Posted on 06/04/2008 7:53:21 AM PDT by batter
The case of a first-grade teacher convicted of molesting his own students has taken a new twist. The school's principal is now accused of knowing about the abuse and not reporting it.
Frank Laine Hall is currently serving a 15-years-to-life prison sentence for molesting students in his Riverton classroom. Now, the school's principal is charged with one count of failure to report abuse, a misdemeanor that could destroy her career.
Parents of Hall's victims have mixed emotions about this new charge. Shelly Nordick is a well-liked principal, who one parent says helped the children heal after Hall's conviction. But could she have stopped the abuse earlier?
"I think it's sad. It's hard to have things come up again when we've closed the book," said Emily, the mother of one of the victims.
"Even though my daughter was a victim, I don't hold her responsible. I hold him responsible," Emily said.
Hall was known for rewarding his students' successes with Happy Meals and getting them interested in science, math and reading. But court documents state he was also hurting them -- molesting several of them sometime between July 1, 2006, and March 9, 2007.
As for Nordick, charging documents don't detail how long she allegedly knew about the abuse or how much she knew about it. Her lawyer declined to comment on those aspects but said he's confident she'll be fully exonerated and that school administrators shouldn't be expected to serve as attorneys or judges.
"She's fantastic! A wonderful principal," said Rebecca, a mother of two of Hall's students who weren't abused.
Rebecca also has mixed feeling about the charges and, like Emily, points the finger back at Hall. "It wasn't her fault. She wasn't the abuser. We've taken the abuser to the court, and he's serving for that," Rebecca said.
Eyewitness News attempted to talk to the prosecutor in this case to learn more about the accusations about Nordick, but he said he was unable to comment on an ongoing case.
that school administrators shouldn't be expected to serve as attorneys or judges.
As a principal it's your responsibility to be a judge and report student abuse! One of your primary duties is to protect the kids under your care...WTH?!
It is doubly sad to see this happen because it stigmatizes any man who might feel called to be an elementary school teacher. A friend of mine taught elementary school and he was not allowed to take his students to the bathroom, even though female teachers took both boys and girls to the bathroom when they needed assistance. He had to call one of his female colleagues to step in if one of his students needed help.
The principal may have been put in a real bind. The line between a suspicion and verifiable evidence can be a very thin one. As human being, I know that sometimes my suspicions are borne out and sometimes they are not.
Then notify law enforcement of your suspicions and quietly suspend the teacher with pay until you learn more.
To a principal the safety of her students, not the feelings of her staff, should be paramount.
Maybe Rebecca can be the next principal. She seems to have the necessary requirements. /s
You certainly present the case for NWO bureaucracy.
He told me students would not think twice of reporting they were touched “inappropriately” if they came to dislike a teacher for any reason.
Not in the slightest, but I appreciate the change of topic as an admission by you that your analysis was flawed.
Again, the principal's primary responsibility is to her students' safety, not her employees' reputations.
If you disagree with that view, please explain why.
My problem is not your premise. It is with authority that takes punitive actions on suspicions in the name of protecting the innocent. The responsibility of a principal to her students must be weighed and balanced with the responsible exercise of authority. Modern bureaucracies have placed incredible amounts of authority as well as possibly unreasonable expectations with mid-level administrators. Public schools have been the place where we have seen the abuse of authority in the name of child safety. There was a thread concerning the suspension of a student for taking a shell casing to school. That is in no way comparable to this situation in which a most serious criminal act against a minor is involved. But it does to speak to the incredible amount of discretionary authority placed with mid-level administrators. Suspending an employee on one’s independent suspicion represents a level of authority and responsibility that I would not want put upon me and therefore I would not be interested in being an administrator nor a teacher in what passes for the post-modern public system of education.
A partial solution could be to mandate cameras in all areas except restrooms. This would have the added benefit of cataloging bully incidents.
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