Over two years, high school teacher Nicole Dufault allegedly had sex with six of her male students in the South Orange-Maplewood school district.
The language arts teacher is accused of meeting the 14- and 15-year-old students in her car at Burger King and on local streets at lunch and after school.
But, most of the alleged sexual encounters – more than a dozen — took place right in Dufault’s classroom in Columbia High School, one of the largest and busiest schools in the state, according to court documents.
Presumably, other teachers and students were walking by in the hallway or using nearby classrooms in the 1,900-student school. But, if anyone suspected something was amiss in Dufault’s classroom, they didn’t notify police.
The investigation into Dufault’s alleged sexual misconduct didn’t begin until a student showed the school principal a cell phone video of the teacher performing oral sex on another student, according to court papers. Dufault, who claims to have a brain injury, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
The Maplewood case is one of a string of recent New Jersey cases involving teachers accused of sexually assaulting students in their classrooms or on school property.
RELATED: Teacher in sex assault case couldn’t control behavior due to brain disorder, lawyer says
The location of the alleged abuse doesn’t surprise Terri Miller, president of SESAME (Stop Educator Sexual Abuse Misconduct & Exploitation), a national advocacy group.
Teacher sexual abuse often takes place on school grounds, Miller said. Part of the problem is fellow teachers rarely flag educators they suspect might be behaving inappropriately with students. In most cases of educator sexual misconduct, it is the victim or a fellow student who speaks up first.
“We can’t put it solely on the child to have the courage to report the abuse,” Miller said. “We have to train the adults recognize the warning signs better.”
In some cases, fellow teachers and school officials later admit they felt something was not right with the educator accused of sexual abuse, Miller said. But the teachers say they did not want to accuse–and potentially ruin the career–of a colleague without proof.
“Very few are reporting their suspicions,” Miller said. “They are erring on the side of the predator more than they are erring on the side of the child.”
Charol Shakeshaft, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor who has studied educator sex abuse, said many teachers and school officials don’t recognize the early signs that a colleague may be a sexual predator.
“For instance, they might notice a teacher meeting with the same student before school with the door closed. And they might even have a funny feeling about it. But because they are not trained, they don’t realize that this is a red flag that they need to report,” said Shakeshaft, a professor of educational leadership.
Don’t ‘pass the trash’
SESAME is among the national groups advocating for better training for teachers and school employees on spotting and reporting signs of educator sexual abuse.
The group is also pushing for new laws making it more difficult for problem teachers to be hired in other school districts. The legislation, known as the “Passing the Trash” bills, requires job applicants to disclose to potential employers if they were ever investigated for sexual misconduct or asked to leave a job due to an investigation.
Pennsylvania passed a “Pass the Trash” bill last year, joining Oregon and Missouri in trying to crack down on teachers who quietly move from district to district if they are suspected of sexual misconduct, but never charged.
SESAME is also calling on the federal government to step up enforcement of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in schools. The law includes a provision that requires schools to appoint a Title IX coordinator to handle allegations of sexual abuse.
“A school must make clear to its responsible employees to whom they should report an incident of alleged sexual violence,” the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office for Civil Rights said in a recent Q&A sent to schools.
“Rules about keeping doors open would help. Training would help,” Shakeshaft said.
In New Jersey, school employees are required by state law to receive annual training on the procedures for early detection of abused children, said Richard Vespucci, a spokesman for the state Department of Education. However, there are no laws mandating specific training on cases of teacher sexual abuse.
“There are several requirements that school employees must receive professional development on that would touch on reporting all types of abuse. Professional development regarding sexual assault and sexual misconduct isn’t specifically mandated,” Vespucci said. “If staff are trained on early detection of missing, abused or neglected children, staff would ‘spot and report’ to child welfare authorities when the conduct is occurring within the school walls.”
An arrest in Maplewood
In the Maplewood case, Dufault is facing a 40-count indictment for allegedly abusing six students in 2013 and 2014 during both summer school and the regular school year. The charges include aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
Dufault, of Caldwell, has denied any wrongdoing. Her attorney said the Bloomfield native is the “victim” in the case because the 36-year-old underwent surgery for a pregnancy-related brain injury that required a shunt in her frontal lobe and made her vulnerable to her students.
“Ms. Dufault suffers from frontal lobe syndrome which has rendered her defenseless to over-aggressive behavior, and that is exactly what she was exposed to,” Timothy Smith, Dufault’s attorney, said earlier this week in a statement to NJ Advance Media.
The single mother of two was arrested in September and released on $500,000 bail. The details of the alleged assaults, including the sexual encounters in Dufault’s classroom, were released earlier this month in court papers related to her attorney’s request that her charges be downgraded.
Dufault had worked at Hawthorne High School, Passaic Valley Regional High School, Ridgefield Park Jr./Sr. High School and Bloomfield Middle School before taking her job at Columbia High School nine years ago, prosecutors said.
She is not charged with sexually assaulting students at any of her previous schools.
South Orange-Maplewood officials have said little about Dufault’s arrest, citing the ongoing legal case.
“The allegations released by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office are deeply disturbing,” Elizabeth Daugherty, president of the school board for the South Orange-Maplewood School District, said after her arrest last year. “By law, administrators and Board of Education members are not permitted to publicly discuss personnel or individual student matters, or other issues requiring confidentiality.”
But prosecutors said there had been at least two complaints about Dufault At Columbia High School before her arrest. In one, the teacher was accused of having having “inappropriate sexual conversations in the classroom,” Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Gina Iosim said last year. In the other complaint, Dufault was accused of listing a fake job on the resume she used when applying for her post at Columbia High School.
