Worcester, MASSACHUSETTS

An in-vehicle"counseling" arrest.

April 3, 2008 - Tyrone Forbes, 49, an elementary school music teacher at the Seven Hills Charter School and a pastor at the Mount Sinia Church of God in Christ, was arrested and charged with seven counts of statutory rape for a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy.

A police officer on routine patrol spotted a pickup truck parked in the closed Bennett Field parking lot on Main Street about 1:30 a.m. Thursday. He questioned why they were at the field in the early-morning hours. During the interview, it was determined that the boy was 15 years old and had allegedly been involved in a sexual relationship with Forbes since late last year.

Police said Forbes is an acquaintance of the teen’s family.

NOT GUILTY PLEA May 15 - Forbes pleaded not guilty to three counts of unnatural statutory rape of a child. Forbes was indicted April 25.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph J. Reilly III said at the time of Mr. Forbes’ April 3 arraignment in Central District Court that the suspect had acted as a “mentor” for the boy, who attended the same church. He said church members acquired information leading them to question Mr. Forbes’ relationship with the youth and the teenager was advised to have no further contact with the teacher.

The case has been continued to June 6.

GUILTY PLEA & SENTENCING October 24, 2008 - Forbes pleaded guilty today to child rape charges. He was sentenced (sorta) to two concurrent terms of 2 1/2 years in the House of Correction with 18 months to serve and the balance suspended for three years. The judge also placed Mr. Forbes on probation for three years and ordered him to register as a sex offender.

He must also enter into treatment and to submit to GPS monitoring, according to court records. The District Attorney's office had recommended he serve the entire 2 1/2 years.
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TT - The lowercase judge (one undeserving of the honorific capitalization of his title) was Judge Mary-Lou Rup who, apparently, thinks it's perfectly all right for a 49-year-old man to have sex with a 15-year-old boy. Her profile can be found here. Mary-Lou has been singled out before in this blog for her odd idea of justice. But that could be because the child pornographer was a teachers' union president.

Gloucester, MASSACHUSETTS

The "Pregnancy Pact" Principal resigned in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

August 13, 2008 - The Gloucester High School Principal who was the source of a Time magazine that claimed that the multiple pregnancies of teenage girls at the school were the result of deliberate and intentional "pact" has resigned.

He cited lack of support by the Mayor and the School Superintendent for his decision.
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Previous coverage here.

Short version: Time magazine was there to support the position that schools should prescribe contraceptives regardless of parental consent. It was a policy advocated by the school clinic's medical director and nurse practioner. The practioner and the pediatrician who was the school medical director both resigned in May in protest when the notion was "met with hostility." (Says Mayor Carolyn Kirk: "Dr. Orr and Ms. Daly have no right to decide this for our children.")

The school nurse practitioner performed 150 pregnancy tests, apparently on the same seven or eight girls. Seventeen girls in the High School became pregnant. The school principal stands by his contention that the students formed a pact to become pregnant.

Utterly ignored by the media is the fact that no parents were alerted to the promiscuous behavior and no educational programs - it's a school, for God's sake - were adopted to stem the soaring unwed teenage pregnancy rate. What are schools for if not to educate trashy students on acceptable behavior? Excuse me, but when a pediatrician wants a school to prescribe birth control pills without parental consent, what do you think students think the school attitude is?

What use are schools who do not teach even basic decency? Come to think of it, what good are newspapers and a media that thinks that this is just a sensational story?

Winchester, MASSACHUSETTS

NEWS BRIEF

July 3, 2008 - A 27-year-old special education teacher's aide at a middle school attempted to lure a 13-year-old girl into the woods and into his hot tub for "naughty things." He told her that she must earn his trust and not tell anyone about what happened or he would kill her.

He's the son of the school's principal. Entry for Christopher French

Wareham, MASSACHUSETTS

July 2, 2008 - Thomas Gabriel Jr., 24, a popular Wareham High School track coach, was charged with an armed home invasion last week.

According to Dartmouth police, Mr. Gabriel and his cousin, Chris Gabriel, 23, also of Wareham, entered the Dartmouth residence June 27, pointed a loaded handgun at the homeowner's head and threatened to shoot him.

