Wootton HS: Former High School Football Coach Charged with Sexual Offenses Against Two Players; Possibility of Additional Victims a Concern

 Detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police – Special Victims Investigations Division (SVID) have arrested and charged Christopher Papadopoulos, age 26, of Thorburn Place in Gaithersburg, with offenses related to his sexual abuse of two high school males.  Papadopoulous served as an assistant varsity coach for the Thomas S. Wootton High School football team from 2016 to 2020.  At the time of the offenses, the victims played football for the Thomas S. Wootton High School and Papadopoulos was one of the coaches.  The sexual interactions occurred after school hours and did not occur on school property.

On February 28, 2020, SVID detectives began an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of the two victims by Papadopoulos.  Detectives learned that Papadopoulos sexually abused and exploited the first victim on multiple occasions.  Detectives also learned that Papadopoulos sexually abused and solicited the second victim.

Last night, October 12, Papadopoulos was served with an arrest warrant charging him with offenses to include sexual abuse of a minor.  He was transported to the Central Processing Unit and is being held on a no bond status.  He has bond review today.

Detectives are concerned there may be additional victims of Papadopoulos and are asking anyone who believes that he/she is a victim to call SVID detectives at 240-773-5400.

**Inquiries regarding Christopher Papadopoulos’ employment should be directed to Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS).

Letter: Transparency in Resource and Staffing Allocations by Dustin Jeter, Social Studies Teacher at Springbrook H.S.

...We are very fortunate that in the State of Maryland and especially here at the Montgomery County level, we can benefit from the Maryland Open Meetings Act, which facilitates transparency. We benefit from hearing what decisions are being made, but we are also privy to the discussions that lead to those decisions. Unfortunately, the transparency that is afforded at the county level is non-existent at our local schools. Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has set up a system where school-level decisions are made without any input or discussion from staff or the community. The lack of transparency at the school level perpetuates inequality within our system. It disenfranchises many of the key stakeholders who must live with the school-based decisions that are made...

 

https://www.thesentinel.com/communities/montgomery/opinion/transparency-in-resource-and-staffing-allocations/article_51d64f8a-08c2-11eb-9b87-4bab294f6c39.html

Happy National Coming Out Day!

 

It's National Coming Out Day, so let's celebrate. This is for all our students, children, parents, guardians, teachers, aunts, uncles, and friends. Because everyone deserves to be respected for who they are. And because we love our kids.

Four Bradley Hills Elementary School staff members contract COVID-19; building temporarily closes [School is also a day care/virtual learning pod location]

The Bradley Hills Elementary School building will close for two weeks after four staff members tested positive for COVID-19, according to an email MCPS sent out to Bradley Hills families this afternoon.

The infected employees were last at the building on October 6, MCPS wrote in the email. MCPS reached out to staff members who were in proximity to the affected employees, encouraging them to quarantine for two weeks and get tested for the coronavirus...

 https://theblackandwhite.net/68118/news/four-bradley-hills-elementary-school-staff-members-contract-covid-19-building-temporarily-closes/

Northwood HS Reports positive COVID-19 test for staff member.

October 9, 2020

Dear MCPS Community:

We are writing to share that a Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) food and nutrition services staff member working at the Northwood High School meal distribution site has reported a positive test of COVID-19. The last date the employee worked at the Northwood distribution site was Thursday, Oct. 8. Out of an abundance of caution, we have asked other employees who worked with the affected staff member to self-quarantine for 14 days since their last contact with the employee. In addition, we are sharing this so anyone who visited the school prior to or on Oct. 8 can self-monitor for symptoms. Based on discussions with the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, we believe the risk level to students and families is low. The employee used masks and gloves—consistent with CDC guidance. MCPS has temporarily closed the school kitchen for cleaning and will use a mobile delivery truck through Oct. 14 to continue food distribution at Northwood High School, in accordance with CDC guidelines for physical distancing. We ask community members who use the Northwood food site to monitor for symptoms and to contact your health provider if you display symptoms or have any questions. 

