Who Defends the Children?
Read this first.
Democrat and Chronicle
When a 10-year-old Rochester boy accused teacher David Heil of sexually abusing him in 2000, the City School District referred the case to the state Education Department to determine whether Heil should keep his teaching license.
But school administrators decided they had no legal responsibility to file a report with Rochester police or a child abuse hotline, which would have triggered a criminal investigation.
The district’s top lawyer defended the decision in a hearing Tuesday that will help a judge decide whether he should throw out criminal charges against Heil, brought in October, more than six years after the abuse allegedly occurred.
General Counsel Michael J. Looby said the district wasn’t required under state law to notify law enforcement officials of the allegations because Heil wasn’t the boy’s classroom teacher and wasn’t legally responsible for him.
The district also concluded that the allegations lacked evidence to refer the case for possible criminal action, Looby said.
Under questioning by Monroe County Court Judge Alex R. Renzi, who asked pointedly whether the school district would report the alleged abuse if it occurred today, Looby was equivocal.
“I don’t think that we have to,” Looby said. “I think we probably would.”
Heil was eventually arrested. This hearing was to determine when the statute of limitations began, dating from the time that the school district learned of the charge, or if it began when the police learned. If the former, it has expired and Mr. Heil may not be able to be tried.
What the school district did was agree with the teachers’ union to move Heil to another school. A report to the NYS Education Department questioning his teacher’s certification was dropped by that agency because of this agreement.
Under state law, school officials are required to call a state hotline to report suspected abuse or neglect of children.
But during Tuesday’s hearing, Looby said the law mandates that schools notify the hotline about alleged abuse by a teacher only if the teacher is legally responsible for the child. Heil wasn’t legally responsible because he wasn’t the boy’s teacher, Looby said.
Indeed, during previous testimony last week, an administrator for Monroe County’s abuse hotline agreed with the school district’s position and said the hotline would have declined to fill out a report on Heil if the district had called.
Can any parent in the Rochester school district feel that their child is safe? This sounds like bureaucratic CYA to me, aided by a mentality at both the district and the union that the job is more important than the reason for the job. Without students, the district and the union are out of business. Students have to come first.
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If the teacher did sexual abuse him, the police should have beeen notified. It doesn’t matter if the teacher was or wasn’t responsible for him. He did something that is igeal. He should of lost his teaching license and shouldn’t be around kids. If somebody doesn’t speak for up for the kids, then nothing will get done about it.
If they only allowed women teachers and allowed teachers to marry, this wouldn’t happen.