Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS, the Board of Education, and the Montgomery County Council Education Committee really need to research and implement best practices for protecting children from child predators in their school system. There needs to be an audit of employment files to weed out the questionable employees BEFORE a crime is committed. If Jack Smith cannot do the job, then fire him, because these types of crimes are preventable if you put best practices in place.

If the County Council wants to throw money at the problem, they should start with mental health services for the hundreds of victims that are students in their public school system. MCPS has broken children in the worst way possible but does little to help the children recover. Special Education and counseling services including experts in trauma should be in place at school for these children who have been abused by MCPS employees.

How do you determine who is questionable if they have never been caught?

That's the point. Employees have been caught alone in vehicles and classrooms alone with students. MCPS doesn't always immediately report to CPS when these events occur and they work to silence witnesses to cover up the problem. Two known offenders are currently employed at my child's high school.

I think people are being terminating for breaking the code. A few years back, a black male coworker gave an Asian female student a ride home. He was terminated. Not warned. Not retrained. Not watched. He was gone. If he’s the only one, there’s an additional problem of profiling.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS, the Board of Education, and the Montgomery County Council Education Committee really need to research and implement best practices for protecting children from child predators in their school system. There needs to be an audit of employment files to weed out the questionable employees BEFORE a crime is committed. If Jack Smith cannot do the job, then fire him, because these types of crimes are preventable if you put best practices in place.

If the County Council wants to throw money at the problem, they should start with mental health services for the hundreds of victims that are students in their public school system. MCPS has broken children in the worst way possible but does little to help the children recover. Special Education and counseling services including experts in trauma should be in place at school for these children who have been abused by MCPS employees.

How do you determine who is questionable if they have never been caught?

That's the point. Employees have been caught alone in vehicles and classrooms alone with students. MCPS doesn't always immediately report to CPS when these events occur and they work to silence witnesses to cover up the problem. Two known offenders are currently employed at my child's high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS, the Board of Education, and the Montgomery County Council Education Committee really need to research and implement best practices for protecting children from child predators in their school system. There needs to be an audit of employment files to weed out the questionable employees BEFORE a crime is committed. If Jack Smith cannot do the job, then fire him, because these types of crimes are preventable if you put best practices in place.

If the County Council wants to throw money at the problem, they should start with mental health services for the hundreds of victims that are students in their public school system. MCPS has broken children in the worst way possible but does little to help the children recover. Special Education and counseling services including experts in trauma should be in place at school for these children who have been abused by MCPS employees.

How do you determine who is questionable if they have never been caught?

That's the point. Employees have been caught alone in vehicles and classrooms alone with students. MCPS doesn't always immediately report to CPS when these events occur and they work to silence witnesses to cover up the problem. Two known offenders are currently employed at my child's high school.

Are violations of MCPS policy reportable to CPS? Are the offenders repeat offenders, or did they violate policy once, get disciplined and never do it again (you probably wouldn't know if they did face discipline)? Is MCPS legally allowed to fire employees for policy violations? There are civil service and union protections that are beyond the control of MCPS to change which make it difficult to fire employees. Not saying it's right, but it may not all be MCPS' fault.

1) When there is a report of child abuse, then yes, as a mandated reporter, MCPS employees are responsible for reporting to CPS. Do they always do so? No.

2) Are offenders repeat offenders? Only MCPS would know. In the case of Vigna, he was a repeat offender that MCPS kept disciplining over and over again, even when he told his Principal he couldn't control himself. However, some violations - such as having children should be one strike and you are out offenses. Creating situations where as an adult, you have a child alone in a vehicle or a classroom, that should be a dismissable offense.

3) Per the MCPS Code of Conduct, MCPS is allowed to fire employees for policy violations. That's the whole reason why the Montgomery County Board of Education wrote it. It clearly outlines what the standards of behaviors are. The Board of Education, however, could best serve child safety if it would make a tiered Code of Conduct. Being 5 minutes late to class is not the same level of danger to children as being alone with a child in a vehicle or a classroom so some offenses are more serious than others. The punishment should be tier - verbal or written reprimand would be appropriate for being 5 minutes late. Being alone with a student should be cause for termination.

4) The Unions have agreed violations to the MCPS Employee Code of Conduct can be cause for discipline up to termination. If an employee has been reported to violate multiple sections of the Code of Conduct, a case for employee misconduct could be made by the Superintendent and the employee could be terminated by the Board of Education.

5) Furthermore, there are part-time positions that are non-tenured and non-unionized such as school coaches. A coach who violates the MCPS Code of Conduct should be easily removable since their contracts are on a season by season basis. Any serious violations - such as placing an athlete alone in a vehicle - should be cause for not rehiring that coach. Students are particularly vulnerable after school when there are not many witnesses around so coaches who violate the Code of Conduct to the point of jeopardizing student safety should be quickly dealt with.

