Media

Thankfully it was not someone who was supposed to be interacting with the students.

A Hillsboro IT employee was found with pics of children (yeah, those kind), and was fired (placed on unpaid leave, but firing a public employee for cause requires a hearing). You can read the article here.

Instead of keeping an eye on what teachers and other district employees were downloading to prevent the abuse of students, this guy was at best turning a blind eye to any inappropriate things he might have seen. In related news, two adults—a band volunteer and a teacher/coach—at Skyview in Vancouver were recently arrested for having sex with students.

Read here and here.

We place immense trust in our public servants. Being human, they sometimes abuse that trust.

However, it is the reaction from the Skyview principal (related to me by one of the parents of a Skyview kid) that shows the institutionally-protective mindset that is the source of so much of the trouble we deal with here at O’Donnell Clark & Crew. After the second arrest was made at Skyview, the principal came on the PA system. She told all of the girls in the school to stand up at their desks in class—and have the teachers send any girls out of compliance with the dress code to her office.

See? It wasn’t that these men who were arrested should keep their hands off the students, or that they were bad apples that should have been weeded out. No, it was the girls’ fault for dressing so provocatively. One wonders if the principal has ever accepted responsibility for anything significant in her career. Adults that abuse the trust of children should not have excuses made for them or have the blame they deserve directed elsewhere. As Skyview’s principal, this public servant should be apologizing to the entire student body and their families for failing to exercise leadership, not parading teenage girls through the school to point out that young girls nowadays dress inappropriately (big shock!).

Who watches the watchers? Those who are complicit with them, like the Hillsboro IT guy, or too much of a coward to stand up for the defenseless.