String of classroom sex allegations
The Maplewood case follows a string of similar teacher sexual abuse cases around New Jersey involving alleged assaults on school property. Among the recent cases:
Jenna Leahey allegedly had sexual contact with a 16-year-old former football player while she was an English teacher and field hockey coach at Parsippany Hills High School. Leahey, who pleaded not guilty last year, is accused of touching the teenager sexually in her classroom and sending him sexually explicit photos and text messages.
Nolan Johnson, who taught technical theater at the exclusive Hun School in Princeton, was charged last year with sexual assaulting a 16-year-old female student on and off campus. Police said the victim’s mother alerted school officials about the relationship after reading her daughter’s diary.
Keith R. McGee, an art teacher at Snyder High School in Jersey City, was charged last year with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old female student. The assaults took place in his classroom during school hours on multiple occasions, police said.
Marc-Andrew Marucci, an earth science teacher at Clifton High School, was charged last year with sexual misconduct involving a 17-year-old female student. The teacher made sexually suggestive statements and had sexual contact with the teenager on school grounds, law enforcement officials said.
Fatima Grupico, a history teacher at Cardinal McCarrick High School in South Amboy, was charged with sexual assault earlier this month in a case involving a 17-year-old male student. Grupico allegedly assaulted the student on several occasions at the Catholic school, which has since closed.
Jason Fennes, a first grade teacher at Cedar Hill Prep School in Somerset, was indicted in April on charges he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old female student. Fennes was previously indicted twice in Morris County on similar charges involving the alleged sexual abuse of four first-grade girls in his classroom and an attached bathroom at William Mason Elementary School in Montville. He was also charged with sexually assaulting a teenager while serving as an assistant track coach at Butler High School.
Scott Van Hoven, a music teacher serving as an adviser to a school play at John F. Kennedy High School in Paterson, pleaded guilty earlier this year to official misconduct and criminal sexual conduct for sex acts with a 16-year-old female student. Van Hoven admitted to engaging in sexual acts in his office with a teenager he met when she participated in the spring musical, “Little Shop of Horrors.”
‘Rumors, rumors, rumors’
Shakeshaft, the Virginia Commonwealth University professor who studies teacher sex assault cases and school policies, said there are some steps schools can take to prevent abuse.
In addition to better training for teachers and school officials, districts can make physical changes to their buildings, including requiring classroom doors to be made of glass or remain open, Shakeshaft said. Though some teachers might just move their abuse to off-campus locations, schools could also move tutoring sessions to public locations and institute regular patrols of locked offices and other school rooms before and after school.
“They might find other locations, but it would help. Rules about keeping doors open would help. Training would help,” Shakeshaft said.
Educators should also be regularly reminded about the warning signs of abuse, including hearing about teachers who take children in their cars, meet students alone in classrooms after hours alone, or seem to go out of their way to spend time with and fit in with teenagers.
School officials should also pay attention to the school rumor mill, Shakeshaft said.
“Rumors, rumors, rumors. Kids see things. They often don’t know exactly what they are seeing, but they do talk about how a teacher spends a lot of time with certain children,” Shakeshaft said.
Full article: http://www.nj.com/education/2015/07/sex_in_the_classroom_string_of_nj_teacher_assault.html
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A jailed North Texas police chief has resigned after being accused of going online and trying to lure a 14-year-old girl into a sexual relationship.
Ellis County jail records show ex-Maypearl police Chief Kevin Coffey was being held Sunday on $350,000 bond.
The Maypearl City Council met Saturday to fire the 49-year-old Coffey, but instead accepted his resignation.
Coffey was arrested Wednesday on charges of sexual assault of a child, indecency with a child by exposure, indecency with a child by sexual contact and sexual performance by a child.
Coffey was put on administrative leave with pay July 13 after searches of his home and the police station. Investigators say the girl is now 16.
Maypearl is a town of about 900, located 30 miles southwest of Dallas.
Full article: http://kxan.com/2015/07/26/texas-police-chief-resigns-after-arrested-in-child-sex-case/
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http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2015-07-26 21:40:582015-07-26 21:40:58Cleric Suspected of Child Abuse in US Jailed in Australia, The New York Times
The AAU, the largest youth-sports group in the nation, has announced a sweeping review of its child-protection policies amid scrutiny about whether it has ignored reforms put in place in the four years since sexual-abuse allegations were made against its former president.
The review came after Outside the Lines sought to question Amateur Athletic Union leadership about the group’s affiliation with Rick Butler, a prominent and successful volleyball coach. Butler had been banned for life from coaching girls by a different national organization in 1995 after an ethics panel found he had had sexual relationships with three underage players several years prior.
Prominent volleyball coach Rick Butler, who was removed from his role in the AAU amid the organization’s review of child-protection policies. ESPN
The AAU’s announcement, which was placed in the middle of an emailed newsletter to its 670,000 members and was signed by its president, Roger Goudy, also announced that Butler would “step aside from his volunteer administrative activities at AAU.” The reason, it said, was to allow for “an independent review of our practices and procedures throughout the organization, especially those that relate to our youth.”
Goudy’s email on Thursday did not address what prompted the review, who would complete it or why Butler, who has been affiliated with the AAU since 1981, was stepping aside. It came hours after Outside the Lines had requested to interview Goudy about Butler, whose name was later removed from a list of district sports directors on the AAU’s website.