After being arrested, Thomas Gabriel told police he had gone to the residence to order the homeowner to stop selling drugs to youths in Wareham. He admitted carrying a loaded firearm but said it was in his pants pocket the entire time.

For the second consecutive day, Mr. Gabriel's relatives and friends packed the courtroom. Two co-workers testified during the dangerousness hearing the defendant was a well-respected and courteous teacher and coach.

"He's an exceptional, caring person," said Anne Marie Zine, a Wareham High School teacher.

"He's a good kid," said Jeanine Alexander, a teacher's assistant. "Tommy Gabriel always went out of his way to help others."

Assistant District Attorney Paul Machado argued the defendant's popularity did not change the fact that he went to the Dartmouth home armed with a loaded firearm, wearing a mask over his face, and threatened the homeowner.

July 1 - Track coach accused of attempted armed robbery
The homeowner called 911 and reported a masked man with a gun had entered his home and demanded money. The caller said the man held a gun to the his head and said he would shoot him if he did not hand over all of his money. Police stopped a man who fit the description near the home. He was identified as Tom Gabriel Jr.

Police said the officers noticed what appeared to be the imprint of a gun in one of Gabriel’s pants pockets. He was ordered to the ground and searched. They found a loaded Sig Sauer P232 semi-automatic in his pocket.

He was charged with home invasion, armed assault in a dwelling, attempt to commit a crime (robbery), threat to commit murder, breaking and entering daytime while armed and conspiracy. Police identified a second suspect who they believe drove the getaway car, which has since been identified as being registered to Gabriel.

Winchester, MASSACHUSETTS

Principal's son arrested.

July 1, 2008 - Christopher French, 27, special education teacher's assistant at the McCall Middle School, was charged with using online conversations in a failed effort to entice a 13-year-old female student into having sex.

French was arraigned yesterday in Woburn District Court, where he pleaded not guilty to one count of child enticement and was released on $5,000 cash bail. He is due back in court on Aug. 8 for a pre-trial hearing.
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Not mentioned in the Boston Globe story is that French is the son of school principal, Evander French Jr., 65.
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June 30 - Boston Herald: French was arrested Saturday afternoon at his father’s home on Hollywood Road after authorities obtained “evidence” while executing a search warrant there, according to Winchester police, who seized “additional evidence” yesterday and are anticipating doing a third search of the house French shares with family.

June 30 - Winchester Star: According to a press release issued by Albertelli on Monday, information came to the attention of the police department on Thursday, June 26, “which after consultation with the District Attorney’s Office led to the issuance of a search warrant.”

“We believe that the defendant, through e-mail and text messages and other
Internet means, contacted the victim to entice her to meet him for the purposes
of sexual activity,” said Police Chief Ken Albertelli.

French has been employed full-time at the McCall School since September 2006.

July 3 - Police began their investigation when the girl's sister reported the allegations. The older sister handed police several detailed e-mail exchanges. The fairly explicit exchanges were contained within the police report that was used as probable cause when police secured their first search warrant.

French also allegedly sent an e-mail survey to the girl asking sexually explicit questions and possibly drove by her home several times.

“French had asked her a few times recently to get into his hot tub and he said naughty things happen in his hot tub,” police wrote in their report. “But he did tell (the girl) that she must earn his trust and not tell anyone about what happened or he would kill her.”

The girl didn't believe he would hurt her. He asked her to meet him in the woods near their homes. Some of the interaction between French and the girl took place on French’s Myspace account, according to the report. Both French’s Myspace account and Facebook account have since been deleted.

INDICTED October 30 - French was indicted on charges of child rape, child enticement, posing a child in a state of nudity, disseminating visual material of a child in a state of nudity, possession of child pornography and dissemination of matter harmful to minors charges. No mention in the story that he is the son of the school principal.

Mandatory Reporting

Good point.

June 25, 2008 - Jill Stanek at WorldNet Daily on "What media ignore about teen pregnancy pact" makes the point that Principal Joseph Sullivan, the supposed source of the quote in Time magazine article, didn't inform the Massachusetts Department of Social Services of a case of suspected sex abuse.

