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Tuesday's Most Active Threads

by Jeff Steele last modified Nov 20, 2024 11:38 AM

Yesterday's topics with the most engagement included the arrest of the Head of School of the National Child Research Center, the coming wave of political disruption, angry MAGAs, and Nancy Mace's bill targeting Representative Sarah McBride.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Head of School at National Child Research Center (NCRC) - Arrest warrant issued" and posted in the "Private & Independent Schools" forum. By the time I learned that this thread existed yesterday, the title was already out of date. The original poster started this thread after learning of reports that an arrest warrant had been issued for James Carroll, the Head of School at the National Child Research Center (NCRC), an elite Washington, DC preschool. Less than half an hour later, Carroll's arrest for attempted coercion and enticement of a minor was announced. For me, this thread provoked an immediate sense of déjà vu. Back in 2006, when DCUM's forums were still in their infancy, a scandal involving a teacher at Beauvoir was the subject of what would become, at that time, the most active thread in DCUM history. That case involved Eric Toth, a 3rd grade teacher at Beauvoir who was found to have taken sexually explicit photos of children using a school-owned camera. Toth fled and ended up replacing Osama Bin Laden on the FBI's Most Wanted list after Bin Laden was killed. Toth, who was later arrested in Costa Rica and is now in prison, had actually been an active DCUM poster. My immediate reaction upon seeing this thread was to think that we were going to have another Beauvoir situation. Carroll has a long history in the DC private school world, including a Beauvoir connection. He apparently was teaching 3rd grade along with Toth at Beauvoir at the time of the Beauvoir scandal. That is an eerie coincidence to say the least. Carroll later joined the Beauvoir administration before leaving to become the head of school at Concord Hill School for two years. He has been head of school at NCRC since July 2018. The criminal complaint provided in this case is pretty tough to read and definitely not for the faint of heart. According to that document, Carroll came to the attention of an administrator of the Discord social media network when he uploaded a photo of "two naked prepubescent boys". The Discord employee contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about the photo, and NCMEC alerted the FBI. The FBI was able to trace the Discord account used to upload the photo to IP addresses associated with NCRC and Carroll's home. A review of Carroll's Discord account showed that he "had engaged in conversations with other Discord users about child sexual exploitation, circumcision of teenage boys, urinating on teenage boys and adults, and had discussed the removal of adult male’s penises." In addition, the FBI discovered several "selfies" picturing Carroll. An FBI undercover law enforcement officer using an undercover Discord account established contact with Carroll and engaged in conversation about child sexual exploitation. The undercover officer posed as a father of a nine-year-old boy who was interested in sexually exploiting his child. Carroll provided suggestions for acts the "father" might commit. Reaction in this thread is, as you would expect, a mix of shock and anger. Many posters have children who were exposed to Carroll over the years and are desperately trying to ensure that their children were safe. Many are outraged at the continual flow of scandals involving private schools, not just Carroll and Toth but a number of others as well.

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