Alleged sex abuse case puts spotlight on incident reports in Prince George’s schools (Beltsville: transfer)

[UrbanScholar]

Its a shame that there is not a clear and unbiased method to filter/identify potential pedophiles. This guy was sexually assaulting this young lady for 10 months before it was discovered and it took them 5 more months to finally arrest him. The most troubling part of this was that he was suddenly transferred to another school for this school year for no apparrent reason. That action infers that there may have been some awareness of what was happening and, like schools across the country do far too often, they kicked the can down the road hoping that it would go away. One of the things that I have found when dealing with public schools in the area (PG is not the only one but definitely amoung the top culprits) is that their administrative execution is not the best and they are really really slow to act on some things (be it issues with students or staff). They are also not consistent with how they apply the policies put in place. Anyway it will be interesting to see how this issue plays out and what changes come about as a result.


Gazette.Net: Alleged sex abuse case puts spotlight on incident reports in Prince George’s schools

[justtitans]

Originally Posted by UrbanScholar

Its a shame that there is not a clear and unbiased method to filter/identify potential pedophiles. This guy was sexually assaulting this young lady for 10 months before it was discovered and it took them 5 more months to finally arrest him. The most troubling part of this was that he was suddenly transferred to another school for this school year for no apparrent reason. That action infers that there may have been some awareness of what was happening and, like schools across the country do far too often, they kicked the can down the road hoping that it would go away. One of the things that I have found when dealing with public schools in the area (PG is not the only one but definitely amoung the top culprits) is that their administrative execution is not the best and they are really really slow to act on some things (be it issues with students or staff). They are also not consistent with how they apply the policies put in place. Anyway it will be interesting to see how this issue plays out and what changes come about as a result.


Gazette.Net: Alleged sex abuse case puts spotlight on incident reports in Prince George’s schools

What I strongly dislike about PGCPS in situations like this, is they try to sweep things under the rug far too often. This is something that creates this culture of corruption because there is a lack of accountability. There have been other instances which included bullying. As a matter of fact, High Point High School had behavioral issues for a while and a stabbing incident happened, so rather than getting rid of the principal, what did they do?

Prince George's replaces High Point High principal after attack is shown on YouTube

Prince George's County school officials replaced the principal of High Point High School in Beltsville on Tuesday, days after a video of one of his students being attacked surfaced on the Internet.



Principal Michael Brooks wrote in an e-mail that he was "taking another position" in the school system and was not "removed" from the high school. School system officials said an assistant principal, Rebecca Garcia, will lead the school until they name Brooks's successor.

Or what about the principal who abpurtly left in the middle of the school year and this is all they said:

Middle school principal resigns after unexplained departure - Maryland Schools Insider - The Washington Post

Carter, who had been principal for the past five years, was placed on indefinite leave by officials several weeks ago.


Briant Coleman, a spokesman for the school system, said he could not comment on personnel issues when asked about the reason for Carter’s departure. He would only say that no children were involved in the decision to place the principal on leave.

I understand that there is only so much information that can be disclosed, but when you put someone on leave and he was still on the school payroll, I believe that an explanation of some type is warranted for parents. Perhaps by saying that this person has had an ethics violation or certification issues. At least some type of general explanation. Sure no kids may have been involved, but if he was doing something to another teacher that may have been compromising, is that fair for a parent to have to subject their child to that type of environment without any chance for parents to address the situation with their children?

What kind of culture has been created here and what is it going to take for it to stop?

[UrbanScholar]

Originally Posted by pgtitans

What I strongly dislike about PGCPS in situations like this, is they try to sweep things under the rug far too often. This is something that creates this culture of corruption because there is a lack of accountability. There have been other instances which included bullying. As a matter of fact, High Point High School had behavioral issues for a while and a stabbing incident happened, so rather than getting rid of the principal, what did they do?

Prince George's replaces High Point High principal after attack is shown on YouTube
Or what about the principal who abpurtly left in the middle of the school year and this is all they said:

Middle school principal resigns after unexplained departure - Maryland Schools Insider - The Washington Post

I understand that there is only so much information that can be disclosed, but when you put someone on leave and he was still on the school payroll, I believe that an explanation of some type is warranted for parents. Perhaps by saying that this person has had an ethics violation or certification issues. At least some type of general explanation. Sure no kids may have been involved, but if he was doing something to another teacher that may have been compromising, is that fair for a parent to have to subject their child to that type of environment without any chance for parents to address the situation with their children?