Sullivan was mandated to report the pregnancies of any of his 17 students under age 16, since pregnancy is evidence a crime may have been committed. The school nurse who distributed 150 pregnancy tests since the beginning of the school year, is also a mandated reporter. A request for a pregnancy test by a girl under 16 is demonstration she may be the victim of sexual abuse.
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TT - entry on the Pregnancy Pact that might not have been.

Gloucester, MASSACHUSETTS

Remember that "Pregnancy Pact" by girls in Gloucester, Massachusetts, first reported in Time magazine? It's looking more and more like it wasn't.

June 23, 2008 - From the New York Times:

Doubt was also expressed by the local newspaper that had been covering the surge in pregnancies long before Time. Patrick Anderson, the lead reporter on the story for The Gloucester Daily Times, told Editor & Publisher that “the idea of the pact is not something we had reported and not something we have found.” The new element, he said, “took an already unusual story and turned it into something operatic.”

Time magazine updated their original story.(Also from New York Times article.)

Update, 6:15 p.m. Time magazine’s reporter, Kathleen Kingsbury, published an update to her story today. She includes the original quotes from the principal, who unequivocally said, “They made a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together.” And she concludes with this thought:
So did the girls make a formal pact to get pregnant together or not? Without comment from any of the pregnant students themselves, it may be impossible to determine exactly what they agreed to, and when. So far, the only school official to use the word “pact” is Sullivan, who reportedly now says he does not recall who told him about the pact in the first place. But what does seem clear based on TIME’s reporting is that some of the girls in question did at least discuss the idea of getting pregnant at the same time, and that too little was done to educate the girls on the potential ramifications of that choice.

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TT - The original Time magazine story was less about a so-called "pregnancy pact" than about access to birth control.

But by May, after nurse practitioner Kim Daly had administered some 150 pregnancy tests at Gloucester High's student clinic, she and the clinic's medical director, Dr. Brian Orr, a local pediatrician, began to advocate prescribing contraceptives regardless of parental consent, a practice at about 15 public high schools in Massachusetts.

The Time article said, "but the notion of a school handing out birth control pills has met with hostility." Says Mayor Carolyn Kirk: "Dr. Orr and Ms. Daly have no right to decide this for our children." The pair resigned "in protest" on May 30. The "controversy" divided "this fiercely Catholic enclave."

TT - The pregnancy tests were, apparently, given repeatedly to the same seven or eight girls.

June 25 - Jill Stanek at WorldNet Daily makes the point that that Principal Joseph Sullivan, the supposed source of the quote in Time magazine article, didn't inform the Massachusetts Department of Social Services of a case of suspected sex abuse. And the nurse didn't either.

Quincy, MASSACHUSETTS

Crack is illegal. Cocaine might even be respectable in some places. Depends on who you are.

June 20, 2008 - When police saw a drug dealer stop at an apartment, a woman came outside and got in the truck. A few minutes later, she returned to her apartment. The police followed the known drug dealer after he left the apartment, stopping him and arresting him on multiple drug charges after finding cash and cocaine in his truck.

When police returned to the apartment, the woman turned over a bag of cocaine. She told police that she bought the drugs from the dealer for $50.

“When the officers went back to the apartment she was under no obligation to even respond,” said Quincy Police Chief Robert Crowley. “She cooperated fully. It bolstered (detectives’) case against the individual they arrested in Braintree. She had no criminal record and the officers at the scene at that time decided not to charge her.”

She was a first-grade teacher.

The police chief notified the school superintendent. The district put her on paid administrative leave while school officials worked with police to learn more about the situation. About a week and a half later, they issued a notice of their intent to fire her. She then resigned.

The school district notified the state Department of Education. Parents were not notified.

Cambridge, MASSACHUSETTS

When a gay activist complains about sexual abuse by a priest, the media respond like cocaine addicts to a line of white powder on a tabletop mirror. It's another story when students have their own tales of abuse.

June 8, 2008 - Daniel Weinreb is the lone protestor outside of Buckingham, Brown & Nichols, the exclusive Cambridge, MA, school.

He wants school administrators to openly acknowledge and investigate the sexual abuse he and others endured more than a decade ago at the hands of former teacher Edward "Ted" Washburn. The school doesn't need to fear lawsuits. The statute of limitations has long since run out.

