Well of course that can be the case, or it may not…. we will just have to wait.

“The Police would not have taken the teacher away in handcuffs unless they had secured a warrant or the teacher was being disorderly and refused to leave when requested.”

The teacher wasn’t taken away in handcuffs because no charges were filed. The arrest is an unfounded rumor. The superintendent says this didn’t happen. Nobody has produced a record of it happening. It wasn’t reported in the newspaper, which it surely would have been because it would have been public record, and logically speaking, the cops would not arrest a teacher at a school with kids there. That isn’t how these things are done. It would have been a huge security issue. Do you really think cops would surprise a suspect by showing up with cuffs and guns at a school in the middle of the day???

“As part of the investigation all appropriate actions including meeting with affected parents and Manassas Police Department were taken. Contact with the Manassas Department of Family Services was immediately made to ensure a thorough
investigation is conducted.”

The administrators have done their part by meeting with the “affected parents” this should be sufficient. The administrators job is protect the students and the staff and in this case I believe they have done their due diligence. The affected parents were notified and the teacher involved is no longer reporting to the school.

From an HR and legal Perspective, the administrators were most likely coached on what actions to take and communications to send out. This is a very sensitive matter and usually incidents of this nature require a thorough investigation and bringing attention to this could sometimes hurt or ruin an investigation.

I know there a quite a few parents at Dean who do not like the administrators and will never be pleased and love to complain. They complained about the administrators removing unsafe equipment from the playground and want to know why parents were not notifed. Does it really matter? You would really be complaining if something happened to your child because of faulty equipment.

Let’s keep in mind what is really important!!!!

As to Just Another Opinion- your comments about the other Manassas City School Official from 2 years ago are incorrect. The student did not “fess up that he lied”. The School Official’s case was Nolle Prosecued, which is different than being found Not Guilty. This means the case can be brought back at anytime.

At the very least the Journal would have run a small blurb…on the FRONT PAGE.

Facts, facts would be good here. Until you have facts, you have nothing but baseless innuendo, with the value of something less than rat poop.

Rather than sliming an educational institution, some evidence to support your rumor mongering would be good. A picture? Booking number? Warrant?

Got any of that? I did not think so.

“It is clear something did happen otherwise the Po Po would not have been called in.”

Just because it is something they are checking into does not make it true, ALL accusations must be investigated.

Sometimes claims are true and sometimes the are not. Everyone should keep in mind that a disgruntled student can ruin a teachers life with such an accusation.

That’s fine, Dolph, but I don’t remember having a question.
:)

How long would they have tried to cover this up?

Is it not better to provide ALL the facts of the matter (except, of course, the legally or morally confidential details) than to let speculation run rampant?

Many parents feel that the one major break-down of our schools is that the administration “forgets” what it’s like to be a parent in “today’s world”. One wonders if any of the the “admin cohorts” at GMU or elsewhere even address this issue.

Take a step “back” and ask “IF I WERE A PARENT, WOULD I WANT TO KNOW AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE?”

And— enough trying to suppress communication! PUHLEEZE– where are we? Russia? Independent Hill and the massive “just-trying-to-keep-my-6-figure-job” bureaucracy of PWCS?

Managing a school or school system, despite being kid-oriented. isn’t kids-play. Kudos to today’s brave teachers and administrators who dare to risk their sanity and reputations in the name of helping our kids prepare for the real world.

Jennie Dean Elementary School does NOT deserve to be singled-out in GL’s comments (however much we support his intentions to “inform”). It’s just unfortunate that, once again, the lack of open communication and not suppression of same has allowed rumor to replace fact and opinion to trump reality.

Today’s letter from Mrs. Pope was APPRECIATED and could have only been more so had it come from the school. Nonetheless, once Dean is past that mindset of suppression, the sky is the limit– Our team of adminstrators, teachers and staff know their stuff!

Thank you for setting the record straight. It sickens me that someone would be so eager to spread gossip that a person’s reputation might be unjustly ruined or an investigation might be compromised because of a leak.

I would hope to see a retraction.

I don’t know if this guy is guilty or not. I will say, though, that we live in a country where you are innocent until proven guilty. From what I have gathered, this person hasn’t even been arrested or charged, so to claim otherwise is not helping the situation. At the same time, I don’t know if the school system fingerprints teachers or not. I’m not sure what the process is. But I will say that fingerprints don’t do you any good if there is no criminal background to identify because the person has never been caught doing this kind of thing before. The school system may have done its due diligence.

From the letter, it is apparent that this is being looked into by the authorities and nothing is being swept under the rug. The school system has a legal obligation to protect both students and faculty when no charges have been filed. I suggest we give the authorities and school system the time they need to look into this and quit passing along unfounded rumors.