Butler is considered by many to be the most powerful coach in the sport of youth volleyball. His Chicago-based club, Sports Performance, routinely turns out college-scholarship-level players and has a waiting list for its elite-level camps. In June, Butler coached his 18-and-under girls’ team to a third straight national title at the AAU’s open championships, a tournament played at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, Florida.
But the 60-year-old has not entirely been able to distance himself from the allegations of three women who accused him of seducing them while he was a coach in his mid-20s; two said they were 16 at the time of the relationships and one 17. Various media reports over the past two decades have detailed the allegations, and even a simple Google query of Butler’s name and “volleyball” produces the allegations associated with him.
Although the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services investigated and found “credible evidence” the allegations in 1995 were true, Butler never faced criminal charges. In its August 1995 decision banning Butler from coaching girls for life, a USA Volleyball ethics panel rejected Butler’s denials and ruled that his conduct constituted “immorality, lack of judgment and unacceptable behavior.” Butler sued, but an Illinois appellate court upheld the original decision in 1996.
He insisted in the hearing that all three women were 18 and the sex had been consensual: “The accusers have literally conspired to ruin my life and business,” he said then. Butler declined comment to Outside the Lines.
In an interview with Outside the Lines, one of the women, Sarah Powers-Barnhard, publicly described for the first time what happened to her: “I felt I was special to Rick. I thought I was rare,” said the 50-year-old, who runs her own club in Jacksonville, Florida. “I don’t think we ever talked about it being wrong. But it was very clear it was, because my dad didn’t know. My mom didn’t know. … It was a full sexual relationship with him.”
Butler, whose volleyball practices are legendary for their intensity, never stopped fighting to remain affiliated with volleyball. USA Volleyball allowed him to reapply for admittance after five years, and he did so in 2000, earning a conditional membership that let him work as an administrator but not a coach.
In 2006, Butler helped form a league called the Junior Volleyball Association. As a rival to the U.S. Olympic-affiliated USA Volleyball, the JVA was an instant hit. Its low entry fees and easy access were popular with local clubs, and in a few short years, it had tens of thousands of members.
The JVA’s influence grew even more when it struck a partnership in 2010 that made the AAU’s championship the JVA’s official end-of-year event. The moves swelled the AAU’s membership with new players who made volleyball the organization’s second-biggest sport — behind boys’ basketball.
The marriage with the AAU, however, was taking place just as that organization’s leader began facing his own sexual-abuse allegations.
In 2011, Outside the Lines reported that two men said then-AAU president Bobby Dodd had molested them while they were teens under his care as a basketball coach in Memphis. Although Dodd never faced criminal charges, he was placed on leave. And the disclosures in the Outside the Lines story spurred the creation of two task forces that were charged with improving ways to police the AAU’s 100,000 coaches and volunteers.
One recommendation in the 2012 task force report states, “A determination of ineligibility to have access to youth by another” group that serves youths “is sufficient grounds to render the person ineligible to participate in the AAU.”
Lauren Book, a Florida-based child-protection advocate who helped to write that rule, believes it should have been used to remove Butler from any AAU affiliation. “We put our name on a document that said, ‘Things are going to change here,'” she told Outside the Lines in an interview last month. “We didn’t give the AAU a get-out-of-jail-free card.”
Ron Book, Lauren’s father and a Florida attorney, said that the two tried to engage Goudy, the AAU’s president.
“We have been met with stonewalling,” he said. “It’s inconceivable, irresponsible and reprehensible. There is absolutely no reason why the AAU should have this man in contact with children.”
Sarah Powers-Barnhard said her relationship with Butler, her former volleyball coach, as a teenager has affected her “whole life.” ESPN
In 2012, Butler received the AAU’s Emil Breitkreutz Leadership Award, which, according to a news release, is a “prestigious honor … awarded to the individual who shows outstanding leadership and dedication to AAU Volleyball.”
Henry Forrest, president of the AAU until last year, said that he first learned about Butler’s 1995 ethics case last summer, when a rival coach complained about Butler’s rising role in the AAU.
Forrest said he tried to invite one of Butler’s accusers to testify before the AAU’s National Board of Review, which regulates membership, but was rejected. “I got an opinion from the chairman that it was outside the scope of my authority,” he told Outside the Lines. “I was floored.”
He lost the AAU’s presidency to Goudy in an election last fall.
Forrest has even called on the U.S. Olympic Committee to become involved. In a June 15 letter, he asked it to investigate both the AAU and its own USA Volleyball, which recertified Butler again as recently as October 2014. He said he has not yet received a response.
In his brief email exchanges with Outside the Lines declining comment, Butler blamed the current furor on political infighting within AAU: “It’s certainly not because I have been coaching at the AAU National Championship. Because I have been doing that since 1981.”
For Powers-Barnhard, it has been hard watching Butler continue to coach teenage girls.
“That whole situation, why it happened, it’s affected my whole life,” she said. “It started me down a course, and there is a script for who I was. So I needed to get clarity and work on being healthy. Because that is not a normal, healthy way to start your teenage years, or have your first sexual experience.
“I don’t like to relive it. But if I can help any other athlete — any girl, any boy — with a coach that has an intention to do something inappropriate, then I want to do that.”
A horrific child abuse case, revealed in a court ruling last week, is now the subject of a review that could lead to sweeping changes at the Ministry of Children and Family Development.
Minister Stephanie Cadieux announced Friday that respected former civil servant Bob Plecas has been hired to lead the process.
“Faith in the ministry has been shaken and I understand why,” said Cadieux.