Weintraub was 13 when he says Washburn asked him to perform a sexual act as he watched. Washburn pleaded guilty to raping his own nephew in 1987. Weintraub testified about his own abuse at the hands of Washburn at the trial. The educator was given a suspended sentence, ordered to continue psychotherapy, do 1,000 hours of community service, and stay away from boys age 16 and under.

It was a huge scandal. Washburn's father was the late Bradford Washburn, well-known explorer and director emeritus of the Boston Museum of Science.

Weintraub wants the school to improve efforts to find out if other students were victimized by Washburn, communicate with alumni about those efforts, and offer possible victims a weekend retreat with counseling.
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TT - Not mentioned in the article was Weintraub's website Opening BB Minds where he is trying to get in touch with other alumni and other victims. He posts their testimonials as well as letters from former faculty members.

At TT, we have a category called "Delayed Justice" for those students who have the maturity, determination and the courage to confront their abusers. Even if the abusers spend 50 hours behind bars after their conviction, it is a victory for the victim to have the truth established.

Because if we fail to do establish truth, we can find no solutions and justice becomes a whim.

Teachers have been having sex with students for a long time without recognition of the scale of the problem. In 2001, it was not difficult to find a news story a day about sexual abuse by an educator. That was when far fewer newspapers were online. Even today, we estimate that we only get 10-15% of the stories.

We know that because we visit teacher licensing boards and Boards of Education and local school boards where disciplinary actions include revocation or surrender of a license by a teacher and the surrender is not due to conviction, but is still listed as sexual misconduct with a student. That's because the age of consent is 16 in most states and teacher-student sex has been criminalized in slightly more than half the states.

Most states do not list their disciplinary actions against teacher licenses online, although states like New York list actions against 38 other professions. Educrats don't want the public to know.

Or other states.

When a Florida newspaper filed a public records request for a copy of the NASDTEC database, they summarized the Clearinghouse database of those teachers whose disciplinary actions were reported to the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification. The database has been cited for decades as the means of assuring that teachers who lost their licenses in one state would not work in other states. New York had about the same number as South Carolina - 897 and 896. In 27 years.

Until every state posts disciplinary actions against teachers' licenses, as does Florida and a few others, parents can't know and won't know about the problem because it isn't a hot button media issue. You can readily see the difference in the number of stories out of Florida. This isn't because they have the most sexually active teachers. It's because of the Saratoga Herald-Tribune series raised awareness to the level where administrators are fearful of not reporting.

The quietly-negotiated surrender keeps the teacher out of the classroom, but it does nothing to help illuminate the problem so we can find a solution, so that we can get on with fighting a battle to make educrats accountable for the billions they spend every year.

And it delays the hopes of every parent for a decent education for the child, one that they thought they were paying for.

Hull, MASSACHUSETTS

He was supposed to serve as a aquatics director this summer at a summer camp for children aged 5 to pre-teens. Seriously creepy.

June 5, 2008 - Russell Goyette, 61, the former principal (2002-2004) at Hull High School and a longtime teacher, was arrested on possession of child pornography charges after a grand jury indicted him Wednesday.

Police received a tip more than a year ago that Goyette had child pornography on his home computer. They applied for a search warrant in June 2007 and referred the case to the state Attorney General’s office in February. Prosecutors say a search of Goyette’s personal computer netted more than 4,500 images of children engaged in sex acts with adults and other children.

Assistant Attorney General Anne Yas said Goyette had viewed the images as early as 1999, while he was still head of Hull High School, and had categorized the smut by “sexual fetish.” She called the kiddie porn images “graphic and very disturbing.”

The anonymous tip was from a former girlfriend who found the images on his personal computer that he left behind when he moved out last year.

Compare the picture at this story with this picture.
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See our Link to Teachers and Child Pornography at the right.

Aggravated child rape

House passes aggravated child rape bill.

June 5, 2008 - Even in ultra-liberal Massachusetts where there is no mandatory minimum for child rape, the House approved on a 145-3 vote a bill that would create the new crimes of aggravated child rape when a weapon is used, when the victim is drugged or when the perpetrator is in a position of authority such as a teacher, coach or clergy, and impose a mandatory 10-year sentence for first offenses.

