'Enough Abuse' Pitches Services to Pittsfield Amid PHS Scandal
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Department is considering a nonprofit's assistance to safeguard children from sexual abuse.
"This is not just your problem," Executive Director of Enough Abuse Jetta Bernier told the School Committee and the City Council on Wednesday.
While awaiting the findings of an investigation on the Pittsfield High School staffing scandal, officials heard how Enough Abuse can help strengthen policies and provide education to protect students in the Pittsfield Public Schools.
"I think for those that have felt almost frozen in terms of 'What do we do? How do we act?' Parents, teachers, administrators, folks within the school, this kind of starts to help the brain figure out next steps," Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi said.
"And also, for those that are not familiar with how to prevent abuse, to help them think about what they should be expecting from our school system."
Bernier outlined five goals for the district and avenues for achieving them, including educating all PPS employees to identify and respond to adult interactions with children that might be precursors to sexual misconduct or abuse, educating students and parents, strengthening PPS policies and practices, and engaging the community.
Courses cost $20 per learner and Bernier offered technical assistance for $125 an hour.
"Money will not get in the way of this getting done. I can tell you, we are a nonprofit. We work hard to raise money like you all do for your school but this is just too important," she said.
"Our board of directors, they're wonderful people like all of you. They're committed to kids. They're committed to this cause. Many of them are survivors themselves of childhood sexual abuse or their kids have experienced it."
This was an informational presentation brought forward by Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren. There was no vote to move forward but there was interest from members of the bodies.
"I would guess throughout this entire process that we've all kind of felt a pit in our stomach, and having someone with your expertise come here and break down the next steps for us is extremely helpful," Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey said.
"I mean, I would give you a standing ovation if I could."
Lampiasi told Bernier, "at no point during your presentation did I feel like you were here to be a salesperson."
Three PHS staff were put on administrative leave in December, including a dean who was arrested on drug-trafficking charges. The others are being investigated by the Department of Children and Families. The district is also facing a civil lawsuit over inappropriate conduct by a former teacher.
The accusations against the PHS administrators have not been released and a former staffer also under DCF investigation has been cleared of any misconduct.
Bernier reported that in 80 to 90 percent of child molestation cases in schools, the perpetrator had a clean Criminal Offender Record Information, or CORI check.
"They didn't show up in law enforcement. They didn't show up on some of these criminal background records," she said.
"Why? Because pedophiles who work in schools, and there are some who have a compulsive need to abuse children, they work very hard not to get caught. That's part of the game."
Reportedly more than a dozen U.S. states have filed legislation and passed laws to standardize the screening process to ask if a person has been investigated for sexual misconduct or abuse or surrendered their license in lieu of an investigation.
"Because we now know that that is happening pretty consistently across the state of Massachusetts," she said.
"If a report is filed against a particular employee who has a license, that person can essentially say, 'You don't have to bother investigating. I'm going to surrender my license.' At this point, the department has one less investigation to do and the person can decide to go to the next state and not apply for a licensed position. They can apply for a classified position where it doesn't need a license and no one will ever know that they were involved in that kind of misbehavior in another state."
Bernier said schools often have concerns about being sued for sharing information about abuse allegations to other employers.
State Sen. Joan Lovely of Salem has proposed a bill to strengthen the screening of school employees to disclose previous sexual abuse or misconduct. This would also protect schools from liability for sharing information with another school about an employee's misconduct, prohibit related confidentiality agreements, and prevent the practice known as "passing the trash."
School Committee member Sara Hathaway asserted that the administration takes this topic "very seriously" and is not passing abusers around.
"And, in fact, I don't know that we have anyone accused of pedophilia in our situation at this point anyway," she added.
For 10 years, Enough Abuse has worked with Lovely on child sex abuse prevention bills that have yet to pass. "We're mad. We're really mad," said Bernier, adding it is getting to the point of sit-ins or speak-outs at the State House in Boston.
"I'm at a point where I'm saying to 'Folks, we're now going to resort to guerrilla tactics,'" she said.
Councilor at Large Earl Persip III told her "Pass those along to us."
"I think this is a perfect example of why people are disheartened by government. It takes over 10 years to protect children. Everyone in that State House, the governor, should be ashamed of themselves that it's taking 10 years and nothing's done.
"They should all be ashamed of themselves. And I think everyone who sees this, hears this, should write a letter, do what you can. Emails work. They might not get responded to but the more you can do, people out there who are watching and people in the audience, you have to put the pressure on. It blows my mind that it's 10 years and this is low-hanging fruit. This is an easy legislation. It should be."
Kavey is concerned about school employees speaking to students on social media.
"I've spoken to some educators about it who work in our school system, I've spoken to some students, and it seems like students are friends with some of the educators in our school system and I don't know if the policy we currently have isn't doing enough to stop that," he said.
"I have some of my former teachers who I'm friends with on social media but we became friends probably 10 years after I graduated and we have professional relationships now. So that's just one thing that's kind of been in the back of my mind. It keeps coming up when we have these discussions and it's something that I would really like you to focus on."
Enough Abuse has proposed codes of conduct for students and employees and Bernier said the electronic communication section is "pretty extensive."
"We're concerned that in so many cases where there's a sexual relation going on, that the cell phones are the instrument of the exploitation," she said.
"Online cell phones, this is where a lot of the sexual misconduct takes place. Sending inappropriate messages that are provocative, sending photographs, asking for photographs from the student."
School Committee member William Garrity reported efforts to revise the PPS social media policy and said Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, where he is the student senate trustee, is having similar discussions.