The case centred on a Vancouver family. In a scathing ruling released July 14, BC Supreme Court Justice Paul Walker said government social workers actions were ‘egeregious.’
After the ministry removed the couple’s four children from the mother’s care, staff ignored her repeated warnings that her husband, the children’s father, was sexually molesting three of them including the youngest, while she was in government care.
Cadieux said she still has not decided whether the province will appeal the decision, but the situation clearly calls for some kind of outside review, and that’s what Plecas has been tasked to do.
“It is not designed to retry the case. The review is not focused on fault finding, it’s focused on strengthening the child welfare system in British Columbia.”
Plecas will be joined by panelists to be nominated by the Child Welfare League of Canada. The panel has a mandate to review policies, legislation and standards that were in place at the time of the case, from 2008 to 2012, to review records and ministry actions and make recommendations.
“Perhaps there’s things that can be corrected in the system, and that’s what I’m going to do,” said Plecas.
But BC’s Representative for Children Youth, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, is not impressed.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me because why wouldn’t we look at policies up until today, 2015 and how the ministry is working with children and families today,” she said.
Turpel-Lafond says she will monitor Plecas’ work on the case. But is still considering using her own powers to investigate as well.
“I can interview people under oath, I can compel documents including up to cabinet documents and i can comment on them. his contract is a very limited contract for a limited purpose.”
Cadieux told reporters Turpel-Lafond’s office would normally handle reviews like the one being handed to Plecas.
“But the representative has made extensive comments in the media,” she said. “Evidence that she has significant feelings as to what should happen here.”
But in a case involving sexual abuse of a child in care Turpel-Lafond says it is her job to speak out.
Like the overwhelming majority of Michigan residents who support marriage equality, I was thrilled with the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage last month.
I was able to witness a couple, together 31 years, marry on the steps of the Ingham County Courthouse. I, like many others, spent the days following the historic ruling celebrating with friends and families who were finally able to marry.
But there’s still more work to be done.
Right now in Michigan, a gay couple could be married on Sunday and fired on Monday, and there would be nothing illegal about it. That’s because the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act does not include protections for LGBT people.
That’s something we’re working on changing, and we have the support of a majority of Michiganders for doing it. In fact, there’s bipartisan consensus on this, according to a recent poll by Public Policy Polling.
And yet Senate Republicans have already blocked our attempts to move forward with equal rights for all, refusing to put expansion of Elliott-Larsen up for a vote.
This comes at a time when it’s important than ever to expand civil rights to include our LGBT family, friends, and neighbors.
The ink on the Supreme Court decision was scarcely dry before prominent Republicans started calling for action on the misleadingly named Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA.
The RFRA legislation isn’t necessary to protect religious freedom. The state and federal constitutions both enshrine religious freedom as a protected right.
What RFRA actually does is allow people to discriminate against LGBT Michiganders, and use their religion as a defense.
Discrimination is all too common in Michigan. Without Elliott-Larsen expansion, we’ll see more of the same: a school guidance counselor refusing to help gay students in need because of the counselor’s religious faith; a doctor refusing a newborn baby as a patient because her parents are gay.
The Michigan Senate Democrats support religious freedom, and will continue to make sure it’s protected. But using religion to harm someone else or ignore the law isn’t religious liberty. It’s discrimination, and it’s already hurting Michigan’s children and families.
The “RFRA for Adoption” legislation that was signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder hurts foster kids, who will have fewer chances to be placed in a loving forever home. The law lets taxpayer-funded, faith-based agencies turn away otherwise qualified couples on the basis of the agency’s beliefs. That means LGBT couples, unmarried couples, people who have been divorced, or people of different faiths could be denied the chance to bring a foster child into their family.
Legalized discrimination is bad for Michigan, but don’t take my word for it. Businesses almost universally oppose discriminatory laws like RFRA. Sandy Baruah, CEO of theDetroit Regional Chamber, has said “it would send a negative message when we’re trying to attract talent to Michigan.”
Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce President Rick Baker has said, “I think for the general business community, it does not want to be one that is discriminating against people in our community or looking to be one that is viewed as discriminating. It wants to be one that is … very inclusive, welcoming and open for its customers, employees and for visitors in our region.”
Doug Rothwell, CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan, speculates that his members would say the Legislature “ought to be spending more time focusing on ways to grow the economy than on issues like that.”
Freedom Michigan, which was founded by the Michigan Competitive Workforce Coalition, has come out in opposition to the so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act as well. The coalition includes some of Michigan’s largest employers like Whirlpool, Kellogg’s, AT&T, Herman Miller and Dow Chemical.
If Michigan is going to attract and retain a young, talented workforce, we must become a more inclusive state. Young people do not want to live in a state where they or their friends and neighbors are discriminated against. It is time for legislative Republicans to realize that so-called RFRA laws are bad for Michigan.
Michiganders clearly do not want RFRA legislation, and for good reason. There is nothing to be gained by RFRA advocates, because their freedom of religion is already protected. But RFRA laws would actually take away some people’s rights, all because someone else has a religious objection.
Religion should never be an excuse to discriminate against anyone. We are a country where people of all walks of life can co-exist.
Full article: http://www.mlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/07/protecting_gay_rights_not_bloc.html
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Kelly Heyboer, Are N.J. schools doing enough to stop teacher sex abuse in the classroom?, NJ.com
/in New Jersey /by SOL ReformOver two years, high school teacher Nicole Dufault allegedly had sex with six of her male students in the South Orange-Maplewood school district.
The language arts teacher is accused of meeting the 14- and 15-year-old students in her car at Burger King and on local streets at lunch and after school.
