Today's articles about the Jon White travesty are a follow-up to yesterday's "How Could This Happen" series.
First, Districts more careful about who comes in contact with children:
As for mandated reporting, Williams said, staff members "get information when they're hired, and then also at the beginning of the year."
Staff members must all sign a sheet stating that they understand they are mandated reporters. As well, he said, in the first in-service meeting of the school year, they get training on mandated reporting, another new element.
Training staff on mandated reporting is one way schools can make a difference in recognition and response to child sexual abuse, said Charol Shakeshaft, the author of a U.S. Department of Education-sponsored paper on educator sexual misconduct and an educational leadership professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.
"Training in this area needs to be done regularly," she said. "It needs to be done every year."
Second, Urbana getting bigger legal bills:
In invoices dated Feb. 15, 2007, and March 23, 2007 – just after White's charges were filed – the district received $24,928 in legal bills from Weedman's firm. In the previous two months, the district received $7,307 in legal bills from Weedman's firm.
The Urbana school board hired a separate firm, The Taylor Law Office in Effingham, specifically for the purpose of evaluating the district's response to concerns about White and to look at its policies.
Bills from the law firm – one from April 2007 and one from June 2007 – show the school district has already paid at least $42,804 for the external review.
Third, 2002 case strikingly similar to White case:
If the case of Jon White feels eerily familiar to some East Central Illinoisans, there's a good reason.
In 2002, Gerald Scott Huddleston, then a teacher at Chatsworth Elementary School in Livingston County, was charged with committing oral sex acts against young girls.
The circumstances of his acts read like a playbook that White – who attended nearby Illinois State University at the time – could have followed: bringing students to the classroom to help with cleaning, blindfolding students and having them perform a "tasting game."
Huddleston was convicted on three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault, and is now serving life in prison at Menard.
Discuss.
Let me summarize what Urbana is doing in the wake of the Jon White situation to help protect children: nothing too different. Public schools are required to present new staff with the mandated reporter info. and have them sign a form acknowledging receipt of said form. This is nothing new. And while training on mandatory reporting is great, I hope all the Urbana administrators also sat in on that training. Apparently they need it.
At least Normal does seem to be attempting to make some significant changes, including behavioral-type interview questions that ask what a person would do in a given scenario. That's a real attempt to screen and find quality candidates. But Urbana, what is their HR department doing? Did they bring in someone with a background in Human Resources to run that department, given the shoddy and poor job the previous director did? Someone who who knows what to look for when screening applications? Someone, perhaps with a business background in human resources in addition to educational experience? No, that would have been a little too hard, so they decided to give the job to one of their principals. Folks, as many problems as Unit 4 may have, I'd trust them with my children over Urbana in a heartbeat.
Good article and great coverage of the "coverup". Whilst these administrators ride off into the sunset with their mega pensions and no penalty at all, the taxpayers get hit with all the lawsuits and questions.
Pretty amazing stuff. It's really amazing how AMBERG and all deemed it more important to protect the "image" of the district than get to the real bottom of the issue. Let's hope REITZ doesn't give these folks a pass on this one.
I feel the need to correct some incorrect information in these comments. I was very close to this situation and I can tell you that Gene Amberg never once intended to cover up anything. Quite the contrary, Gene Amberg and Jon White are the only people to have accepted responsibility for what occurred in Urbana. Gene Amberg trusted people to do their jobs--just like any good manager of people. When he learned those administrators had failed him, he very openly conveyed to the media on Feb. 2, 2007, that he was responsible and he was to blame, since he was the person at the top. Gene Amberg is a decent man who gave 35 years to public education and he certainly didn't deserve to retire under this storm cloud. He did wonderful things for children during his years in the classroom and as an administrator. It was my experience that the people who wanted to "protect" the district include the Urbana School Board and the district's attorney. It goes without saying that the board would release the Taylor law firm "investigation" if it failed to find fault with any of the Urbana staff. Please keep this in mind during the next school board election.