Reply to Northwood Coach and Security Guard Arrested Child Sex Felony

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is absurd. Athletics in MCPS is a magnet for predators? Schools are paradise for predators? This is a systemic failure and cannot be treated as an isolated incident. [/quote]

The list of MCPS community messages at the bottom of the following webpage demonstrate that child sexual abuse is a serious problem in MCPS.  The community messages are only sent out after an arrest:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/childabuseandneglect/
[/quote]

MCPS website hasn’t been updated with the Reumante letter to the community, but his arrest would equal 8/29 arrests or 27% of arrests are of people affiliated with sport programs in MCPS schools. These are the arrests -

Giovanni Reumante
Kirkland Shipley
Christopher Papadopoulos
Maxwell Bero
Duke Williams
Thomas Ridges
Cory Boatman
Michael Riley (employed 30 years in MCPS including Athletic Director)

Other areas with high percentage of arrests are Special Education (17%) and after school programs (10%).
[/quote]

Sorry, I’m unfamiliar with a few of the names.

I had to look up Michael Riley… his actions date back to 1984, where is he now?

Who is Duke Williams?

Thomas Ridges- his actions that led to charges took place about a decade after he left Mcps. Were there additional charges from the time he was an MCPS employee?[/quote]

Read the Letters to the Community in the link provided.  And there was a typo - should be Dake Williams who is in the Williams letter.

Michael Riley - Google his name for the news records. He retired MCPS to work for a private school as a track coach. He was coaching when the arrest occurred.

A child predator is a predator no matter when the offense or where the offense occurs. For Thomas Ridges, why issue a Letter to the Community if his contact with children in the community during his employment by MCPS wasn’t relevant? Often, these letters go out to see if other victims will come forward. [/quote]

Right, I’m all for getting these scumbags away from our school and athletic programs but the point is how do we examine what has happened in the past to prevent future cases of abuse. If a coach or school employee has not arrests or reports of sexual deviance against children, how are these creeps screened out during the vetting process? Many victims fail to report, which is understandable, but what options do districts have.

Is the whole, “MCPS knowingly hires child predators and protects them” argument valid?
[/quote]

You're missing the point.

The system rely on vetting them out during the hiring process. That system is obviously a failure.  A new system that attempts to weed them at during the application process AND THEN continues to monitor them in the high risk groups (athletics and special needs) is sorely overdue.

The guilty parties are not suddenly in the students bedroom one day. They are grooming them for weeks, months, even years before hand. They are violating policy by having private communications,  by being alone in cars, locker rooms, busses, by speaking to them in unprofessional manners publicly, by taking special interest in them and crossing g all sorts of lines that could have been caught and reprimanded beforehand. But MCPS failed to even attempt to do so.[/quote]

I’m not missing the point, I’m not understanding how this looks like in action. Some things sound reasonable on paper, but what specific steps can an employer take to monitor employees. How many layers of checks and balances will it take? People already complain about money waste, and pay to play isn’t an option.

I have athletes both in and out of school. Every organization at this point deals with this similarly- safe sport policies, rules coaches must follow, educating students, and their parents. You’re forgetting that these pedophiles are criminals and are sneaky. Grooming is also hard to monitor as some creeps take months if not years to groom their victims. Even trained adults fail to see it. As a child that was sexually abused. My senses are heightened for this type of behavior. As an adult, I worked with a man that spent time in prison for sexually abusing elementary aged students. When it hit the news, I was floored. Later learned he would offer parents to give their children a ride home from activities. He also invited children for sleepovers. Apparently he’d sit in hot tubs at the camp and molest his victims. I want to vomit every time I see that man’s picture. This went on for years because children, and some parents didn’t report it. One parent finally listened, reported this man and once it hit the news more victims spoke up. I was around this man for years. I missed signs of grooming. Am I at fault for not noticing? He was a sneaky @sshole. Parents loved this man- kids around him appeared happy. I saw no favoritism- he had over a dozen victims, male and female. This man was highly recognized for his work with children. FWIW, this was years ago before cell phones & social media and messaging apps. I get the need for oversight- but what does that look like?

I’m not trying to be contradictory, as I think our goals are ultimately the same, but what can we do to protect our children? This is not unique to MCPS. MCPS is just a larger organization so will statistically have more cases.[/quote]

This is what action looks like -

1) Parents and students need to read the Employee Code of Conduct. All athletes should have mandatory training that reinforces how they are supposed to be treated. If parents or students know of an employee violating the code of conduct, immediately report. If it’s a criminal offense like child abuse, report information to the police. If it’s not criminal, report in writing to the school principal or anonymously through the previous posted link.

2) MCPS needs to treat all violations of the MCPS Code of Conduct as early warning signs. Using your above example - red flags was a person who gave children rides in a personal vehicle, he would get into hot tubs with students, and he invited students over for sleepovers. With today’s technology, if there’s a written record of these events via private text messages, emails, or social media postings, that information should be considered a serious breach of conduct that is cause for dismissal. There’s always warning signs of misconduct before sexual abuse occurs.

3) Oversight would include either banning overnight travel by MCPS athletic teams or requiring school administrators to accompany the team.  Reumante traveled to Portland for Nike Cross Nationals cross country meet in his capacity as a MCPS coach.

4) Oversight would also include athletic directors, assistant principals, school security, and principals doing routine spot checks on practices and games. Are rules for travel being followed? How are students being treated in practices? Is there proper supervision for the locker rooms?

5) Conduct an anonymous survey of athletes for every team during every season. This would be a way to gather athlete input in a manner that they aren’t afraid of retaliation. It would be a tool to learn of concerning behavior.

Just some ideas that differs from the current approach of leaving questionable people in coaching positions till the police makes the arrest. When the arrest happens, a child is already abused versus stopping the opportunity for abuse to occur.[/quote]

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