.

That came to the team on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021, the day Shipley was arrested.

The former rowers who reported him to the police have shown extraordinary courage and resolve.

Everyone wants justice done.[/quote][/quote]

Idk, according to the article he was accused of having had a sexual relationship with a former student during the 2018 investigation. At some point the board parents heard something.

The girl told friends that she and Shipley had “hooked up after graduation” — which the parent who’d lodged the toxic culture complaint reported to the human resources consultant, the team’s board, both Whitman’s outgoing and incoming principals, the school system, Montgomery County child welfare authorities and USRowing. All acknowledged to her that they’d received the information, but the complaint seemed to go nowhere...

...The board assured parents it had reported the 2018 allegation to SafeSport, a nonprofit that investigates coaches accused of abusing athletes, and confirmed that the school system was aware of the claim.
“The Board relied on the respective expertise and experience of MCPS [Montgomery County Public Schools], SafeSport, and Montgomery County child protective services to investigate and report any findings of sexual abuse or misconduct by Shipley,” the board wrote. There were none...

...Hernberg (the twice hired human resources consultant - my addition), who did not respond to requests for comment, made no mention of the allegation in her 2018 report. She does not list the rower as one of the people she interviewed.

Ravick, the parent who’d first sounded the alarm about Shipley, said she felt both disgusted and furious as she read the criminal complaint, which was being shared across Bethesda and beyond.
She’d pushed the board to take action against him, but “no one wanted to say anything. No one wanted to challenge Shipley. It was always the same thing — he’ll retaliate against our kids. I was always the one saying, ‘But we are paying the money, so why shouldn’t we be the ones that are in charge?’ ”

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