The little girls would hold his hand and sit on his lap.They would kiss their first-grade teacher, and he would kiss them back.
Keep it a secret, he warned the 5- and 6-year olds. Otherwise, he said, they could get into trouble.
This alarming behavior, according to court documents, was no secret to Montville Township school administrators, who warned the teacher, Jason Fennes, to stop having physical contact with the children. Fennes' "inappropriate interactions with students" even cost him a raise.
Five years after the first documented complaints, Montville suspended Fennes and he resigned. But when a private school 40 minutes away called to confirm Fennes' employment dates, Montville school officials were bound by a separation agreement. They could make no mention of the kisses, the hand-holding or parents' complaints that the first-grade teacher touched their little girls too often.
With that agreement muting his former employer, Fennes got the new job — and subsequently sexually assaulted a first-grade girl less than a year after leaving Montville. It was the culmination of a string of sexual assaults he since admitted, including six victims in the Montville and Butler school districts and at Cedar Hill Preparatory School in Somerset...
The administrations thrive on preserving a pristine image of their schools and, like politicians, they are adept at damage control using condescending protocols.
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