Earlier this year, Jon White, an elementary school teacher in Illinois, was sentenced to a total of 60 years in prison for the sexual games he played with girls at two different schools.
June 15, 2008 - The News-Gazette reporter Amy F. Reiter followed up on "The arrest – and what has happened since"
The story is part of a Special Section where the reporter has tracked the case. It's shows how two parents could be completely ignored and only the persistence of one mother talking to another teacher at a party made the difference. The woman she talked to at that party was the wife of a police officer. The next day, Jon White was being investigated.
See Experts: overly cautious about suspicions
How Urbana and McLean Unit 5 school districts dealt with Jon White is not unique.No charges have been filed against any school district employees.
There tend to be patterns in how schools respond to suspicions of child sexual abuse, said Charol Shakeshaft, a Virginia Commonwealth University educational leadership professor and author of a 2004 U.S. Department of Education paper on educator sexual misconduct.
Administrators might move a staff member to another school, "thinking, well, they don't know if the allegations are true," said Shakeshaft, who is not familiar with the White case.
Or, she said, if they believe suspicions might be true, "They say to the person, 'If you resign, we won't say anything. Just move on.'"
Or they might fire the person but let him or her keep a teaching certificate. "Therefore, the person can go on to another job," she said.
Even without the teaching certificate, she said, teachers may be able to work at a private school or by getting certified in another state.
By following mandated reporting laws, child sexual predators may be stopped from working in schools permanently.
See Mandated Reporting Q&A at the story.
TT entry for White.
TT entry for legislation