It took two years on the part of State Rep. Karyn E. Polito, R-Shrewsbury to get even that concession. During the budget she forced the issue to get a commitment that it would come out of committee so that tougher sentencing for crimes against children would be debated. Democrats rejected her arguments to impose a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence for rape of a child with force.

Boston, MASSACHUSETTS

May 22, 2008 - In Massachusetts, US Senators Edward M. Kennedy and then-Senator John F. Kerry filed legislation that would have made Fenway High School teacher Obain Attouoman a resident. The legislation delayed Attouoman's deportation, but the bill expired last year because Congress never acted on it.

Attouoman came to America on an exchange visa in the early 1990s and reportedly sought political asylum. Along the way, though, he misread a notice in which he was given a court hearing date to argue his case, leading a judge to order his deportation.

[TT - We're guessing the source of that paragraph is his attorney. A 2005 article was a little more candid.

Attouoman's fight to stay in the country started in 2001, when he missed an asylum hearing before an immigration judge because he misread the date. A judge ordered him deported to his native Ivory Coast, and he lost two appeals.

Attouoman was deported Wednesday.

Northampton, MASSACHUSETTS

Feb 16, 2007 - Edgar Selavka, 48, an assistant teacher at the Center for Early Childhood Education at Smith College, was indicted on 11 counts of possession of child pornography.

Selvaka reported his backpack was stolen from Edwards Church, where he was director of Christian education. The backpack and contents were found in the stall of a men's restroom in town. The contents included "an array of collages with pictures of young girls, each labeled and placed in its own plastic container." Also found were Selavka's checkbook and car keys, according to police.
A few days later, Selavka turned himself in and was arrested.

Selavka lived with his wife, their 7-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old foster daughter who was removed by the state Department of Social Services. A spokeswoman for the Social Services Department, said her agency continues to offer its support to Selavka's wife and believes that the 7-year-old daughter is safe with her mother.
Full Name: Edgar L. Selavka

UPDATE Feb 22 - A judge rejected the prosecution request to have Selavka wear a device that monitors his location at all times. Selavka pleaded innocent yesterday to the charges. He is now living with his parents, is unemployed, and is seeking treatment at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester.

UPDATE Feb 27 - A judge rejected monitoring device request for a second time.

UPDATE May 26 - No online updates, but from archives of the New Hampshire Gazette, Selavka was bailed out by his father ($5,000.) The judge ordered Selavka to continue counseling. A probation officer deemed him indigent. He has been unemployed since his arrest. His parents have taken on the defense expenses. He is living with his parents.

GUILTY PLEA April 23, 2008 - Selavka pleaded guilty today to 11 counts of possession of child pornography. Northwestern Assistant District Attorney Jane E. Mulqueen is seeking a sentence of one year in jail followed by seven years of probation. [TT - For child pornography that included two compact disks with additional images of children as young as 4 years old??!!]

Selavka will be allowed supervised visits with his 7-year-old biological daughter. Selavka and his wife also had a 3-year-old foster daughter, but she was removed from their Easthampton home by the state Department of Social Services. He will be sentenced in June.

[TT - At which time, one hopes the judge will reject the plea agreement and sentence him to hard time in prison, but it's Massachusetts so we don't hold out much hope. A one-year sentence is an insult to the children who were abused for his sexual gratification. The name of the judge is Judd J. Carhart.]

Child Pornography and Educators
TT - List sentenced for child pornography.
TT - List guilty but not yet sentenced for child pornography.

Teacher Quality

The Massachusetts Senate voted on a bill to allow even less-qualified teachers into classrooms.

April 4, 2008 - Voting records for week of March 31-April 4.

Senate 34-5, voted strictly along party lines, approved and sent to the House a bill allowing appeals by candidates who are applying to be teachers but have failed one of the teacher certification tests. All five GOP senators voted against the measure that allows a candidate who has failed a test three times but came very close to passing, to appeal his or her case to the Education Commissioner.

The bill is designed to allow these candidates to demonstrate sufficient knowledge and skills to compensate for failing a test. Supporters said that this would simply allow a candidate who meets a myriad of other qualifications to appeal a test score that is only a few points away from passing. They noted that the test scoring system is a complicated one that is based on a curve that is often unfair to some candidates. Some argued that this appeal process would increase the number of teachers who are certified.

