New York Daily News:
Nine more schoolgirls accuse fourth-grade teacher Simon Watts of molesting them
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/04/24/2010-04-24_sicko_teach_is_linked_to_9_more_victims.html
Posted on 04/26/2010 6:43:21 AM PDT by ETL
New claims are surfacing against a Queens teacher who is already facing charges for allegedly molesting some of his fourth grade students. The number of victims may be going up dramatically.
Outraged parents met in Queens Sunday night demanding answers.
Parents say the list of possible victims is now up to a staggering 16 girls.
"We don't feel like our children are safe," parent Tandrea Lane said.
A private meeting was held inside a remote Jamaica, Queens warehouse as worried parents waited, desperate for a status report on teacher Simon Watts.
Prosecutors say the 38-year-old is a predator who used his trusted position to sexually abuse the girls inside his fourth grade classroom at P.S. 15 in Springfield Gardens.
Parents were alarmed to learn Watts is out on bail after being charged with sex abuse and other crimes.
"That's disturbing. Now he is back in the community he lives in, the community where we all live as well," Lane said.
Parents and politicians say the initial shock of the arrest was followed by a revelation that Watts was disciplined by the Department of Education in the past, then reassigned and allowed to keep teaching. The initial complaint involved corporal punishment, but parents and politicians say it was a red flag that was overlooked by leaders of a department in charge of protecting kids.
"This is the height of seriousness as it relates to our children," State Senate President Malcolm Smith said.
"30 months – for 30 months, this individual has been preying on a number of children, five [children], two of which he followed from the third grade to the fourth grade," Senator Smith said.
"The principal should have been aware of the prior charge and that this person should not have been allowed into our school community," Lane said.
A Department of Education spokesman released the following statement: "We are shocked and deeply troubled by the allegations made against Mr. Watts. Our overriding concern today is with the students and families of P.S. 15. Given what we've heard, this individual does not belong in a classroom."
Watts has a wife and two young kids of his own.
New York Daily News:
Nine more schoolgirls accuse fourth-grade teacher Simon Watts of molesting them
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/04/24/2010-04-24_sicko_teach_is_linked_to_9_more_victims.html
The NY school district should have to pay millions for every incident like the Boy Scouts.
Obama's "Safe School Czar" Kevin
"use a condom" Jennings
__________________________________________________________
From the Washington Times...
EDITORIAL: At the president's pleasure
'Safe school czar' encouraged child sex with an older man
September 28, 2009
A teacher was told by a 15-year-old high school sophomore that he was having homosexual sex with an "older man." At the very least, statutory rape occurred. Fox News reported that the teacher violated a state law requiring that he report the abuse. That former teacher, Kevin Jennings, is President Obama's "safe school czar". It's getting hard to keep track of all of this president's problematic appointments. Clearly, the process for vetting White House employees has broken down.
In this one case in which Mr. Jennings had a real chance to protect a young boy from a sexual predator, he not only failed to do what the law required but actually encouraged the relationship.
According to Mr. Jennings' own description in a new audiotape discovered by Fox News, the 15-year-old boy met the "older man" in a "bus station bathroom" and was taken to the older man's home that night. When some details about the case became public, Mr. Jennings threatened to sue another teacher who called his failure to report the statutory rape "unethical." Mr. Jennings' defenders asserted that there was no evidence that he was aware the student had sex with the older man.
However, the new audiotape contradicts this claim. In 2000, Mr. Jennings gave a talk to the Iowa chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, an advocacy group that promotes homosexuality in schools. On the tape, Mr. Jennings recollected that he told the student to make sure "to use a condom" when he was with the older man. That he actively encouraged the relationship is reinforced by Mr. Jennings' own description in his 1994 book, "One Teacher in 10." In that account, the teacher boasts how he allayed the student's concerns about the relationship to such a degree that the 15-year-old "left my office with a smile on his face that I would see every time I saw him on the campus for the next two years, until he graduated."
Mr. Jennings' denials about these events reveal a lack of remorse. He has not admitted that he made mistakes in this case, and he now refuses to answer any questions about the scandal. Don't forget, this is a presidential appointee we're talking about. Mr. Obama should make clear what his standards are for public servants serving at the pleasure of the president. Encouraging and covering up man-boy sexual activity are serious offenses. The White House should force Mr. Jennings to come clean.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/28/at-the-presidents-pleasure/
Wait! Isn`t this guy the former pastor at St. Mary`s?
All’a da’ accusers be RAY_ZIST!
Another proud member of the NEA?
This is what guns were made for.
Any bastard who screws around with my kids is going to meet Sam Colt. I don’t care about teachers unions. They can meet Sam also.
Maybe Whoopi Goldberg can chime in on this one!
There's no back ground checks for teachers. Union rules.
Geeze. 4th grade kids. Imagine how much of this stuff happens in the government schools that doesn't get reported (to save the kids from future embarrassment).
But this was a male molesting females. Now THAT's molestation! If it had been a man touching boys, that would have been affirmation that the children were really gay, and that their fascist parents were oppressing them.
Once again, if they would let these teachers get married these problems wouldn’t exist. /sarc
jail him and let general population deal with him
Child molesters are the biggest scum on this world and when man touches a buy which is a common case or a girl is touched by a woman then it is also a homosexual problem.
As for Jennings the pervert he too should be in jail telling kids about how man put a fist up another mans arse or how a kid should wear protection when having sex with a teacher
it’s sick and disgusting , now if any teacher or grown up advocates underage sex then they should be jailed too
too many perverts who think they’re normal because we have some perverts telling them they are or perverts crossing dressing and saying theyr’e now the opposite sex
as for parents which bring boys up like girls and let them play with nail polish and dress as a girl then that parents need to be investigated as it is cruel for what that parent is doing to a child
I taught 25 years in NYC public schools and 13 in Catholic schools. Every grade from 5th to 12th. I can tell you that sexual activities with teachers and students was far more common in the public schools. They were larger and the activities were easier to hide.Of course when discovered the criminal consequences are immediately applied. But I had a principal who had a thing for 11 and 12 yr old Asian boys that was kept secret even though we all suspected. He retired unscathed and still spends two weeks in Bangkok every summer.
I just hope these accusations are true.
I have memories of the McMartin preschool case.
Could conceivably turn out that way.
And yet these same parents who have no trust in the school authorities will dutifully deposit their children on the doorsteps of this whorehouse masquerading as a school on Monday morning.
Pull your kids out, go to your local church, rent a couple of rooms and a hire a couple of teachers. Tell the school authorities to shove it when they start harassing you for not obeying truancy laws. Tell them the safety of your children trump the state’s truancy laws any day.
Don’t worry. This teacher will wind out his years until full retirement in a nice, cushy ‘rubber room’.
I am only surprised that they didn't hold the meeting in an upstate NY resort.
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