But, most of the alleged sexual encounters – more than a dozen — took place right in Dufault’s classroom in Columbia High School, one of the largest and busiest schools in the state, according to court documents.
Presumably, other teachers and students were walking by in the hallway or using nearby classrooms in the 1,900-student school. But, if anyone suspected something was amiss in Dufault’s classroom, they didn’t notify police.
The investigation into Dufault’s alleged sexual misconduct didn’t begin until a student showed the school principal a cell phone video of the teacher performing oral sex on another student, according to court papers. Dufault, who claims to have a brain injury, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
The Maplewood case is one of a string of recent New Jersey cases involving teachers accused of sexually assaulting students in their classrooms or on school property.
RELATED: Teacher in sex assault case couldn’t control behavior due to brain disorder, lawyer says
The location of the alleged abuse doesn’t surprise Terri Miller, president of SESAME (Stop Educator Sexual Abuse Misconduct & Exploitation), a national advocacy group.
Teacher sexual abuse often takes place on school grounds, Miller said. Part of the problem is fellow teachers rarely flag educators they suspect might be behaving inappropriately with students. In most cases of educator sexual misconduct, it is the victim or a fellow student who speaks up first.
“We can’t put it solely on the child to have the courage to report the abuse,” Miller said. “We have to train the adults recognize the warning signs better.”
In some cases, fellow teachers and school officials later admit they felt something was not right with the educator accused of sexual abuse, Miller said. But the teachers say they did not want to accuse–and potentially ruin the career–of a colleague without proof.
“Very few are reporting their suspicions,” Miller said. “They are erring on the side of the predator more than they are erring on the side of the child.”
Charol Shakeshaft, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor who has studied educator sex abuse, said many teachers and school officials don’t recognize the early signs that a colleague may be a sexual predator.
“For instance, they might notice a teacher meeting with the same student before school with the door closed. And they might even have a funny feeling about it. But because they are not trained, they don’t realize that this is a red flag that they need to report,” said Shakeshaft, a professor of educational leadership.
Don’t ‘pass the trash’
SESAME is among the national groups advocating for better training for teachers and school employees on spotting and reporting signs of educator sexual abuse.
The group is also pushing for new laws making it more difficult for problem teachers to be hired in other school districts. The legislation, known as the “Passing the Trash” bills, requires job applicants to disclose to potential employers if they were ever investigated for sexual misconduct or asked to leave a job due to an investigation.
Pennsylvania passed a “Pass the Trash” bill last year, joining Oregon and Missouri in trying to crack down on teachers who quietly move from district to district if they are suspected of sexual misconduct, but never charged.
SESAME is also calling on the federal government to step up enforcement of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in schools. The law includes a provision that requires schools to appoint a Title IX coordinator to handle allegations of sexual abuse.
“A school must make clear to its responsible employees to whom they should report an incident of alleged sexual violence,” the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office for Civil Rights said in a recent Q&A sent to schools.
“Rules about keeping doors open would help. Training would help,” Shakeshaft said.
In New Jersey, school employees are required by state law to receive annual training on the procedures for early detection of abused children, said Richard Vespucci, a spokesman for the state Department of Education. However, there are no laws mandating specific training on cases of teacher sexual abuse.
“There are several requirements that school employees must receive professional development on that would touch on reporting all types of abuse. Professional development regarding sexual assault and sexual misconduct isn’t specifically mandated,” Vespucci said. “If staff are trained on early detection of missing, abused or neglected children, staff would ‘spot and report’ to child welfare authorities when the conduct is occurring within the school walls.”
An arrest in Maplewood
In the Maplewood case, Dufault is facing a 40-count indictment for allegedly abusing six students in 2013 and 2014 during both summer school and the regular school year. The charges include aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
Dufault, of Caldwell, has denied any wrongdoing. Her attorney said the Bloomfield native is the “victim” in the case because the 36-year-old underwent surgery for a pregnancy-related brain injury that required a shunt in her frontal lobe and made her vulnerable to her students.
“Ms. Dufault suffers from frontal lobe syndrome which has rendered her defenseless to over-aggressive behavior, and that is exactly what she was exposed to,” Timothy Smith, Dufault’s attorney, said earlier this week in a statement to NJ Advance Media.
The single mother of two was arrested in September and released on $500,000 bail. The details of the alleged assaults, including the sexual encounters in Dufault’s classroom, were released earlier this month in court papers related to her attorney’s request that her charges be downgraded.
Dufault had worked at Hawthorne High School, Passaic Valley Regional High School, Ridgefield Park Jr./Sr. High School and Bloomfield Middle School before taking her job at Columbia High School nine years ago, prosecutors said.
She is not charged with sexually assaulting students at any of her previous schools.
South Orange-Maplewood officials have said little about Dufault’s arrest, citing the ongoing legal case.
“The allegations released by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office are deeply disturbing,” Elizabeth Daugherty, president of the school board for the South Orange-Maplewood School District, said after her arrest last year. “By law, administrators and Board of Education members are not permitted to publicly discuss personnel or individual student matters, or other issues requiring confidentiality.”
But prosecutors said there had been at least two complaints about Dufault At Columbia High School before her arrest. In one, the teacher was accused of having having “inappropriate sexual conversations in the classroom,” Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Gina Iosim said last year. In the other complaint, Dufault was accused of listing a fake job on the resume she used when applying for her post at Columbia High School.
