"Rape Bait", handling rape charges, and the man who was not chosen to become the superintendent of Huntsville City Schools redux #hsvboe

Dr. Eric King answers questions as the Hunstville city school board begins superintendent candidate interviews this morning. (The Huntsville Times/Glenn Baeske)

So, yesterday residents of Madison County, Alabama and the world learned the Justice Department sided with a 14 year old girl raped by serving as "bait" in a middle school sting  that occurred at Sparkman Middle School  in 2010, after the girl's father filed a lawsuit accusing the school system of negligence.

The brief contends  "...a jury could easily conclude that the school acted with deliberate indifference when, despite two sexual misconduct complaints against (the boy) days before he sodomized (the girl), it provided him unsupervised access to students and failed to protect (the girl)."
"In fact, Sparkman's practice of recording unrevealing and misleading descriptions of past incidents, coupled with its failure to maintain any record of unsubstantiated complaints and documentation for proven infractions beyond the current academic year, amounts to intentionally closing its eyes to (the boy's) dangerousness."

We also learned the boy accused in the rape "bait" incident had a history of sexual assault, and continued sexual misconduct at school after the assault.

 The boy accused in the rape case has a history of sexual infractions at school, both before and after the rape. The girl never attended Sparkman again, but the boy was sent to the district's alternative school for 20 days before being returned to the middle school. 
Court records show that it was at the alternative school in February 2010 where a teacher caught the boy watching pornography on a school computer. He was cited with a violation of the district's policy on profanity and vulgarity and given out-of-school suspension. 
The boy kept piling up infractions for fighting, disobedience and other issues until October of that year, when he was reprimanded for using his cell phone to show other students photos involving nudity. That incident, labeled as a sexual offense, resulted in another out-of-school suspension.

But here's the kicker....despite Madison County Officials outrageous response to the on campus rape of a 14 year old girl,  Sparkman Middle School  administrators kept jobs or were promoted after the fact, with the exception of the teachers aid who first notified administrators of the problem, who was placed on leave and  later resigned.   

Despite the boy's history of violence and sexual harassment, Simpson told the 14-year-old victim, also a special needs student, to go into the bathroom with him so she could catch him harassing the girl. When she failed to follow the teens into the restroom, the boy sodomized the girl.
Blair and the two assistant principals were named in the lawsuit because Simpson had told Dunaway about her plan beforehand. 
"Simpson and (the girl) then went to Vice-Principal (Jeanne) Dunaway's office, where Simpson told Dunaway about her plan to use (the girl) as bait to catch (the boy)," the Justice Department brief states. "Dunaway did not respond with any advice or directive.
"(The girl) left Dunaway's office, found (the boy) in the hallway, and agreed to meet him for sex. (The boy) told (the girl) to go to the sixth grade boys' bathroom and she complied. No teachers were in the bathroom to intervene, and (the boy) sodomized (the girl)."
The brief also states that Blair, when Simpson first reported to administrators the boy's behavior toward female students, rejected the aide's recommendation that the boy be under constant supervision, telling Simpson "that (the boy) could not be punished because he had not been 'caught in the act,' short-hand for the school's policy that students could not be disciplined without substantiation of student-on-student misconduct."

To make matters worse, one of the administrators was almost the superintendent of Madison County Schools.

Sparkman Middle principal Ronnie Blair admitted that there was an incident in January, but would not go into details, citing the pending lawsuit. The principal defended his staff.
"It's a sad situation," Blair said. "At the same time, I feel very comfortable with the way the situation was handled. That's about all I can say."
The lawsuit alleges that on Jan. 22, the girl approached the teacher and told her that a fellow student had asked her to meet him in a restroom for sex. The complaint states that the boy had been harassing several girls in a similar manner over previous weeks, and that school staff, including Blair, knew about the situation.
The lawsuit states that the teacher "coerced" the girl into going into the bathroom with the boy, telling the teen that she would then come in and catch him harassing her.

Now, let's go back to the year 2011,  the list of potential candidates,  and the man who was not chosen to become the superintendent of the Huntsville City Schools,  after the removal of Dr. Ann Roy Moore.....
Dr. Eric King of Indiana.

King has served as superintendent of the Muncie system for about three years. His time overall as a superintendent has equaled 11 years, but his experience in education goes back much longer. He has also served as a director of pupil services, principal, dean of students, athletic director, teacher and director of parks and recreation.
His education includes bachelor's and master's degrees from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, an administrative certification from Concordia University in River Forest, Ill., and a PhD from Loyola University of Chicago.
King is the highest-paid of the candidates, earning $206,000 as head of a system of 7,000 students, according to his application. He oversees 30 employees.
When discussing his hiring practices, King said he has extensive experience hiring at all levels. He said the key is to make it a collaborative process involving many members of the school system, from superintendent to principals. By borrowing from different interview methods and processes, he said, a good procedure has been established.
"Through the process, my hope has been that the best candidate would rise to the top," King said. "We've had pretty good success in eliminating the need to terminate."
Board Vice President Laurie McCaulley asked about his experience transforming under performing schools. By using a systemic process of change that promotes continuous school improvement, King said, his system has seen one of its lowest performing schools recognized last year for making the most improvement in the state.

King sounds like the perfect candidate doesn't he?  He's a certified, experienced educator, with a track record of proven results.  There is just one little problem....the color of his skin.  So what did the powers that be do to make sure the most experienced candidate with a proven track record wasn't selected for the job over a less qualified white candidate?  The media reported on criticism of King for not immediately reporting an alleged rape to police that occurred at a high school in Muncie, Indiana. 

When asked what his most challenging task had been, King told the board about a "situation" that occurred at a high school in Muncie. He did not give further details about what happened, but said it was challenging because of the sensitive nature of the situation.
King may have been referring to a November 2010 rape allegation made by a 16-year-old girl at Central High School. According to reports from local media and the Delaware County prosecutor, the girl approached her principal and reported being raped in a bathroom at the school.
King and the school's administration were later criticized for not immediately reporting the alleged rape to police.
"The determination was made that it could probably have been handled a lot better," King told the board about the situation.
He said the school system has enhanced guidelines and procedures in response to emergency situations, including having a retired sheriff's office captain heading security.
"That's the best I could do with it," King said.

Although the board seemed not to hold it against him,  King was not chosen as one of three finalist, the criticism of his handling of the incidents forced him to withdraw from another position in South Bend, Indiana, and Dr. Casey Wardynski was selected superintendent of Huntsville City Schools.

I say there is more than a whiff of hypocrisy and faux outrage going on.  What say you?

#hsvboe