Beauvoir Teacher Caught with Pictures of Nude Child

A popular third-grade teacher at Beauvoir, the National Cathedral Elementary School, has been placed on administrative leave after a school-owned camera in his possession was found to contain inappropriate pictures of a young boy. School officials notified parents of the incident in a June 12 letter that said, "The teacher was immediately placed on administrative leave, escorted from Beauvoir that afternoon, and did not participate in any of the closing chapel activities". Discussion of the incident has been raging in the DC Urban Moms and Dads discussion forum since a June 16 posting asking for specifics about what had happened.

While school officials have attempted to be proactive in providing information to the Beauvoir community (distributing letters on June 12, June 19, and June 20), many DCUM posters have complained that Beauvoir has not gone far enough. Anonymous posters have passed on information that has ranged from insider knowledge to simple gossip. The debate has grown to encompass many aspects including accusations that the school prioritized guarding its reputation over the protection of children, that Beauvoir was conspiring with the Washington Post to keep the story out of the newspaper, and that forum users themselves were acting as a lynch mob.

The incident raises questions about the role of anonymous internet forums such as DCUM in cases involving issues of personal privacy. Moreover, events illustrate that in today's media hungry society, crisis management may take on dimensions not previously considered.

The events at Beauvoir began on the morning of June 9, the second to last day of school. Nude pictures of a young boy who was not identifiable were found on a school-owned camera that had been in the possession of a third-grade teacher. School officials quickly huddled and then confronted the teacher. While that was happening, the teacher's room was secured along with his computer and other articles. The teacher did not admit to any transgressions and with little delay was escorted from the school. Police were also called and arrived after the teacher had departed.

The fact that the teacher was allowed to leave before the police arrived has fueled speculation in the DCUM forums that the school either erred by potentially providing the teacher the opportunity to destroy evidence and go into hiding, or acted intentionally to avoid a potentially embarrassing arrest. School officials point out that police lacked sufficient grounds to make an arrest that morning. It is understood that upon completion of the police investigation, evidence will be presented to a grand jury leading to an indictment on multiple charges. According to the June 19 letter to Beauvoir families, the teacher may have left the area. An email to the teacher's personal email account resulted in an auto response saying, "I currently do not have access to the Internet and so cannot read or respond to your message."

Beauvoir has long been one of the most discussed topics on DCUM. A search of the forums for "Beauvoir" returns more than 1,400 messages. "Beauvoir" appears four times on the list of the 50 "hottest" topics. It was therefore a bit strange that the June 16th message saying a teacher had been found with pornographic pictures "of some of the kids" languished for nearly 3 hours without a response. When responses did start to appear, discussion veered off into a debate of private versus public schools and whether the Beauvoir incident was better or worse than a recent controversy at a local preschool involving a pedophile.

By the early afternoon, two opposing camps had started to gather and make their arguments. On one side were those stressing the need for discretion: "If we do not have all the details we probably should not discuss this issue. It is very senstive to the school and community", wrote one such poster. "I'd be surprised if the school provided 'the details.' The only info we get may be from this site" responded a representative of what might be called the "cover up" crowd. This debate would continue for days, intermixed with pleas for hard information about what really happened.

The sparseness of the June 12 letter and the fact that it had been sent 3 days after the incident provoked a strong reaction among many DCUM participants. As one wrote:

"The letter was drafted by lawyers, they have the Washington Post sitting on their Board and they have a powerful PR firm calling the shots. Now you know why this has not been picked up by the press yet.

It is a sick situation and the information is being held too tightly. When did the school suspect? Who found the pictures? Why the delay in calling the parents?"

As outraged parents hurled questions and accusations, school defenders -- largely current parents -- urged everyone to calm down. Caught in the middle were those whose children were scheduled to attend Beauvoir in the Fall or those hoping to apply in the future. They not only were not recipients of the School's official letters, they were repeatedly exposed to near hysterical claims and suggestions made in the DCUM forums (note that one forum participant says that Fall families did receive the letters). The desperation in their pleas for more information was palpable. In the middle of all this, users began to attack each others' motives, some suggesting that those fanning the flames were trying to scare off potential rivals for the school's limited spots and others accusing school defenders of being Beauvoir officials posing as parents.

The stakes changed radically on June 19 when a poster wrote that "I heard that all parents in [name redacted]'s class were contacted before the general letter went out." The clear inference was that the named teacher was the one who had possessed the camera. The name was quickly edited from the post by a DCUM administrator. This author has confirmed the name of the teacher involved, but will not reveal it until such time as an indictment or formal charges take place.

As it turns out, the teacher himself had a DCUM connection. In March he participated in a discussion about Beauvoir's math curriculum. "I'm happy to answer any questions you might have privately" he wrote and provided a personal email address. In another thread, the teacher is recommended as an educational consultant. Given that the message originated from the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral computer network, the post may have been sock puppetted. One other possibly irrelevant detail is that the teacher appears to be a hard core role-playing gamer. In a message inviting members to join an online gaming group, he wrote "As a group, we tend to really emphasize deep, multi-layered, complex storylines and lots of roleplaying, but we also enjoy grand melees and sophisticated tactical thinking. Our players tend to make well-built characters, but we frown on egregious examples of min-maxing using material from a variety of sources that was never intended to interact with one another."

By June 20, the focus of the DCUM forum discussion was on the lack of media coverage. Posters argued that had the incident involved a public school teacher, it would have been reported. "I think its unbelievable that this isn't on NBC4 or in the Post. I guess the fact that the publisher of the Washington Post and chief executive officer of Washington Post Media, is a Beauvoir parent and on the Beauvoir board, makes it not surprising that its not in the Post" wrote one poster. Others argued that it was understandable that given no arrest had been made, the media had not yet reported the story.

Also on June 20, another element was added to the debate. A poster started a message by saying, "Beauvoir is paying the price for hubris and arrogance of its administrators. Our cathedral brothers and sisters are getting layed off due to financial mismanagement while the Beauvoir head of school makes an annual salary of $330,000." The writer then went on to launch a detailed and multi-faceted attack on the school's administration. He also described an appalling-sounding event that had racial overtones. The message concluded by saying, "Sorry Beauvoir you aren't getting much sympathy from a family that's had two generations of alums." It was evident that this poster had an agenda that went well beyond the situation with the third-grade teacher, something he mentioned only tangentially as the "scandal de jour". Likely the author of the message realized that he was on tenuous legal grounds given that he appears to have posted from a Kinkos public access computer.

The news that the teacher had disappeared was published on June 23 and added further fuel to the conspiracy theorists with one writer who identified herself as a prosecutor saying, "if you escort someone off school grounds, tell him why, let him go his own way, and don't arrange with the police to give them an opportunity to confront him -- well then there may be significantly less evidence left to examine." This news also provoked two additional messages from the "Kinkos" poster, one starting "Beauvoir sounds as if it's ruled by a queen bee who's surrounded by a nest of vipers. It's truly a dysfunctional place with a damaged brand." and the second beginning "The brand may be damaged but Beauvoir's damn good at raising and spending money." The sock puppetting from Kinkos was just one more element of an already complex drama.

As things stand now, the police investigation is ongoing and has uncovered additional evidence which is expected to be presented to a grand jury. Beauvoir is holding a series of meetings with school families. The media attention that has been notably absent will likely materialize shortly. At Beauvoir, Summer Camp has just started and things are getting somewhat back to normal. Meanwhile, on DCUM, the "Beauvoir Scandal" thread sits at number 3 on the list of "Hottest Topics" and will probably over take the number two thread within a day or two.