String of classroom sex allegations
The Maplewood case follows a string of similar teacher sexual abuse cases around New Jersey involving alleged assaults on school property. Among the recent cases:
Jenna Leahey allegedly had sexual contact with a 16-year-old former football player while she was an English teacher and field hockey coach at Parsippany Hills High School. Leahey, who pleaded not guilty last year, is accused of touching the teenager sexually in her classroom and sending him sexually explicit photos and text messages.
Nolan Johnson, who taught technical theater at the exclusive Hun School in Princeton, was charged last year with sexual assaulting a 16-year-old female student on and off campus. Police said the victim’s mother alerted school officials about the relationship after reading her daughter’s diary.
Keith R. McGee, an art teacher at Snyder High School in Jersey City, was charged last year with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old female student. The assaults took place in his classroom during school hours on multiple occasions, police said.
Marc-Andrew Marucci, an earth science teacher at Clifton High School, was charged last year with sexual misconduct involving a 17-year-old female student. The teacher made sexually suggestive statements and had sexual contact with the teenager on school grounds, law enforcement officials said.
Fatima Grupico, a history teacher at Cardinal McCarrick High School in South Amboy, was charged with sexual assault earlier this month in a case involving a 17-year-old male student. Grupico allegedly assaulted the student on several occasions at the Catholic school, which has since closed.
Jason Fennes, a first grade teacher at Cedar Hill Prep School in Somerset, was indicted in April on charges he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old female student. Fennes was previously indicted twice in Morris County on similar charges involving the alleged sexual abuse of four first-grade girls in his classroom and an attached bathroom at William Mason Elementary School in Montville. He was also charged with sexually assaulting a teenager while serving as an assistant track coach at Butler High School.
Scott Van Hoven, a music teacher serving as an adviser to a school play at John F. Kennedy High School in Paterson, pleaded guilty earlier this year to official misconduct and criminal sexual conduct for sex acts with a 16-year-old female student. Van Hoven admitted to engaging in sexual acts in his office with a teenager he met when she participated in the spring musical, “Little Shop of Horrors.”
‘Rumors, rumors, rumors’
Shakeshaft, the Virginia Commonwealth University professor who studies teacher sex assault cases and school policies, said there are some steps schools can take to prevent abuse.
In addition to better training for teachers and school officials, districts can make physical changes to their buildings, including requiring classroom doors to be made of glass or remain open, Shakeshaft said. Though some teachers might just move their abuse to off-campus locations, schools could also move tutoring sessions to public locations and institute regular patrols of locked offices and other school rooms before and after school.
“They might find other locations, but it would help. Rules about keeping doors open would help. Training would help,” Shakeshaft said.
Educators should also be regularly reminded about the warning signs of abuse, including hearing about teachers who take children in their cars, meet students alone in classrooms after hours alone, or seem to go out of their way to spend time with and fit in with teenagers.
School officials should also pay attention to the school rumor mill, Shakeshaft said.
“Rumors, rumors, rumors. Kids see things. They often don’t know exactly what they are seeing, but they do talk about how a teacher spends a lot of time with certain children,” Shakeshaft said.
Full article: http://www.nj.com/education/2015/07/sex_in_the_classroom_string_of_nj_teacher_assault.html
Rachel Teague, Texas police chief resigns after arrested in child sex case, KXan
/in Texas /by SOL ReformA jailed North Texas police chief has resigned after being accused of going online and trying to lure a 14-year-old girl into a sexual relationship.
Ellis County jail records show ex-Maypearl police Chief Kevin Coffey was being held Sunday on $350,000 bond.
The Maypearl City Council met Saturday to fire the 49-year-old Coffey, but instead accepted his resignation.
Coffey was arrested Wednesday on charges of sexual assault of a child, indecency with a child by exposure, indecency with a child by sexual contact and sexual performance by a child.
Coffey was put on administrative leave with pay July 13 after searches of his home and the police station. Investigators say the girl is now 16.
Maypearl is a town of about 900, located 30 miles southwest of Dallas.
Full article: http://kxan.com/2015/07/26/texas-police-chief-resigns-after-arrested-in-child-sex-case/
Cleric Suspected of Child Abuse in US Jailed in Australia, The New York Times
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformCleric Suspected of Child Abuse in US Jailed in Australia – The New York Times
Shaun Assael, Questions about volleyball coach’s past prompt his removal amid review, ESPN
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformThe AAU, the largest youth-sports group in the nation, has announced a sweeping review of its child-protection policies amid scrutiny about whether it has ignored reforms put in place in the four years since sexual-abuse allegations were made against its former president.
The review came after Outside the Lines sought to question Amateur Athletic Union leadership about the group’s affiliation with Rick Butler, a prominent and successful volleyball coach. Butler had been banned for life from coaching girls by a different national organization in 1995 after an ethics panel found he had had sexual relationships with three underage players several years prior.
Prominent volleyball coach Rick Butler, who was removed from his role in the AAU amid the organization’s review of child-protection policies. ESPN
The AAU’s announcement, which was placed in the middle of an emailed newsletter to its 670,000 members and was signed by its president, Roger Goudy, also announced that Butler would “step aside from his volunteer administrative activities at AAU.” The reason, it said, was to allow for “an independent review of our practices and procedures throughout the organization, especially those that relate to our youth.”
Goudy’s email on Thursday did not address what prompted the review, who would complete it or why Butler, who has been affiliated with the AAU since 1981, was stepping aside. It came hours after Outside the Lines had requested to interview Goudy about Butler, whose name was later removed from a list of district sports directors on the AAU’s website.
