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Saturday, June 6, 2015

FYI to BOE: Abuse thrives in secrecy – in 2012 the Maryland State Board of Ed directed you to take concrete steps to protect children in schools. Your response was silence.

Dear Montgomery County Board of Education Members:

Abuse thrives in secrecy – in 2012 the Maryland State Board of Ed directed you to take concrete steps to protect children in schools. Your response was silence.
In September of 2014, MCPS, under the direction of Dr. Joshua Starr, began to respond to media attention to “isolated” incidents of child sexual abuse at Baker and Clemente. Since then, dozens of cases have been publicized that had previously been mishandled. We all know now that these incidents are not isolated. There is a systemic problem in MCPS and there should be accountability for the travesties committed against children in our schools.
As a parent volunteer on this workgroup/advisory group, there has been selective transparency – we are still awaiting documents that we have requested on numerous occasions, and the website has been slow to be updated, if at all. And while we were participating in workgroup/advisory group meetings with multidisciplinary team members, children continued to be abused in our schools.
Please do not vote to implement this draft policy yet. I have grave concerns that doing something without having this policy vetted by child abuse experts with knowledge of laws and Attorney General opinions at the state level will be a huge mistake. I believe there are major flaws in this policy, major loopholes, conflicts with Attorney General Opinions, and inconsistencies with Maryland law.
Additionally...

open letter to Montgomery County Board of Education continues at this link.

12 comments:

  1. " Attorney General opinions " Can you be more specific? http://www.oag.state.md.us/faq.htm

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    Replies
    1. See Ellen Mugmon's submission regarding the Board of Education's draft child abuse policy. The AG opinions are included in her submission.

      http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2015/06/exclusive-policy-expert-slams-boe-and.html

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    2. ". . . directed you to take concrete steps to protect children is schools."
      Since they do not have the authority to order them, then nothing will be done. Much ado about nothing.

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    3. Much ado about nothing? So when was your child sexually abused by MCPS staff?

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    4. Meaning that we have all these lofty guardians of truth and justice, Lawmakers, AG, MSBE; drafting marginal bills, authoring opinions and directing actions, but where are the liabilities and penalties for those who have failed repeatedly to follow through?

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    5. If there is no investigation there are no liabilities and penalties to be imposed.

      That's the whole point of MCPS and MCEA keeping a secret list of offenders. They keep a list, but don't report.

      If there is no report, there is no investigation and then no punishment. That's how known offenders have a safe harbor in MCPS. The secret list is still in use and the failure to report is ongoing as per MCPS stated procedure.

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    6. “The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”
      Albert Einstein

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  2. Policy peppered with loopholes
    That protects children at schools
    Like the promises at the polls
    Making us look like such fools.

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  3. "I have grave concerns that doing something without having this policy vetted by child abuse experts . . ." Child Abuse Experts!!!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, such people do exist because of rampant abuse cases like Penn State, the Catholic Church and MCPS. It takes an expert on the issues, the laws and the victims to stop the rampant abuse that is occurring in Montgomery County Public Schools. It is obviously useless to have the same people that are allowing the abuse to continue writing the "new" policy.

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    2. How does one earn such a controversial title anyway?

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    3. Same way one earns the title of "teacher" or "administrator."

      Delete

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