Sincerely,

Montgomery County Public Schools 

Maryland schools will have to report any coronavirus cases — but health officials don’t plan to publicize the data

Maryland health officials are refusing to release a complete list of schools where cases of COVID-19 have emerged, even as public school systems start making plans to bring select groups of students back to classrooms this fall.

The debate over the safety of returning children and staff to school buildings during a pandemic has crescendoed in communities throughout the region in recent weeks...

...“The release of COVID-19 data within the school districts would help parents make informed decisions,” Kane said. “There’s a lot of debate behind the scenes about whether or not to return to school, how to return to school. Not having those data points really limits the conversation.”..

https://www.baltimoresun.com/education/bs-pr-md-schools-coronavirus-data-20201005-20201009-3zwydnjpqjhbfemnblepumy3ii-story.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Morning%20Sun&utm_content=701602243803#nws=true

R.I. buys 600,000 masks, thousands of thermometers and gowns to help schools reopen

 PROVIDENCE The state has acquired thousands of masks, thermometers and medical gloves to help schools struggling to stockpile their own personal protective equipment.

The state this week purchased 3,000 thermometers, 600,000 masks and 10,000 gowns to provide to school districts before the planned mid-September school opening, Gov. Gina Raimondo said Wednesday during her weekly COVID-19 press conference.

Although she said the districts will be expected to take the lead on procuring cleaning and safety equipment, Raimondo said, “I can assure you, no one will be left in the lurch. We have your back. We will continue to make sure that there is never a shortage,”..

...Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, the state’s health director, explained why there are different size limits for students and social gatherings: 15 in a social setting compared to 30 in a school setting.

Schools, she said, have a lot more rules: assigned seating, students sitting six feet apart, frequent testing and mandatory mask wearing...

https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20200819/ri-buys-600000-masks-thousands-of-thermometers-and-gowns-to-help-schools-reopen

Dying in a Leadership Vacuum

Covid-19 has created a crisis throughout the world. This crisis has produced a test of leadership. With no good options to combat a novel pathogen, countries were forced to make hard choices about how to respond. Here in the United States, our leaders have failed that test. They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy...

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2029812

Firings of therapists who alleged wrongdoing left abused children without treatment: A nonprofit group that is paid nearly $1 million a year by Montgomery County to provide counseling and medical care to abused children has been accused of inflating the number of patients it serves and failing to protect their personal information.

A nonprofit group that is paid nearly $1 million a year by Montgomery County to provide counseling and medical care to abused children has been accused of inflating the number of patients it serves and failing to protect their personal information.

Three psychologists and a social worker who raised concerns about the Rockville-based Tree House organization say they were abruptly fired soon afterward, leaving dozens of vulnerable children without the therapists they had grown to trust.

“It’s like walking away in the middle of surgery,” said Stephanie Wolf, a psychologist who was fired in August. “I don’t understand how an organization that is supposed to be caring for kids would do this.”

The Tree House is a public-private nonprofit that provides free mental health services, medical assessments and victim advocacy for children who are suspected to have been physically or sexually abused. It is the only accredited child advocacy organization in Montgomery County, a suburb of 1 million people just outside the District...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/tree-house-montgomery/2020/10/07/71462bc0-0330-11eb-897d-3a6201d6643f_story.html#comments-wrapper

MCPS slowly resumes SAT and ACT administration - Masks were Required

...Aside from normal testing requirements, the College Board issued a series of additional coronavirus-related protocols that must be followed on test day. This includes requiring masks for the duration of testing, limiting testing rooms to 10 students, and asking that students arrive 15 to 30 minutes earlier than the normal 7:45 a.m. to 8 a.m. window. The early arrival request will allow time for test takers to complete a COVID-19 safety screening — a process where students verbally respond to a series of statements about potential exposure — before being permitted to enter the building... 