Saying your hands are tied on a matter of child safety is BS and would be offensive if MCPS actually tried to make the argument. You fix the broken system if that is the problem, not sit back and watch child after child be raped by your employees. We are in double digit arrests of employees just in 2018. Arrests are just the tip of the iceberg of the problem because of the efforts of MCPS to NOT report to CPS or cover up for known problem employees.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS, the Board of Education, and the Montgomery County Council Education Committee really need to research and implement best practices for protecting children from child predators in their school system. There needs to be an audit of employment files to weed out the questionable employees BEFORE a crime is committed. If Jack Smith cannot do the job, then fire him, because these types of crimes are preventable if you put best practices in place.

If the County Council wants to throw money at the problem, they should start with mental health services for the hundreds of victims that are students in their public school system. MCPS has broken children in the worst way possible but does little to help the children recover. Special Education and counseling services including experts in trauma should be in place at school for these children who have been abused by MCPS employees.

How do you determine who is questionable if they have never been caught?

That's the point. Employees have been caught alone in vehicles and classrooms alone with students. MCPS doesn't always immediately report to CPS when these events occur and they work to silence witnesses to cover up the problem. Two known offenders are currently employed at my child's high school.

Are violations of MCPS policy reportable to CPS? Are the offenders repeat offenders, or did they violate policy once, get disciplined and never do it again (you probably wouldn't know if they did face discipline)? Is MCPS legally allowed to fire employees for policy violations? There are civil service and union protections that are beyond the control of MCPS to change which make it difficult to fire employees. Not saying it's right, but it may not all be MCPS' fault.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS, the Board of Education, and the Montgomery County Council Education Committee really need to research and implement best practices for protecting children from child predators in their school system. There needs to be an audit of employment files to weed out the questionable employees BEFORE a crime is committed. If Jack Smith cannot do the job, then fire him, because these types of crimes are preventable if you put best practices in place.

If the County Council wants to throw money at the problem, they should start with mental health services for the hundreds of victims that are students in their public school system. MCPS has broken children in the worst way possible but does little to help the children recover. Special Education and counseling services including experts in trauma should be in place at school for these children who have been abused by MCPS employees.

How do you determine who is questionable if they have never been caught?

That's the point. Employees have been caught alone in vehicles and classrooms alone with students. MCPS doesn't always immediately report to CPS when these events occur and they work to silence witnesses to cover up the problem. Two known offenders are currently employed at my child's high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS, the Board of Education, and the Montgomery County Council Education Committee really need to research and implement best practices for protecting children from child predators in their school system. There needs to be an audit of employment files to weed out the questionable employees BEFORE a crime is committed. If Jack Smith cannot do the job, then fire him, because these types of crimes are preventable if you put best practices in place.

If the County Council wants to throw money at the problem, they should start with mental health services for the hundreds of victims that are students in their public school system. MCPS has broken children in the worst way possible but does little to help the children recover. Special Education and counseling services including experts in trauma should be in place at school for these children who have been abused by MCPS employees.

How do you determine who is questionable if they have never been caught?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The aide had to get off the bus to assist the child. The question is why she was off the bus for so long? Also, was she routinely off the bus for a long time at that particular stop? And why didn’t she notice a hysterical child when she got back on?

Why wasn't the parent / caregiver of the child the aide was assisting near the bus. Did the bus driver literally rape the girl while the aide was right outside the door of the bus? MCPS should have policy for parents / caregivers to come to the bus to get the child so the aide stays with the bus. The bus driver should have never had the opportunity to rape a child.

Sometimes a wheelchair lift has to be operated to get the child off the bus. Not all parents/caregivers can operate one.

Anonymous wrote:MCPS, the Board of Education, and the Montgomery County Council Education Committee really need to research and implement best practices for protecting children from child predators in their school system. There needs to be an audit of employment files to weed out the questionable employees BEFORE a crime is committed. If Jack Smith cannot do the job, then fire him, because these types of crimes are preventable if you put best practices in place.

If the County Council wants to throw money at the problem, they should start with mental health services for the hundreds of victims that are students in their public school system. MCPS has broken children in the worst way possible but does little to help the children recover. Special Education and counseling services including experts in trauma should be in place at school for these children who have been abused by MCPS employees.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The aide had to get off the bus to assist the child. The question is why she was off the bus for so long? Also, was she routinely off the bus for a long time at that particular stop? And why didn’t she notice a hysterical child when she got back on?

Why wasn't the parent / caregiver of the child the aide was assisting near the bus. Did the bus driver literally rape the girl while the aide was right outside the door of the bus? MCPS should have policy for parents / caregivers to come to the bus to get the child so the aide stays with the bus. The bus driver should have never had the opportunity to rape a child.

Anonymous wrote:The aide had to get off the bus to assist the child. The question is why she was off the bus for so long? Also, was she routinely off the bus for a long time at that particular stop? And why didn’t she notice a hysterical child when she got back on?

Anonymous wrote:The aide had to get off the bus to assist the child. The question is why she was off the bus for so long? Also, was she routinely off the bus for a long time at that particular stop? And why didn’t she notice a hysterical child when she got back on?

Anonymous wrote:the sad part is this is most likely not his first time. At 62 he didn't just decide one day to do this. How many kids on SPED buses may not know how to verbalize these types of events??

Just eww!