Opponents said that the bill is outrageous and gives candidates who have failed a test a backdoor route into the important teaching profession. They argued that the state should not waive requirements for potential teachers who are entrusted with the education of our children. Opponents also offered a series of amendments to set up the same appeal process for candidates taking tests to qualify to be licensed in a variety of professions including accountant, architect, dentist, nurse and psychologist. They noted that they were trying to make a point about the silliness of the teacher bill. All the amendments were defeated on voice votes without a roll call.

A “Yes” vote is for the bill allowing the appeal process for teacher candidates. A No” vote is against the appeal process.

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TT - Dumbing down education and educators. It's a political game. As one poster put it at the story:

Senate 34-5, voted strictly along party lines
House 155-0, Senate 39-0
Senate 39-0, approved and sent to Gov. Patrick .....
The House gave initial approval ......
The House gave initial approval to a bill requiring ......

voted along party lines? What party? Communist Party?
Where is the debate in all this that there is such unanimity?
Democracy is dead in Massachusetts and the liberals accuse
George Bush of saying...my way or the highway....hmmmm

But this is KK Klan country...Kennedy/Kerrey Klan and everyone is
saying ....huhhhh?

Foxboro, MASSACHUSETTS

COMMENT OF THE DAY

I had mr woodward several times, and he was always the man. If he simply looked at some porn, let him be. give him 2 years and some probation.If my child were going to be molested, id be honored for it to be Mr. Woodward

- Comment at TT entry for Gregg Woodward, Foxboro High School teacher who was arrested on charges of possessing child pornography.

Foxboro, MASSACHUSETTS

March 31, 2008 -
Gregg Woodward, 45, a Foxboro High School English teacher, was arrested and charged today for possession of child pornography.

The FBI notified local police on Friday. Woodward was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Worcester. Woodward is advisor to the school literary magazine and past advisor to the National Honor Society. He has been suspended without pay.

U.S. Attorney's Office Press Release (dated March 31, 2008)

Agents assigned to the FBI, Innocent Images Unit (IIU) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Cyber Crimes Unit, have been conducting undercover transactions in an effort to identify and gain access to websites purportedly distributing child pornography.

According to the affidavit in support of the arrest warrant, such undercover transactions, revealed that WOODWARD allegedly purchased access to at least two websites that distribute child pornography, "The Sick Child Room," and, “RH Collection.” He allegedly purchased a thirty day subscription to The Sick Child Room on June 21, 2007, and paid $99.95, and on March 16, 2007, he purchased access to RH Collection, paying $94.95 for a thirty day subscription.

He is scheduled for a probable cause and detention hearing on April 2, 2008.

PSYCHIATRIC EVALUATION ORDERED April 3 - U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Hillman ordered Gregg Woodward temporarily released, conditional on immediately seeking admission to the psychiatric unit at St. Vincent's Hospital in Worcester or another hospital. He must surrender immediately to U.S. marshals upon his release from the hospital, or if no hospitals admit him, after which he will face a detention hearing.

Lawrence, MASSACHUSETTS

SCHOOL DISTRICT STORY OF THE DAY
Such districts are poverty traps.

March 29, 2008 - Police are asking why they were not notified by the school when a 12-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a classmate. Police only learned of the assault five days later when the father brought his daughter to the police.

The state's mandatory reporting law requires that teachers and school officials report possible abuse of children. Assistant Superintendent Mary Lou Bergeron confirmed that the School Department is conducting its own internal investigation as to why police weren't notified about the incident that happened before the Easter break.

"It was reported by the teacher (to the assistant principal) and some how or another the communication didn't get followed through. ... That's our standing protocol, that we report it immediately. Our initial contact with police is the school resource officer," she said.

The school principal did not find out until Monday when the father came to the school. When he asked school officials about what they planned to do, the father said he was told the student would receive a suspension. When he pressed what other action would be taken, he said school officials told him that his daughter could be transferred to another class or to a different school.

The 13-year-old boy reached over to the girl's shirt and pulled the top of it out and then looked down her shirt. The girl told police she heard a the teacher telling him "to stop doing that," police said. The teacher denies that he witnessed the incident.

PREVIOUS INCIDENT

This is the second case in recent weeks of an alleged sexual assault of a 12-year-old female student on school grounds.