https://silverchips.mbhs.edu/content/mcps-slowly-resumes-sat-and-act-administration-32960/

Maryland High School Teacher Had ‘Explicit Images' on Screen in Class: Principal

 https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/maryland-high-school-teacher-had-explicit-images-on-screen-in-class-principal/2437850/?_osource=db_npd_nbc_wrc_twt_shr

Parents in Montgomery County continue to push for answers about when kids will go back to school

COVID-19 OUTBREAK LINKED TO MONTGOMERY COUNTY YOUTH SOCCER CLUB

 Montgomery County is investigating a COVID-19 outbreak linked to a youth soccer club that has now “spilled over” into a high school team, public health officials have confirmed.

Over the weekend, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) was notified of two initial positive cases tied to the Potomac Soccer Association. As a result of the contact tracing investigations, approximately 35 individuals have been placed on quarantine status due to potential exposure. Officials did not specify which high school has been affected or in what capacity.

Dr. Travis Gayles, Montgomery County Health Officer, confirmed that this incident has met the Maryland state criteria to be considered an outbreak...

https://www.mymcmedia.org/covid-19-outbreak-linked-to-montgomery-county-youth-soccer-club/?fbclid=IwAR3VzUcUiGzVpjMorlTZdwLLxsy90cXX9BrOiBI0Pn15moXiAEXC8bPn7YU

Notre Dame’s President Faces an Angry Campus After Getting the Coronavirus

Students and faculty are furious that the Rev. John I. Jenkins failed to wear a mask at a White House ceremony and then later tested positive for the virus.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — As college leaders deliberated whether to bring students back to campus, none led the charge for reopening more forcefully than the president of the University of Notre Dame.

The Rev. John I. Jenkins, the university’s president and a 66-year-old Catholic priest with degrees in philosophy and divinity, was among the first to invite students back for dorm life, intercollegiate sports and face-to-face classes, arguing in a New York Times Op-Ed in May that the college had a moral obligation to not be crippled by fear. He also seemed humble about the challenge: When he forgot social distancing rules as he posed for pictures with students returning to campus in August, he issued a public apology.

But all the humility in the world might not have spared Father Jenkins from the storm of protest he now faces over the latest news from South Bend: that he not only violated his own health rules — appearing without a mask at a White House reception last month for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a Supreme Court nominee and former Notre Dame Law School professor — but also is infected with the coronavirus himself.

Students have petitioned for his resignation, angry over what they consider his hypocrisy as well as the rising tide of infections on campus. Others have reported him to a coronavirus hotline for violating his own mask mandate. The student newspaper called the affair “embarrassing” in an editorial. And the faculty senate stopped one vote short on Tuesday night of considering a vote of no confidence in his leadership...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/us/notre-dame-president-covid.html?referringSource=articleShare

MCPS superintendent says it will take ‘tremendous amount of planning’ to open schools

There is still no date set for students in Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools to return to their classrooms, but the Board of Education did hear from the superintendent on the issue this week.

“Everyone understands that we’re not going to open the schools tomorrow,” Superintendent Jack Smith told the board Tuesday.

“It’s going to take a tremendous amount of planning and logistical building of systems and structures in order to open schools.”..

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2020/10/montgomery-county-provides-update-on-potential-back-to-school-plans/

Fairfax County teachers faced with decision: take unpaid leave, resign or return to school

 https://wjla.com/news/local/fairfax-county-teachers-decision-unpaid-leave-resign-return-school

"Meeting Current School Health Challenges and Beyond: New Tools to Assess and Address IAQ Health and Safety"

Lisa C. Ng
@lisacng

I'm giving another talk at @EPA with Tracy Washington Enger and @ESEitland "Meeting Current School Health Challenges and Beyond: New Tools to Assess and Address IAQ Health and Safety" https://search.epa.gov/epasearch/?querytext=Meeting+Current+School+Health+Challenges+and+Beyond%3A+New+Tools+to+Assess+and+Address+IAQ+Health+and+Safety&areaname=&areacontacts=&areasearchurl=&typeofsearch=epa&result_template=2col.ftl#/… Register for free for the 10/22/20 1pm Eastern webinar

