Dayton, OHIO

Found guilty of attempted obstructing of official business for interfering when school staff felt cases of child abuse and neglect needed to be reported to law officers.

Sentenced (sorta) to 6 months probation and 120 hrs of community service.

July 28, 2007 - Roseda Goff, 60, superintendent of City Day Community School, has been charged with attempted obstruction of official business for discouraging a teacher from reporting a case of child abuse involving a student.

Julie Bruns, chief of the juvenile division of the Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office, said the incident began with a child at the school who told a teacher the youth had been struck by the youth's mother and displayed injuries. The youth's gender was not made available.

The teacher, Bruns said, went to Goff for instruction.

"It is our belief that on that occasion, and on prior occasions, she has told teachers not to report suspected abuse even though she and all the teachers are mandated to report," Bruns said. "Those teachers, having a conscience, reported it anyway. She attempted to persuade them not to report it."

Ohio law requires teachers to report incidents of suspected child abuse to authorities.

The charter school was on probation for test examination improprieties. An investigation by the Dayton Daily News questioned the similarity of the questions on the actual exam with test exams given at the school.

The school, with about 170 students, jumped up two steps on the state’s rating scale from the lowest category of “academic emergency” to”continuous improvement” after huge gains in the percentage of students who passed the test.

A new governing board was installed and Goff was fired.

TRIAL Dec 1 - Goff is on trial for allegedly trying to discourage teachers from reporting child abuse. Judge Tony Capizzi said he will rule within 14 days. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. A teacher and her husband called Children Services to report child abuse of a student but only after asking two teachers to help. Both declined.

GUILTY VERDICT Dec 12 - A judge found Goff guilty of attempted obstructing of official business for interfering when school staff felt cases of child abuse and neglect needed to be reported to law officers. The charge is a third degree misdemeanor. Sentencing is scheduled for for Jan 9.

SENTENCED Jan 10, 2008 - Judge Tony Capizzi sentenced Goff to six months probation (the maximum allowable), a $500 fine and a 60-day suspended jail sentence. He also ordered her to do 120 hours of community service.

The Dayton Daily News reports that the judge also ordered her to surrender her teaching license.

"In many ways, you deserve to go to jail today," Capizzi told Goff.

Capizzi said he was irked that Goff told a probation officer that she still believed she was not guilty. Capizzi said it was only more than 30 years of teaching and a clean criminal record that saved her from going to jail.

"You have to be held accountable for what you did," Capizzi said. "You sat through a trial and heard witnesses testify and didn't listen to a word they said. You've gone home and spent the last month or so, again, in complete denial of what occurred."

Prosecutor Julie Bruns said the case should send a message to others who work with children.

"Do I think this is happening other places? You bet I do," she said.

At the trial, former City Day teachers testified that a student told them last April that her mother had beaten her. Educators in Ohio are required to report to law enforcement any suspicion of child abuse, but the teachers said Goff told them that was her decision. They said Goff called the girl a liar and sent her home without taking action. Capizzi said the girl was beaten again that night.