SC: Deciding the Fate of Charged School Officials

November 12, 2009

http://www.wciv.com/news/stories/1109/677633.html

Dorchester County, SC - Some Dorchester District Two principals and teachers are accused of covering up child abuse at Knightsville Elementary.

Heather Martin, 38, is a teaching assistant who worked with special education students. She is charged with nine felony counts of unlawful conduct towards a child. 38-year-old Rebecca Piersol-Crosby is a lead special education teacher. She is charged with three felony counts of unlawful conduct towards a child and four counts of misprision of a felony.

While, 47-year-old Assistant Principal Mary Rita Watson and 42-year-old Principal Anita Ruff-Putillion were charged with one count of failure to report child abuse.

Knightsville Elementary is a small school rocked by big accusations. The allegations are shocking to Knightsville parent Kristy Greenwood. Her son Bryce is in the first grade.

"It's scaring me a lot. When I first heard about it, I thought it was mild and blown out of proportion. This is just heartbreaking," Greenwood said.

Investigators say the abuse began in August. Heather Martin is accused of grabbing one of her autistic students and dragging him by the hair. She's also accused of covering another students nose and mouth of long periods of time.

"I wish someone would have told us what happened," said Greenwood.

Greenwood knows firsthand how challenging working with autistic children can be because her son Bryce is being evaluated for Asperger Syndrome.

"They have a lot of trouble communicating what is going on in their minds. If you aren't a patient person, it can get frustrating very quickly," Greenwood explained.

State law mandates that school officials report suspected abuse. Investigators say that wasn't done in the case at Knightsville Elementary and that is why the principal and assistant principal were also charged.

"We're talking about children who dont have a voice for themselves," Evelyn Turner with the Charleston Disabilities Board said. "If anyone suspects abuse and doesn't report it, they're not protecting children."

Greenwood is concerned about her son's safety and wants to know how the district will handle the situation. All of the women except Heather Martin have been reassigned to other schools in the district.

Piersol-Crosby is working in the districts special services department. Watson was reassigned to Oakbrook Elementary and Putillion is at Beech Hill Elementary. A district spokesperson says Heather Martin no longer works for the district.

SC: Teacher charged with unlawful conduct towards special needs student

Nov 10, 2009

By Logan Smith - email

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11478875

SUMMERVILLE, SC - Police in Dorchester County have arrested a teacher at Williams Memorial Elementary School after she was accused of unlawful conduct toward a special needs student.

Rosemary Mills, 49, of Summerville is charged with unlawful conduct toward a child in connection with the incident, according to St. George police Lt. Allen Kinsey.

Kinsey said a parent witnessed Mills shouting at and physically restraining a 10-year-old special needs student at school on October 14. Mills is a special education teacher.

Mills is being held at the Dorchester County Detention Center. A bond hearing was scheduled for 3:30pm Tuesday.

Information on Mills' employment with Dorchester County School District Four was not immediately available.

This is the second recent unrelated incident involving a Lowcountry teacher facing criminal charges for conduct toward a special needs student.

Last week, a North Charleston teacher's aide was arrested after police say she held a four-year-old by the feet and hit the child several times with a ruler.

Previous Story:

• Lowcountry teacher's aid charged with cruelty to children

SC: Teacher’s aide arrested for assaulting an autistic student

Newsroom
Published: November 6, 2009
Updated: November 6, 2009

http://www2.counton2.com/cbd/news/local/article/teachers_aide_arrested_for_assaulting_an_autistic_student/82542/

A North Charleston teacher’s aide is facing charges after an assault last month at A.C. Cochran Elementary School. {Note: the school is actually A.C. Corcoran Elementary School}

According to the police report a teacher saw 60-year-old Irene Andrews holding a four-year-old autistic student by his bare feet, hitting his feet with a ruler. The teacher told police that when the suspect saw the other teacher, she told her “you didn’t see anything.“

The police report also says the principal notified officers that the Andrews had been disciplined before, for putting a student in the bathroom as punishment.

The Charleston County School District responding to this information today with the following statement:

Let us be clear on our policy—we forbid any kind of corporal punishment in our schools, and work very closely with law enforcement and local agencies to identify and prevent wrongdoing. We have been very deliberate about this in terms of training, partnerships, policy, and awareness-building.

In the case of this teacher’s assistant, we acted swiftly to investigate the allegation that she struck a student on the bottom of the feet with a ruler. We took the child to the nurse, who found no injury. The principal immediately contacted her supervisor and was directed to our staff attorney and to human resources. The principal contacted the parents and the police that afternoon. The same day, the teacher’s assistant was placed on administrative leave with pay pending investigation.

