Continuing
to explore the realm of our education system in New York, I decided to discuss
the unfortunate events of sexual abuse that have been occurring in our schools.
I began my research looking at the accounts that have already been made to
known to us. From there, another article about another 30 year old school aide who
abused fourth grade girls has emerged and one more from Darryl Lynch who was
arrested for touching a 14 year old girl as well. According to the Wall Street
Journal, the 30yr old, Brett Picou, was “the fifth school employee accused of
sexually abusing children in recent weeks.”
In the same
incident, one of the victims said,
"I'm a little girl, you are not supposed to do that to me,"
and in reply Picou said “"Oh,
it's like that," and did not apologize.” In
this particular case, Picou was not found to ever have had any
previous physical or sexual cases or crimes against him in his file. So in this
case, Chancellor Dennis Walcott’s vow to investigate any and all substantiated
cases of misconduct dating to 2000 would not help since this just seems like a
freak accident where a new offender emerged. Thankfully a victim reported the
incident to the principal and the police were notified.
However, in
another incident with another offender, Wilbert Cortez who abused 2 boys, I was
appalled to learn that the notification process with police took even longer
due to incompetency of other teachers. I read the entire investigation report
written on the case and to my utter dismay, when one of the victims in this
story informed another teacher that he was touched inappropriately by Cortez, “the
teacher offered to sit down with the boy and Cortez to “straighten things out.”
Not surprisingly, [the child] declined the solution and suggested that he stop
attending Cortez’s class. However, [the teacher] said that the boy had to go to
computer class.” Mind you, this all transpired after the 3RD
incident between the same boy and Cortez.
The failure of this teacher to
inform an official or an authority allowed for other abuses to be committed to
other students. This to me was the most frustrating. As in a court case called Franklin
v. Gwinnet County (1992) under teacher and student personal interactions,
the ruling did include that damages may be recovered if “an official of the school district who at a minimum
has the authority to institute corrective measures on the district’s behalf has
actual notice of, and is deliberately indifferent to, the teacher’s misconduct.”
http://www.cepi.vcu.edu/newsletter/2010-2011/2011-January-Teacher-Dismissal-For-Unprofessional-Conduct.html.
However, no action was taken against the teacher whom the boy had tried to
contact for help and instead suggested a measure that was further traumatizing
to the victim.
The horrors that this student
and others like him may have been subject to have the possibility of being
prolonged due to incompetent teachers who do not report an incident once it
happens and is not held accountable for the consequences when these events emerge.
While Chancellor Walcott’s attempt to stop the abuses by terminating all the
teachers who may have had substantiated cases of misconduct from the year 2000
may be helpful, it would not have helped in the case of Brett Picou or Wilbert Cortez.
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