The Child Protection eNewsletter

"Professional" molester left in classroom 3 months… 

Law enforcement officials are investigating the claims of a Buffalo teacher that her classroom aide fondled a 5-year-old autistic student in the boys’ lavatory at Discovery School 67 last November.  Read More

However, child protection officials, police and the boy’s parents were not notified of the incident until late February, more than three months after the November 14 incident allegedly occurred.

And the aide remained in the same classroom--with the pupil he allegedly fondled and the teacher who complained about it--until just a few days ago.

“There is an investigation involving an alleged incident at School 67,” District Attorney Frank J. Clark said.  “It came to the attention of police and our office through the Child Abuse Hotline in late February.  I can’t comment on why it took this length of time for the police to be notified.”

A spokesman for the Buffalo Police Department said an investigation has been launched by the Sex Offense Squad.

Now, the teacher who notified the district of the incident and pushed for an investigation says the teacher’s aide recently made threats on her life.

The aide is taking sick time until the two-week spring break begins next week, said Joy Trotter, the school district’s executive director of human resources.  A further decision on his status will be made before school resumes, she added.

The teacher said in a written statement Friday that the aide “told a staff member here that I’d ‘better watch my back’ and that he is going to ‘blow my head off.’  I am deeply concerned.”

Buffalo Teachers Federation President Philip Rumore called for “immediate action” on both the district’s internal investigation and the threats.

“The incident occurred when the teacher went into the boys’ room to see what was delaying one of the students,” Rumore said in a letter to Superintendent James A. Williams.  “Now we have the teacher, who is looking out for the welfare of our students, having her life threatened.”

The teacher--whose name was removed from a statement the BTF sent to Williams and Board of Education members--said she witnessed the aide fondling the student on November 14 “and immediately reported this incident” to Carmela Botticello, principal of the school at 911 Abbott Road.

“Since that time, I have pursued this incident with my principal and the district, to no avail,” she said.  “During the entire process, I understand [Botticello] has kept [the aide] informed of what I was doing.”  Botticello denied telling the aide what the teacher was doing and said the internal investigation was handled by district officials at City Hall.

Trotter called the probe “an open investigation” but--citing privacy concerns--declined to say what it has uncovered so far, when it might be completed, why it has taken more than three months to complete, or why police and child protection officials weren’t contacted immediately.

It was decided to keep the teacher and the aide together in the classroom because “both are professionals,” Trotter said.

In his letter to Williams and the board members, Rumore included this excerpt from a written statement the teacher gave to school officials:  “Even though I saw an adult repetitively touching a child on the penis, this adult was not suspended and charged with sexual abuse.  Without another witness to support my statements and the abuser’s denial of my charges, my allegations were labeled ‘unfounded.’

See Buffalo School Superintendant Williams’ letter to parents at Read More.

Ex-Wharton prof faces new charges over Brazilian boy… 

A former University of Pennsylvania professor, currently serving a federal child pornography sentence, faces new charges for allegedly lying to the U.S. State Department in an attempt to bring a Brazilian teenager into the country.  Read More

Lawrence Scott Ward, 65, a former professor of marketing at Penn's prestigious Wharton School of Business, was indicted.  Prosecutors also allege that he shipped images of himself engaging in sex acts with a boy who was about 16 years old in Fortaleza, Brazil, in 2006.

Ward sought a visa for the boy from the U.S. consulate in Recife, Brazil, invoking his Wharton position and saying the teen was the son of a friend and business acquaintance, according to the indictment.  He said the boy's family was well-off, although he knew it was poor, in an effort to dispel fears that he would become an illegal immigrant, prosecutors said.

When the boy, identified only as "J.D.," was denied a visa, authorities allege that Ward told another person in Brazil to create a bank account in the name of the teen's father.  Ward said he would provide thousands of dollars for the account, according to the indictment.  The consulate reversed its decision and granted the teen a visa, but he never entered the country, prosecutors said.

Ward was arrested on August 27, 2006, after returning from Brazil through Washington Dulles International Airport.  Customs agents discovered child pornography on Ward's computer and found DVDs containing videos of Ward having sex acts with an underage boy, prosecutors said.

Ward pleaded guilty in February 2007 to charges of importing child porn and was sentenced in May to 15 years in prison.  See  vol4_iss36.