The alleged bathroom incident, which happened approximately three weeks earlier, involved a different child and did not trigger a call to the police. Based on the information gathered at the school, it was seen as a very poor decision and inappropriate behavior. The principal documented this immediately in a written reprimand to the teacher’s assistant.

The TA—who has not been in class since the allegation that she struck the student’s feet was made—is no longer employed by the district.

SC: Teen shot to death after high school stabbing

NOTE: This is a related article to the story about 16 yr old Trevor Varinecz, the student with autism who was allegedly shot to death by the school resource officer after the teen allegedly stabbed the school resource officer. New information indicates that there were no witnesses to the incident as it took place "behind closed doors..."

School official: Resource officer defended himself from boy’s attack

NBC News and news services
updated 12:10 p.m. ET, Fri., Oct . 16, 2009
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33344545/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - A high school resource officer on Friday shot to death a 16-year-old student who attacked him with a knife, a school official told NBC News.

The male student at Carolina Forest High School had asked to speak with the resource officer in his office and a fight ensued, said Teal Britton, spokeswoman for Horry School District.

The student stabbed the officer with a knife, Britton said.

She said both struggled and to protect everyone's safety the officer opened fire. No one else witnessed the incident because it happened behind closed doors, Britton said.

Both were taken to the Conway Medical Center, where hospital officials confirmed the student's death. The school resource officer was listed in good condition.

Britton said no one else was injured.

RELATED: Breaking News - SC: Officials ID student fatally shot after stabbing officer

Breaking News - SC: Officials ID student fatally shot after stabbing officer

NOTE: Unfortunately there is so much to this story that is (and may forever remain) unknown. What is known is that sixteen year old Trevor Varinecz, a student at Carolina Forest High School who had been diagnosed with autism, had asked to see School Resource Officer Marcus Rhodes. Once inside the office, a fight reportedly broke out between the two; the result, a death. Varinecz allegedly stabbed Rhodes multiple times and Rhodes allegedly shot Varinecz five times.

Our thoughts go out to both families as they struggle to come to terms with this tragedy.

Posted October 16, 2009
Updated October 17, 2009

http://www.wmbfnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=11326047#

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - An 11th grade student is dead Friday after stabbing a resource officer who defended himself with gunfire at Carolina Forest High School.

Teal Britton, spokeswoman for Horry County Schools, says the student, identified as Trevor Varinecz, asked to speak with the school resource officer in his office around 8:20 a.m. when a fight between the two ensued. Officials say Varinecz, 16, stabbed the officer multiple times, who returned with gunfire.

Horry County coroner Robert Edge reported Saturday after an autopsy that Varinecz was shot five times. It was also noted that only one shot, which was to the chest, created a life-threatening wound.

Both victims were taken to the Conway Medical Center, where hospital officials confirmed Varinecz died at 9:34 a.m. as a result of multiple gunshot wounds. The school resource officer, identified as Marcus Rhodes, was released from care at 12:30 p.m., hospital spokeswoman Julie Rajotte said.

A neighbor and family friend told WMBF News Varinecz and his parents made a wonderful family. They say the 16-year-old wasn't a trouble maker, but he was a functioning autistic teenager whose parents worked hard to integrate him into normal activities.

WMBF News partner The Myrtle Beach Herald reports Rhodes has been employed with the Horry County Police Department since 2000, serving as a school resource officer at North Myrtle Beach High School before transferring to Carolina Forest High School.

Britton confirmed this was an isolated incident and no one else was injured. The situation was quickly controlled and an investigation was launched by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

Carolina Forest High School is equipped with nine metal detectors, the most out of any school in Horry County. Currently, more than 2,000 students attend the high school located on Gardner Lacy Road between Myrtle Beach and Conway.

School officials say the detectors were to be in use Friday, but it is possible Varinecz was not scanned by one. Detectors are placed only in specific areas and entrances to the school. Britton says a lack of manpower makes it "almost impossible" for every student to go through a detector each day.

Horry County School Board member Joe DeFeo says not only is the lack of manpower a problem, but the building's structural layout, as well. The Carolina Forest High School campus is comprised of multiple buildings, all of which are known by students and teachers as "houses."

DeFeo tells WMBF News it is extremely hard to logically place the nine metal detectors due to the multiple entrances to the school. He says over the years, the school's layout has become an issue when it comes to school safety.

"I'm not so sure how you prevent this," said DeFeo. "If a student who you might know says they want to talk to you and then they attack you, I just don't know where you go from there."

"You plan for all the possibilities and this one, I don't think that we could have quite imagined," added Britton. "I don't think even with a metal detector there would have been a way to prevent it."

DeFeo, a former police officer, says the possibilities are endless on how the school district can provide better security to its schools. He suggests the solution could be drawn from putting more officers in schools, installing more metal detectors and even transferring students to make school populations more manageable.