What kind of culture has been created here and what is it going to take for it to stop?

I agree. Sure there needs to be due process when an allegation is made (sometimes the accuser may not be as forthright as they should be) however, in the case of a school related incident, the safety of the children and the school staff should be paramount. That said, sweeping it under the rug is an unexcusable practice and, like you said, can lead to a manipulation of the system. If PG wants to change its reputation, that and transparency needs to be the first changes in policies that they need to address. Also, was it just me or did Burroughs response to the media a rehash of a previous statement regarding a similar incident. If so, why is the board always providing lip service instead of actually tackling the change in policy or enforcing the ones on the books.

[justtitans]

Originally Posted by UrbanScholar

I agree. Sure there needs to be due process when an allegation is made (sometimes the accuser may not be as forthright as they should be) however, in the case of a school related incident, the safety of the children and the school staff should be paramount. That said, sweeping it under the rug is an unexcusable practice and, like you said, can lead to a manipulation of the system. If PG wants to change its reputation, that and transparency needs to be the first changes in policies that they need to address. Also, was it just me or did Burroughs response to the media a rehash of a previous statement regarding a similar incident. If so, why is the board always providing lip service instead of actually tackling the change in policy or enforcing the ones on the books.

I honestly think they are trying to reign him in so to speak. I don't know if you heard about this, but we had a discussion in another thread about how he tried to go to a school in Rosalind Johnson's district because of on going violence (I actually think it was High Point, ironically), and the parents that were complaining about the violence said that basically Johnson's response was nonexistent so they contacted Burroughs knowing that he would do something. At that point he apparently violated some terms as a board member, Hite brought him in to interrogate him and he was threatened to be censured. Seems kind of unfair, but I think they don't want him to be the renegade board member that actually get things done, so he is probably attempting to stay in his lane. Either way, his response does seem very generic and unproductive.

[UrbanScholar]

Originally Posted by pgtitans

I honestly think they are trying to reign him in so to speak. I don't know if you heard about this, but we had a discussion in another thread about how he tried to go to a school in Rosalind Johnson's district because of on going violence (I actually think it was High Point, ironically), and the parents that were complaining about the violence said that basically Johnson's response was nonexistent so they contacted Burroughs knowing that he would do something. At that point he apparently violated some terms as a board member, Hite brought him in to interrogate him and he was threatened to be censured. Seems kind of unfair, but I think they don't want him to be the renegade board member that actually get things done, so he is probably attempting to stay in his lane. Either way, his response does seem very generic and unproductive.

Yeah I remember that discussion and I agree the board is trying to adhere to the status quo (bad idea). I don't know what to say about that, on some level I agree with the thought that the board should be overhauled with new guidelines in place to ensure that they actually do something impactful to change the direction of the school system. After all, we are paying them.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by pgtitans

I honestly think they are trying to reign him in so to speak. I don't know if you heard about this, but we had a discussion in another thread about how he tried to go to a school in Rosalind Johnson's district because of on going violence (I actually think it was High Point, ironically), and the parents that were complaining about the violence said that basically Johnson's response was nonexistent so they contacted Burroughs knowing that he would do something. At that point he apparently violated some terms as a board member, Hite brought him in to interrogate him and he was threatened to be censured. Seems kind of unfair, but I think they don't want him to be the renegade board member that actually get things done, so he is probably attempting to stay in his lane. Either way, his response does seem very generic and unproductive.

Burroughs was censured in that instance and the censure was upheld by MSDE-the determination was that he overstepped his authority by visiting a school without the permission of the Superintendant.

I'm surprised they placed the teacher from the story in another school, SOP for the last almost 30 years I've been associated with PGCPS is to place the alleged offender in a non-contact with students place like at the Bonnie Johns Professional Library (teacher jail) or at one of the bus lots processing paperwork.

Please remember that allegations are just that, and students are sophisticated enough to know that filing false charges is a way to get back at a teacher (and yes, I've seen that happen).