Two Frost School students were arrested late last month on charges of pushing a female classmate into a school closet and fondling her. A 12-year-old boy was charged with indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. A 13-year-old boy was charged with assault and battery and battery on a child under 14.

WHAT WE FOUND

South Lawrence East Middle School Rates a 1 (out of 10) at Greatschools.net The school, like many in Lawrence, is 81% HISPANIC. The district spends $13,190 per student, compared to a state average of $11,642 for test scores results where only 14% of fifth-graders are proficient in math. Statewide is 51%. (Proficiency isn't a whiz bang performance. It means at grade level.) It gets worse by grade 7 and 8, dropping to 12% and 11%. Lawrence Rates 2 overall for their schools.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education information on the school is bleak. The Hispanic school population has risen to 85% in the current school year. Graphs

PAYING MORE FOR LESS The average teacher salary was $56,282 in 2006. (Found at bottom of information page.) A new contract with teachers signed last month granted them an 8% raise.

Under the current contract, teachers in Lawrence earn a basic salary of $37,000 annually. Those with a master's degree and four years of experience earn $46,229. A step 10 teacher with a master's degree makes $63,514, and the salary increases to $70,000 for a teacher with a doctorate.

Look at the size of their budget at the story. The school district is " the largest employing agency in the city with just under 2,200." (Found in nepotism story.) Not unsuprisingly, the school does not offer school choice.

SCHOOL DEMOGRAPHICS Standard & Poors School Matters on the 2007 school demographics indicates that while 86.4% are economically disadvantaged, only 14.6% are classified as language learners. In other words, language or lack of English is not the problem.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE The elected school committee (same as school board elsewhere) has a website that is not current. There are no school agendas or school committee meeting minutes there or at the Lawrence city website.

Lawrence, Massachusetts entry at Wikipedia explains the immigrant population. See Troubles of the 1980s and 1990s.
Category OOI - Our Own Investigation
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MANDATORY REPORTING Readers might recall a 2004 story when two boys in Columbus, Ohio forced a girl, who was developmentally disabled, to perform oral sex in the school's auditorium. The story made national headlines for days. Less well covered was the fact that the school principal was subsequently tried for failing to report a sexual assault and found not guilty, but it took another three years to fire her. TT entry for Regina Crenshaw.

Few teachers or administrators are ever prosecuted for failure to report as required by law. It's hardly worth the effort as it is a misdemeanor and no teacher or administrator that we know of has lost a license for it.

See our links for Mandatory Reporting requirements.

Middleborough, MASSACHUSETTS

“A kid was brutally tortured because [the school district] didn’t notify police,” Russell said. “The terror that went on in this kid’s life the last 13 days is unthinkable.”

March 22, 2008 - Police Chief Gary J. Russell says he holds school officials partly responsible for failing to notify police about a child who reported being burned with a cigarette.

When a boy reported abuse to a teacher at Memorial Early Childhood Center on March 4, the police were never notified. He remained in the home for nearly two more weeks in what authorities say was a severely abusive situation.

“He was sent home to be tortured another 13 days that he didn’t have to be,” Russell said. “He’s lucky to be alive.”

The Department of Social Services also failed to notify police immediately. They acknowledged their failure. The school superintendent, however, said they had followed normal procedures.

The School Department has a “memorandum of understanding” with the police that outlines the types of situations in which the schools agree to notify police, Sullivan said.

But the agreement does not include a procedure for notifying police about allegations of child abuse off school grounds. It doesn’t address “caretaker abuse” in any way, [School Superintendent Robert M.] Sullivan said.

The police chief was blunt.

The School Department’s approach, Russell contended, has often been to handle issues in house, without police intervention. This has long made him “uncomfortable,” he said.

The chief said Sullivan can not hide behind the language of the memorandum of understanding. “There’s nothing that says they can’t notify the police,” Russell said.

---------------------------------
BACKGROUND
In December, a school nurse said she notified DSS of possible abuse when the boy told her Privette hit him with a belt. He began to cry and told Johnson, “I don’t want no more whippings,” according to the report.

On March 4, the school nurse said she had noticed abrasions and bruising on the boy’s back. Again, she did not call police, but she said she notified DSS of possible abuse.