"The options are almost endless," he speculated. "We just need to choose the right one and implement it."

Friday's incident marks the second time in three years a Carolina Forest High School student has died in a violent incident on the school's campus. In June 2006, 18-year-old Natalia Holmes was stabbed 15 times and run over by a vehicle by her estranged boyfriend in the school's parking lot.

A meeting between Horry County School Board members is expected to take place in the upcoming days for officials to review the incident and brainstorm additional security precautions for the school. The topic is up for discussion at Monday evening's school board meeting.

RELATED: http://tcfpbis.blogspot.com/2009/10/sc-teen-shot-to-death-after-high-school.html

SC: Allegations of Abuse of Special Needs Student at Edisto High School

Allegations of Teacher Abuse

From ABC Columbia:

http://www.wolo.com/article.php?id=1001&page=index

Allegations that a teacher abused two special needs children at Edisto High School have parents angry, and the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office investigating. The teacher has been suspended without pay. One incident involves a parent accusing a teacher of assaulting her child. Another involves a plastic bag being placed on or near a child's head.

Only three teacher's aides and a teacher know exactly what happened inside a classroom at Edisto High School. The first incident occurred on August 26^th. According to an incident report, the school's principal says a special needs student was hitting teachers and students. The report says 61 year old teacher Paul Jensen was guiding the student away when the student fell. Orangeburg School District Four did an investigation and found no intentional wrong doing on Jensen's part. However, the district did put him on paid leave and offered him an improvement plan on how to better handle problems with students.

Parent Cindy Strock says her son only hit Jensen after the teacher grabbed him. She says, “The incident is being belittled. It was a very serious accident with my child. I am very disappointed in the district's response.”

Fast forward to October 1, Superintendent Dr. Thomas Sparks says teachers aides confirm that a plastic bag was near the face of another special needs student. He says it's unclear if Jensen placed the bag there, but the Superintendent says the teacher exercised bad judgment.

The victim's father, David Smith says his son could have suffocated and that he will not be returning to Edisto High School.

Needy Schools Turn to Parents For Funding

Note: Several districts listed in this article are alredy on our "list" as using seclusion rooms and/or restraints inappropriately....As budgets are cut, we can expect instances of abuse to get worse as there are fewer aides in the classroom and less money for needed trainings...

By ANNE MARIE CHAKER

December 30, 2008

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123059503016140943.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

PTAs Are Helping to Cover Cost of Books, Other Supplies; Paying to Keep a Teacher Aide

Public schools across the country, hurt by state- and local-government cutbacks, are tapping an alternative source of cash: Mom and Dad.

Parent groups and local nonprofit organizations have long raised money for activities like class trips, school dances and after-school clubs. But many parents say they now are shelling out for core curricular items that were once publicly funded -- from classroom supplies to teachers' salaries.

This fall, a parent group in Columbia, S.C., bought 100 dictionaries for a middle-school teacher who had requested them. In Kentucky, the Middletown Elementary School parent-teacher association has been discussing helping to pay the salary of a teacher aide whose job might get cut. And in Sunrise, Fla., the Sawgrass Elementary School PTA is kicking in $3,000 for news magazines that the district used to buy for classroom use. The group also is considering eliminating funding for specialized after-school clubs to free up money for classroom study programs.

"There's no question that PTAs are having to reprioritize," says Michael Ryan, president of the Sawgrass Elementary PTA. "It couldn't come at a worse time for us in many respects since fund raising is so difficult because of the broad economic issues."

Sawgrass Elementary is part of the Broward County Public School District, the sixth-largest in the country, which is expecting a $100 million reduction in state funding for the 2009-2010 academic year, according to district superintendent James Notter. That amount would be twice the size of the budget cut of just two years ago, he says.

Many school districts are facing similar cuts as governments run up deficits. Some 41 states are projecting midyear budget shortfalls this fiscal year, compared with just seven states a year ago, according to a survey by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit research group. If current trends continue, combined state deficits for next fiscal year will be around $145 billion, compared with the $89 billion shortfall estimated for the current fiscal year, the center calculates.

The Iowa City Community School District, which serves 11,000 students, won't be receiving $783,000 from the state it had already budgeted for this school year, says superintendent Lane Plugge. School officials expect to tap reserves from local property-tax revenues to continue providing programs and services in coming months.

Also digging deeper is the Iowa City Community School District Foundation, a nonprofit that traditionally supports non-core student enrichment programs. Now, the group is seeing a big uptick in requests from teachers for books to supplement library collections and computer gear that the district typically used to fund, says Jacki Brennan, the foundation's executive director. Last year, the foundation was able to come through with half of the funds for $130,000 in requests from teachers for supplies and core programs. This year, "I anticipate lots more requests, way more than we can fund," Ms. Brennan says.