Butler is considered by many to be the most powerful coach in the sport of youth volleyball. His Chicago-based club, Sports Performance, routinely turns out college-scholarship-level players and has a waiting list for its elite-level camps. In June, Butler coached his 18-and-under girls’ team to a third straight national title at the AAU’s open championships, a tournament played at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, Florida.
But the 60-year-old has not entirely been able to distance himself from the allegations of three women who accused him of seducing them while he was a coach in his mid-20s; two said they were 16 at the time of the relationships and one 17. Various media reports over the past two decades have detailed the allegations, and even a simple Google query of Butler’s name and “volleyball” produces the allegations associated with him.
Although the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services investigated and found “credible evidence” the allegations in 1995 were true, Butler never faced criminal charges. In its August 1995 decision banning Butler from coaching girls for life, a USA Volleyball ethics panel rejected Butler’s denials and ruled that his conduct constituted “immorality, lack of judgment and unacceptable behavior.” Butler sued, but an Illinois appellate court upheld the original decision in 1996.
He insisted in the hearing that all three women were 18 and the sex had been consensual: “The accusers have literally conspired to ruin my life and business,” he said then. Butler declined comment to Outside the Lines.
In an interview with Outside the Lines, one of the women, Sarah Powers-Barnhard, publicly described for the first time what happened to her: “I felt I was special to Rick. I thought I was rare,” said the 50-year-old, who runs her own club in Jacksonville, Florida. “I don’t think we ever talked about it being wrong. But it was very clear it was, because my dad didn’t know. My mom didn’t know. … It was a full sexual relationship with him.”
Butler, whose volleyball practices are legendary for their intensity, never stopped fighting to remain affiliated with volleyball. USA Volleyball allowed him to reapply for admittance after five years, and he did so in 2000, earning a conditional membership that let him work as an administrator but not a coach.
In 2006, Butler helped form a league called the Junior Volleyball Association. As a rival to the U.S. Olympic-affiliated USA Volleyball, the JVA was an instant hit. Its low entry fees and easy access were popular with local clubs, and in a few short years, it had tens of thousands of members.
The JVA’s influence grew even more when it struck a partnership in 2010 that made the AAU’s championship the JVA’s official end-of-year event. The moves swelled the AAU’s membership with new players who made volleyball the organization’s second-biggest sport — behind boys’ basketball.
The marriage with the AAU, however, was taking place just as that organization’s leader began facing his own sexual-abuse allegations.
In 2011, Outside the Lines reported that two men said then-AAU president Bobby Dodd had molested them while they were teens under his care as a basketball coach in Memphis. Although Dodd never faced criminal charges, he was placed on leave. And the disclosures in the Outside the Lines story spurred the creation of two task forces that were charged with improving ways to police the AAU’s 100,000 coaches and volunteers.
One recommendation in the 2012 task force report states, “A determination of ineligibility to have access to youth by another” group that serves youths “is sufficient grounds to render the person ineligible to participate in the AAU.”
Lauren Book, a Florida-based child-protection advocate who helped to write that rule, believes it should have been used to remove Butler from any AAU affiliation. “We put our name on a document that said, ‘Things are going to change here,'” she told Outside the Lines in an interview last month. “We didn’t give the AAU a get-out-of-jail-free card.”
Ron Book, Lauren’s father and a Florida attorney, said that the two tried to engage Goudy, the AAU’s president.
“We have been met with stonewalling,” he said. “It’s inconceivable, irresponsible and reprehensible. There is absolutely no reason why the AAU should have this man in contact with children.”
Sarah Powers-Barnhard said her relationship with Butler, her former volleyball coach, as a teenager has affected her “whole life.” ESPN
In 2012, Butler received the AAU’s Emil Breitkreutz Leadership Award, which, according to a news release, is a “prestigious honor … awarded to the individual who shows outstanding leadership and dedication to AAU Volleyball.”
Henry Forrest, president of the AAU until last year, said that he first learned about Butler’s 1995 ethics case last summer, when a rival coach complained about Butler’s rising role in the AAU.
Forrest said he tried to invite one of Butler’s accusers to testify before the AAU’s National Board of Review, which regulates membership, but was rejected. “I got an opinion from the chairman that it was outside the scope of my authority,” he told Outside the Lines. “I was floored.”
He lost the AAU’s presidency to Goudy in an election last fall.
Forrest has even called on the U.S. Olympic Committee to become involved. In a June 15 letter, he asked it to investigate both the AAU and its own USA Volleyball, which recertified Butler again as recently as October 2014. He said he has not yet received a response.
In his brief email exchanges with Outside the Lines declining comment, Butler blamed the current furor on political infighting within AAU: “It’s certainly not because I have been coaching at the AAU National Championship. Because I have been doing that since 1981.”
For Powers-Barnhard, it has been hard watching Butler continue to coach teenage girls.
“That whole situation, why it happened, it’s affected my whole life,” she said. “It started me down a course, and there is a script for who I was. So I needed to get clarity and work on being healthy. Because that is not a normal, healthy way to start your teenage years, or have your first sexual experience.
“I don’t like to relive it. But if I can help any other athlete — any girl, any boy — with a coach that has an intention to do something inappropriate, then I want to do that.”
AAU launches review of policies as volleyball coach Rick Butler steps aside
Keith Vass, MCFD contracts outside review in child sex abuse case, Chek
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformA horrific child abuse case, revealed in a court ruling last week, is now the subject of a review that could lead to sweeping changes at the Ministry of Children and Family Development.
Minister Stephanie Cadieux announced Friday that respected former civil servant Bob Plecas has been hired to lead the process.
