25 Investigates continues to document teacher sexual misconduct in Massachusetts public schools. Now we are learning of allegations against a teacher in Brockton that surfaced in an unexpected way.
“I got angry I cried. On page 103, we failed that student. And the fact that not everybody in the city is angry about this saddens me as a mom,” said Brockton school committee member, Ana Oliver, during a September 18th meeting.
The school committee was discussing a financial audit, but it revealed something deeper than any debt.
“Page 103 is the most important. Because you can fix the financial piece you can fix who’s working here. How do you repair that individual that was a vulnerable student?” This individual was at a school that was high need. The real question is, how do you repair that individual? You can’t for what happened,” said school committee member Tony Rodrigues.
25 Investigates’ reached out to both members of the school committee but has not yet heard back.
Page 103 appears in a Brockton Public Schools financial audit of fiscal year 2023.
It said in part “In February 2022, a former BPS student reported that she had a sexual relationship with her male teacher while attending the Goddard Alternative School (the predecessor to HTDS) prior to graduating in 2013.”
It went on to say “At the time of the report, the teacher against whom the allegations were made was teaching at Brockton High School…” And that “…this event may not have been isolated to the reporting student and may have been known by other staff members.”
“We know from various studies that have been done that school employees often say that even if they knew of a case, they probably wouldn’t report it because they haven’t been trained,” said Jetta Bernier, executive director of Enough Abuse, (formerly MassKids) a national child advocacy group, has long pushed for better legal protections for students.
Efforts that once again died this session on Beacon Hill.
“That would address the need to mandate training in schools, the need to make sure screening is improved, the need to close the age of consent loophole, which right now provides some protection for abusers if they’re engaged in a relationship with a 16- or 18-year-old student,” said Bernier.
In November 2023, 25 Investigates first began documenting how often children face sexual abuse in our public schools.
“The latest research tells us that it could be as much as 12% of those students report some kind of inappropriate sexual contact with an adult in their school,” said Bernier. “That means there may be more than 100,000 students right now in Massachusetts who are experiencing some form of inappropriate behavior.”
25 Investigates found dozens of cases but also found state laws enabling secrecy.
“We need every single school employee to be a champion for children,” said Bernier. “We have to change the laws to better protect our children. And now is the time. We are well past time.”
25 Investigates reached out to Brockton Public Schools.
We asked whether this teacher was terminated or resigned and when, and whether they investigated if other students were impacted.
A spokesperson would only say the teacher has not worked for the district since 2022. And any allegations are investigated and reported to the appropriate authorities.
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