Strapped Parents

As schools lean more on parent groups, those groups, too, are affected by leaner times. In Oregon, the nonprofit Lake Oswego School District Foundation is lowering its fund-raising goal this year to $1.5 million from $2.2 million last year as local residents seek to save more and spend less. Middletown Elementary's PTA in Kentucky says donations are about one-third lower than at this time last year, even after an extra fund-raiser. And in Colorado, the Poudre School District Foundation says it is hearing from donors that they'll likely be giving less this year.

A survey by California PTA, a statewide group, of about 500 PTA presidents in the state showed that nearly two-thirds of the groups have been asked by schools this year to pitch in more money for basic supplies and programs, from pencils and books to arts programs.

"One of the things we've always said to our members is, 'Your purpose is not to be a cash cow'" to cover regular school expenses, says Jan Harp Domene, president of the National Parent Teacher Association, an umbrella organization. "But we know they are playing a critical part in making sure children still have services that were once part of the budget, from music programs to adequate custodial supplies. These are not frills."

As local PTAs play a bigger role in funding school activities, the National PTA is reminding members in organization publications to adhere to fund-raising guidelines that aim to avert potential conflicts of interest and liabilities. Among the guidelines: PTAs should obtain a broad consensus in deciding what activities to sponsor. Local groups also should keep projects at arm's length -- providing schools with earmarked donations, for instance, rather than dealing directly with contractors.

Some groups are concerned that increased reliance on parents for funding can create inequities "because not all parent and community groups can pitch in to backfill services in the same way," says Pam Brady, president of California PTA.

To minimize this, National PTA encourages local groups to avoid making donations to programs such as science clubs or band boosters that wouldn't be shared by everyone at the school. "Donations should provide for all children," Ms. Domene says. Still, she says, some inequity is inevitable since parent participation in low-income communities is generally lower than in wealthier ones.

Other parents worry that increased PTA funding of core school items will in the long run encourage further cuts by school boards "if we're here making up the difference," says Mr. Ryan of the Sawgrass PTA. "Pragmatically, though, none of us are willing to take a stand and say 'We won't provide it this year.'"

Onus on School Boards

But other PTA's are doing just that. The Eldorado Community School PTA in Santa Fe, N.M., this year has put the brakes on funding teacher salaries after it raised $61,000 last year to save a physical-education instructor's job. "After that we decided we're not going to pay district responsibilities like salaries" because of concern that it was setting a precedent that could not be maintained, says PTA president Kathy Ritschel. To the district, "we said, 'You guys figure it out.'"

Write to Anne Marie Chaker at anne-marie.chaker@wsj.com

SC: Bond set for former principal charged with sexual abuse of children

News - Breaking News
Friday, Dec. 12, 2008
http://www.thestate.com/breaking/story/619436.html

AIKEN -- A former Aiken County school administrator accused of 14 charges related to sexual abuse of children between the 1970s and 1994 had bond set in court Thursday. And it was revealed that these charges are not the last.

Stephen Coke Eubanks, 67, of Belair Road in North Augusta, was denied bond in November when the most recent nine charges -- two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, engaging a child for sexual performance, two counts of lewd act upon a child under 16, kidnapping, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and enticing enrolled child from school -- came to light.

On Thursday, Judge Cordell Maddox rolled the former North Augusta principal's first bond of $25,000 over. He did add conditions that Eubanks would be on house arrest with a GPS monitor and can have no contact with anyone under the age of 16 without supervision.

In court, assistant solicitor Brenda Brisbin, and an agent from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, explained that several people have come forward against Eubanks, but not all will file criminal complaints.

"Numerous others do not wish to come forward because of their position within the community," said SLED Special Agent Paul LaRosa.

Brisbin did reveal that there will "definitely" be new charges coming from a victim who has more recently contacted SLED.

These most recent charges against Eubanks come from three victims, two males and a female, who reported the abuse to the toll-free hotline established on Oct. 21, 2008, after the initial allegations surfaced.

According to the latest series of arrest warrants, Eubanks is accused of having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old boy at the former educator's Belair Road home between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 1993.

The allegations include accusations that he and the teen watched pornography and engaged in masturbation and oral sex.

Eubanks was accused last month of plying teenagers with alcohol and drugs and sexually abusing a North Augusta High School student and Paul Knox Junior High School student in the 1970s.

In addition to working in Aiken County, Eubanks is a former school administrator with the Georgetown and Lancaster County school systems, and state agents say they are also investigating in those areas.

-- Aiken Standard, McClatchy-Tribune Regional News