In other news… 

Motorists watched in horror as a woman tossed two young boys off a Dallas freeway overpass, then took the two-story leap into rush-hour traffic herself.  But the shocking moment had an incredibly fortunate ending.  Read More  Police said Khandi Busby and her children, ages 8 and 6, somehow survived the fall onto Interstate 30's fast lane and the rush of vehicles.  "It was really miraculous that we didn't have some fatalities with this incident," Dallas police spokesman Sergeant Gil Cerda said.  Busby, 27, was in fair condition, a hospital spokeswoman said. Police said her sons were stable at another hospital, but hospital officials declined to comment.  The three were able to speak with investigators, although the 8-year-old may have suffered internal injuries.

Japan should ban possession of child pornography and crack down on animated films, comic books and computer games that show children being sexually exploited, UNICEF said.  Read More  The United Nations Children's Fund said Japan's 1999 child pornography law suffers from serious loopholes that hobble law enforcement and threaten children around the world.  "Forms of child pornography that are banned in other countries but not in Japan...are still widely available on the Internet and on the street," UNICEF said in a statement.  Critics say a major flaw with the current law is that while it bans production and distribution of child pornography, it is not a crime to possess it.  The law does also not cover images of child pornography in animated films, comic books and computer game software--products of which Japan is a major producer.

A Houston mother and her son allegedly hid a young girl and used her as a sex slave, according to a report by MyFOXHouston.com.  Read More  Gregoria Salgada Vazquez and David Salazar were charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault of a child after they allegedly had the girl transported from Mexico to Houston, where they kept her padlocked in a room since January 1, the TV station reports.  The girl reportedly was allowed to leave the room only when the suspects were present.  Police said the girl was forced to have sex with Salazar and also was taken to a Houston nightclub that the pair own and was forced to have sex with clients, the station reported.  The girl reportedly was freed after she got Salazar's cell phone and called 911.

Childhood sexual abuse has been linked to a range of conditions in which difficulties with emotional control are prominent.  Read More  A study in the March issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine shows that it seems to also be the case for eating disorders in that a clear association was found with bulimic, but not anorexic, symptoms in our study.  The Australian study suggests that developing less impulsive strategies for dealing with difficult emotions may be an important facet of efforts to prevent eating disorders or reduce their impact in female adolescents with a history of sexual abuse.  The study’s abstract is available online at Read More.

A former Louisiana elementary school custodian, already booked on six counts of aggravated rape involving two 10-year-olds, is facing new allegations, according to police.  Read More  Dino Jay Schwertz, 41, of Slidell, was booked at the City Jail over the weekend with six counts of aggravated rape against the 10-year-olds.  Since his arrest was made public, two more boys have come forward with allegations of indecent behavior by Schwertz, who once worked at W.L. Abney Elementary School.  Linda Roan, spokeswoman for St. Tammany Parish public schools said school officials are trying to publicize the situation as they attempt to determine whether any other children might be involved.  "We certainly would want those to be reported, if that is the case," she said.

One of two foster daughters raped by a former South Dakota lawmaker is suing him and his wife.  Read More  Ex-state Representative Ted Klaudt, 49, was convicted on four counts of second-degree rape involving the two children at his hotel suite during the 2005 and 2006 legislative sessions in Pierre.  Klaudt then pleaded guilty to two counts of witness tampering to avoid a second trial on charges he raped the same girls in his home in Walker.  He is serving a 54-year state prison sentence.  See  vol5_iss36.

Students at an Alberta school for the deaf suffered sexual and physical abuse, claims the first of what is expected to be several lawsuits alleging abuse of deaf students across Canada.  Read More  The lawsuit is the opening shot in a massive planned class action to be launched on behalf of more than 61,500 students who attended 12 provincially funded schools for the deaf, says lawyer Tony Merchant of Merchant Law Group.  Students at the schools ranged in age from about 10 to 17 years. He said information lawyers have gathered leads them to believe thousands of students--almost entirely young girls--were sexually and physically abused at schools around the country.

A library worker in the town of Lindsay, California reported to police last week that a man was looking at child pornography on one of the library computers, and because of that tip, police arrested 39-year-old Donny Chrisler.  But she also lost her job over the incident.  Read More

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