Solutions: What school districts can do. Record book: Other cases of coaches hired despite past. Gary Millard continues teaching and coaching. Solutions: Misconduct registry, more training needed. Record book: Other cases of dropped investigations. Natalie Duryea, left, and Devon Crosby-Helms told of abuse. Solutions: Record checks help; vigilance is better. Record book: Other cases of club coach misconduct. Former wrestling coach loses teaching certificate.
But teachers in Bellevue, Seattle and Federal Way school districts sought to bar the districts from releasing their records, arguing it would violate their privacy. The court ruled in favor of The Times in 15 cases but said three cases where the charges were proven to be false were not subject to public disclosure.
Unsubstantiated charges are fair game. As The Times series found, some of these people turned up in other school districts or youth programs. Some left a trail of misconduct that spanned several posts. And when you did find these , you made a big production out of it with this series. How is this not just another case of the media putting undue stress and paranoia into the minds of parents through sensationalized stories about isolated out of 5, instances?
We said in the story that these are an unscrupulous minority of coaches that do break the rules. But when the system breaks like this and some of these coaches aren't punished, then the public needs to know this so it doesn't happen again.
Shedding sunlight on this problem can only improve the safety of all children. If parents read our entire series carefully, we believe they won't be overly alarmed. This is an important public issue. How is it that school districts, such as Bellevue, can allow their teachers to come purge their files and take out any documentation of wrong doing? In the end, the district must approve of the removal of records.
You mentioned that SPI had a staff of 4. Is that correct? If so then each full time staff works 4 to 5 cases per year. The numbers we provided only reflected the sexual misconduct complaints that were closed in any given year. I'd like to know how your editors felt about the thousands of dollars they invested in court costs so you both could get the materials you needed. Many smaller newspapers are unable to afford these costs.
Do you see this series affecting the way the OSPI and local districts hand over records--even to smaller papers? We fought for months to get the records.
We hope this changes how schools deal with requests for records and that they are more responsive to the public's requests. Did you make attempts to contact all of the "victims"? Did you come across any instances of allegations made by a student that were later proven false?
It's a rare occurrence. A friend of mine was sexually assaulted by her teacher who was also her coach. I noticed that his name was not listed. We'd love to hear from you or your friend to learn more about her case. How likely do you think it is that this series will create real change in practice with OSPI and at the school district level? Now, schools often don't ask previous employers about sexual misconduct allegations, and some schools make agreements with accused teachers to keep them secret.
Changing these practices would be a good start. Is there any talk of putting together a small piece aimed at the athletes themselves, that could be handed out at schools perhaps that provides them information about proper vs. Thank you. The awareness of abuse and harassment is limited in the sports arena. People have called for schools develop programs to inform and educate athletes about this important issue.
There are several Web sites listed on the solutions page that parents and girls can turn to for more information. The women we spoke with for that story had been abused as many as 10 years earlier, and it still affects them.
We interviewed other victims who still feel damaged, even 20 or 30 years later. We talked to some young women who say they felt like the school district made them out to be the bad guys. They say that, as well as the abuse, has had a great affect on them. I read a very similar article in the Seattle P-I not too long ago that chronicled some of the same coaches that you did. Did they beat you to the punch, or was your version started beforehand? The Times fought in the courts and traveled the state doing in-depth reporting.
We found cases and flaws in the system that allows misconduct to continue. The P-I focused on three coaches and did a narrower story, in our opinion. Isn't it Washington state law that persons working with the vulnerable, to include working with seniors and children, be required to report any suspected abuse or known abuse to the WA State Abuse Hotline?
Why is the reporting requirement different with employees who work with public schools than it is with social service agency employees? However, in our reporting, we learned that some schools treat allegations of misconduct by teachers differently than they do allegations of misconduct by people outside of the school. For instance, school districts said that if a child says she's being abused at home, they call CPS or police immediately.
What is the statute of limitations on filing in cases of abuse by coaches in WA?
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