Response to Wattawa
The purpose of this letter is to respond to a letter written by Steven Wattawa that was posted to the St. Francis Now website on May 22, 2009. Mr. Wattawa’s letter includes a number of falsehoods, innuendos, and unfounded assumptions.
Because there is an ongoing court case, and due to student confidentiality, the District is unable to comment in any specific way about this matter. However, we can respond to some of his criticisms of the District, and correct some of the misinformation contained in his letter.
Perhaps most disturbing is Mr. Wattawa’s suggestion that this matter was not handled appropriately by the District. It is important to note that, as has been publicly reported, the abuse with which the teacher was accused took place off school grounds and outside the school day. Moreover, it is a matter of public record that, far from ignoring this situation, the District acted immediately by removing the teacher in question from her teaching assignment and dismissing her from the District’s employ. In addition, the District worked both with the authorities in their investigations of the matter and with the Department of Public Instruction in their investigation of the teacher’s license.
By every measure, the District acted both appropriately and with the utmost urgency.
Mr. Wattawa’s letter also contained other factual errors, including his suggestion that the dates of a claim filed against the District were made on May 1st of this year. As a result of this claim date, Mr. Wattawa suggests that I should have been aware of the claim when asked on May 4th to comment on it. In fact, the claim was not made until May 5th, a full day after I was asked to comment on it. For this reason, I had no knowledge of the claim when I was asked about it on May 4th.
Further, with regard to the lawsuit itself, it is important to note that the District is the one being sued, and is not the one bringing legal action. Moreover, the guilt of a teacher is not the guilt of the District. For this reason, the District and its insurance company have an obligation to defend themselves as a result of this suit.
Despite Mr. Wattawa’s assertions, this simple fact remains: the safety of our students is the number-one priority of this School District. The situation referenced by Mr. Wattawa is, to be sure, a very devastating situation. However, it is made worse by his salacious and irresponsible comments, which are based, at best, on very bad information.
Sincerely,
Carol R. Topinka
Superintendent
CRT:lcj
PROVIDING QUALITY EDUCATION ON THE DYNAMIC SOUTH SHORE