“Faith in the ministry has been shaken and I understand why,” said Cadieux.
The case centred on a Vancouver family. In a scathing ruling released July 14, BC Supreme Court Justice Paul Walker said government social workers actions were ‘egeregious.’
After the ministry removed the couple’s four children from the mother’s care, staff ignored her repeated warnings that her husband, the children’s father, was sexually molesting three of them including the youngest, while she was in government care.
Cadieux said she still has not decided whether the province will appeal the decision, but the situation clearly calls for some kind of outside review, and that’s what Plecas has been tasked to do.
“It is not designed to retry the case. The review is not focused on fault finding, it’s focused on strengthening the child welfare system in British Columbia.”
Plecas will be joined by panelists to be nominated by the Child Welfare League of Canada. The panel has a mandate to review policies, legislation and standards that were in place at the time of the case, from 2008 to 2012, to review records and ministry actions and make recommendations.
“Perhaps there’s things that can be corrected in the system, and that’s what I’m going to do,” said Plecas.
But BC’s Representative for Children Youth, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, is not impressed.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me because why wouldn’t we look at policies up until today, 2015 and how the ministry is working with children and families today,” she said.
Turpel-Lafond says she will monitor Plecas’ work on the case. But is still considering using her own powers to investigate as well.
“I can interview people under oath, I can compel documents including up to cabinet documents and i can comment on them. his contract is a very limited contract for a limited purpose.”
Cadieux told reporters Turpel-Lafond’s office would normally handle reviews like the one being handed to Plecas.
“But the representative has made extensive comments in the media,” she said. “Evidence that she has significant feelings as to what should happen here.”
But in a case involving sexual abuse of a child in care Turpel-Lafond says it is her job to speak out.
MCFD contracts outside review in child sex abuse case _ CHEK
Protecting gay rights, not blocking them, is what Michigan wants, Michigan Live
/in Michigan /by SOL ReformLike the overwhelming majority of Michigan residents who support marriage equality, I was thrilled with the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage last month.
I was able to witness a couple, together 31 years, marry on the steps of the Ingham County Courthouse. I, like many others, spent the days following the historic ruling celebrating with friends and families who were finally able to marry.
But there’s still more work to be done.
Right now in Michigan, a gay couple could be married on Sunday and fired on Monday, and there would be nothing illegal about it. That’s because the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act does not include protections for LGBT people.
That’s something we’re working on changing, and we have the support of a majority of Michiganders for doing it. In fact, there’s bipartisan consensus on this, according to a recent poll by Public Policy Polling.
And yet Senate Republicans have already blocked our attempts to move forward with equal rights for all, refusing to put expansion of Elliott-Larsen up for a vote.
This comes at a time when it’s important than ever to expand civil rights to include our LGBT family, friends, and neighbors.
The ink on the Supreme Court decision was scarcely dry before prominent Republicans started calling for action on the misleadingly named Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA.
The RFRA legislation isn’t necessary to protect religious freedom. The state and federal constitutions both enshrine religious freedom as a protected right.
What RFRA actually does is allow people to discriminate against LGBT Michiganders, and use their religion as a defense.
Discrimination is all too common in Michigan. Without Elliott-Larsen expansion, we’ll see more of the same: a school guidance counselor refusing to help gay students in need because of the counselor’s religious faith; a doctor refusing a newborn baby as a patient because her parents are gay.
The Michigan Senate Democrats support religious freedom, and will continue to make sure it’s protected. But using religion to harm someone else or ignore the law isn’t religious liberty. It’s discrimination, and it’s already hurting Michigan’s children and families.
The “RFRA for Adoption” legislation that was signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder hurts foster kids, who will have fewer chances to be placed in a loving forever home. The law lets taxpayer-funded, faith-based agencies turn away otherwise qualified couples on the basis of the agency’s beliefs. That means LGBT couples, unmarried couples, people who have been divorced, or people of different faiths could be denied the chance to bring a foster child into their family.
Legalized discrimination is bad for Michigan, but don’t take my word for it. Businesses almost universally oppose discriminatory laws like RFRA. Sandy Baruah, CEO of theDetroit Regional Chamber, has said “it would send a negative message when we’re trying to attract talent to Michigan.”
Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce President Rick Baker has said, “I think for the general business community, it does not want to be one that is discriminating against people in our community or looking to be one that is viewed as discriminating. It wants to be one that is … very inclusive, welcoming and open for its customers, employees and for visitors in our region.”
Doug Rothwell, CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan, speculates that his members would say the Legislature “ought to be spending more time focusing on ways to grow the economy than on issues like that.”
Freedom Michigan, which was founded by the Michigan Competitive Workforce Coalition, has come out in opposition to the so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act as well. The coalition includes some of Michigan’s largest employers like Whirlpool, Kellogg’s, AT&T, Herman Miller and Dow Chemical.
If Michigan is going to attract and retain a young, talented workforce, we must become a more inclusive state. Young people do not want to live in a state where they or their friends and neighbors are discriminated against. It is time for legislative Republicans to realize that so-called RFRA laws are bad for Michigan.
Michiganders clearly do not want RFRA legislation, and for good reason. There is nothing to be gained by RFRA advocates, because their freedom of religion is already protected. But RFRA laws would actually take away some people’s rights, all because someone else has a religious objection.
Religion should never be an excuse to discriminate against anyone. We are a country where people of all walks of life can co-exist.
Full article: http://www.mlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/07/protecting_gay_rights_not_bloc.html