On March 17, the boy showed a school nurse and the school principal several marks on his body including burn marks on his pelvic area and buttocks, according to the police report. The marks include one on each side of his penis and one on his buttocks, the police report stated. The burns were seven to ten days old when he showed them to the school principal.

APOLOGY March 25 - Before Selectmen, Superintendent of Schools Robert Sullivan read a prepared apology to a 7-year-old Middleboro student for the school system’s delay in acting upon the abuse the boy reported to the school.

Sullivan noted that the school staff “met all legal requirements as a mandated reporter of child abuse under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 119, Section 51A.”

However, noting that DSS did not take immediate action to report the abuse to the District Attorney’s Office and the Middleboro Police Department, Sullivan said “it is clear that compliance with our legal requirements as mandated reporter was not enough in this case. The system failed our young student.”

The police chief also spoke.

Dr. Sullivan has never to my knowledge kept information from the Police Department. Past administrations have and that is what made me very uncomfortable.”

Sharon, MASSACHUSETTS

March 21, 2008 - Andrew Merck, 32, Sharon Middle School math teacher was convicted of two counts of open and gross lewdness by a jury that found him guilty of twice stripping and touching himself, as well as urging a developmentally disabled man to disrobe himself.

The victim was in his twenties and not connected to the school.

Merck was sentenced by Judge Mary Hogan Sullivan 2 years in jail, with one year to be served, and the balance suspended for 5 years. On the second count, Merck was sentenced to five years of probation after serving his jail sentence. With the conviction, he cannot work with children for five years after he is released from jail. He also must register as a sex offender.

Merck is a graduate for Framingham State College, according to a 2003 Mathematics Department newsletter.
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July 1 - Merk's family sent a letter to every member of the House of Representatives "alleging the misconduct" on the part of State Rep. Lida Harkins, D-Needham, who was a neighbor of the victim.

Merck’s parents said they are not accusing Harkins of any wrongdoing, just posing some questions, after learning during testimony that the victim knew and lived near Harkins.

“We’re not accusing her; we’re just saying there were a lot of irregularities,” said John Merck, Andrew Merck’s father.

State Rep. Lida Harkins, D-Needham, vehemently denied allegations that she unduly influenced a criminal case in which her neighbor was the victim.

West Boylston, MASSACHUSETTS

Jan 21, 2008 - Scott Simoncini, a West Boylston Middle/High School teacher, was arrested Friday and charged with distributing material harmful to minors over the Internet. The arrest was made by State police. No other details available. Simoncini is expected to be arraigned tomorrow.

ARRAIGNMENT Jan 22 - Simoncini was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to charges he distributed material harmful to a minor and tried to entice a minor over the Internet. He faces five counts of disseminating obscene matter to a minor and two counts of attempting to commit a crime (enticement of a child under 16) for conversations he had with someone he believed to be a 14-year-old girl.

[His attorney said ]

Simoncini had no criminal contact with children “in the real world.” He called cyberspace “a fantasy world that bears no relation to reality.”

The case was continued to Feb. 14

Jan 27 - Dianne Williamson writes about Simoncini in "Trolling Web for teen sex is for Dummies."

[he] allegedly sent a series of photos of himself, some in the nude. And in keeping with the general brain power of these men, one of the photos found “cuteteacherguy29” sporting a West Boylston High baseball cap.

GUILTY PLEA & SENTENCING (sorta) March 20 - Simoncini pleaded guilty to disseminating harmful material to a minor and was sentenced to one-year sentence that was suspended. He was also sentenced to two years probation that includes GPS monitoring and ordered to give up teaching, not go into Internet chat rooms and not have unsupervised contact with children under 16.

TT - We call it "Bargains" when a teacher is allowed to use their teaching license in plea negotiations, a consideration not given to any other citizen. The headline below seems to think so, too.

West Boylston teacher pleads guilty, gives up job in Internet case

Resigning the teaching job he has held for the past five years was a condition of the court accepting the guilty plea.

Another condition is that he register as a sex offender. He must also obtain counseling and wear a global positioning system ankle bracelet so that he can be tracked by the court probation department.

TT - Such people should be fired. F-I-R-E-D, not allowed to "give up" their teaching license. It ought to be automatic and instantaneous.