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I&#39;m giving another talk at <a href="https://twitter.com/EPA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EPA</a> with Tracy Washington Enger and <a href="https://twitter.com/ESEitland?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESEitland</a> &quot;Meeting Current School Health Challenges and Beyond: New Tools to Assess and Address IAQ Health and Safety&quot; <a href="https://t.co/LBrgFim7KS">https://t.co/LBrgFim7KS</a> Register for free for the 10/22/20 1pm Eastern webinar <a href="https://t.co/VhYv8Glrg2">pic.twitter.com/VhYv8Glrg2</a></p>&mdash; Lisa C. Ng (@lisacng) <a href="https://twitter.com/lisacng/status/1312095245580943360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

NYT: Behind the White House Effort to Pressure the C.D.C. on School Openings

Documents and interviews show how senior officials sought to play down the risks of sending children back to the classroom, alarming public health experts.

WASHINGTON — Top White House officials pressured the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this summer to play down the risk of sending children back to school, a strikingly political intervention in one of the most sensitive public health debates of the pandemic, according to documents and interviews with current and former government officials.

As part of their behind-the-scenes effort, White House officials also tried to circumvent the C.D.C. in a search for alternate data showing that the pandemic was weakening and posed little danger to children.

The documents and interviews show how the White House spent weeks trying to press public health professionals to fall in line with President Trump’s election-year agenda of pushing to reopen schools and the economy as quickly as possible...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/us/politics/white-house-cdc-coronavirus-schools.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR245M7JiTkqxekZnhcjzRj7iwRlnqfWAd_wWmMnjgSoj153swN2gB4utXg

Yale School of Public Health: Ventilation Key to Reducing Risk

 

Ways to improve school ventilation

• increase the amount of outdoor air introduced into the building
• improve the filtration of recirculated air
• increase the volume of air exchange per hour
• use supplemental devices such as portable air cleaners and window-mounted box fans. For maximum efficiency, box fans should be pointed outwards, drawing inside air outdoors.

https://publichealth.yale.edu/research/covid-19/schools/ventilation/

Sup. Ct. Sotomayor to Montgomery County Prosecutor: “Prosecutors fall short of this task, and therefore do a grave disservice to the people in whose name they litigate, when they permit themselves to enjoy unfair trial advantages at defendants’ expense. Here, regardless of the reason for their acquisition of Kaur’s privileged information … the prosecutors should have recused themselves from participating in Kaur’s second trial as a matter of professional conscience.”

...Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a written statement, said she agreed with the high court’s decision not to hear Raminder Kaur’s appeal. However, that did not absolve the Montgomery County prosecutors of having gone forward with Kaur’s second prosecution after having seen the privileged documents when Kaur waged a successful ineffective assistance of counsel challenge to her first conviction, Sotamayor added.

“Prosecutors wield an immense amount of power, and they do so in the name of the state itself,” Sotomayor wrote.

“That unique privilege comes with the exceptional responsibility to ensure that the criminal justice system indeed serves the ends of justice,” Sotomayor added. “Prosecutors fall short of this task, and therefore do a grave disservice to the people in whose name they litigate, when they permit themselves to enjoy unfair trial advantages at defendants’ expense. Here, regardless of the reason for their acquisition of Kaur’s privileged information … the prosecutors should have recused themselves from participating in Kaur’s second trial as a matter of professional conscience.”

The prosecutors’ failure to recuse “casts a troubling and unnecessary shadow over Kaur’s conviction and sentence to life imprisonment,” Sotomayor wrote...

https://thedailyrecord.com/2020/10/05/supreme-court-denies-germantown-murderers-appeal/