Two Catholic School Teachers Sue after Being Fired for Reporting Suspected Sex Abuse

[madfloridian]

Two Catholic School Teachers Sue after Being Fired for Reporting Suspected Sex Abuse

Two teachers are suing the Catholic Archdiocese of Miami for claims that they were fired for reporting suspected sex abuse involving the principal and a seventh grade girl.

Chanell Morello and Lynn Hoffman contacted the Florida Department of Children and Families and the Miami Archdiocese after a student made Morello aware of an alleged incident involving the student and the St. Anthony Catholic School principal Norma Kramer, reports ABC news. The student reportedly told Morello about the incident last year, while crying and shaking.

According to the complaint, the principal lifted the student’s skirt, “exposing her bare buttocks and genital area to a school employee and another student.”

“This is all about protecting kids,” said Jeff Herman, a lawyer for the two dismissed teachers. “These women did just that, even though it cost them their jobs.”

Here is more about their firing.

Two Florida Teachers Fired for Reporting Abuse at Catholic School

Here is the story: Chanell Morello, a teacher at St. Anthony Catholic School in Miami, says she was approached last year by a “crying and shaking” female student who told her that her principal, Norma Kramer, had just lifted her skirt, “exposing her bare buttocks and genital area to a school employee and another student.”

..."Morello and Hoffman contacted the Florida Department of Children and Families as well as the Miami Archdiocese immediately after the student told Morello what had taken place in the principal’s office.

And it was Hoffman who confronted Principal Kramer about the alleged sexual assault. Hoffman said that Kramer admitted she had done what the girl claimed. “She told us she was probably going to be taken out in handcuffs,” Hoffman said.

This part shows a threat made to them...there is nothing else to call it.

Jeff Herman, a lawyer representing Morello and Hoffman who has dealt with other lawsuits against the archdiocese, said, “They were told during the year that if they didn’t keep quiet, they’d have a problem.”

This is a private school, but teachers in public schools have no choice. The law says they MUST report suspected abuse to the abuse hotline.

They are not to discuss it with anyone, not even a principal, they are to report it. The law is a good one. It protects the teacher and assures the students will get the help they need.

From the FL DOE website:

"Document and report it. Document your conversation as soon as you can. If possible, write down the child’s exact words.

Don’t delay. Never assume someone else will report the abuse. The sooner it’s reported, the sooner the child and their family can be helped.

WHO MUST REPORT ABUSE?

Doctors
Nurses
Social Workers
Police Officers
Child Care Workers
Any Witnesses
Any/All School Personnel

Those teachers were threatened that if they reported it there would be trouble. That is a terrible shame.

[Throckmorton]

1. In Connecticut, as a mandated reporter, you have 24 hours.

As a DCF foster parent, I have 24 hours to file, via fax, a written report. I have 1 hour to call the child protection hotline. This is something I have had to do twice in 4 years, and it rips your guts out each time.

[madfloridian]

2. It's so hard to have to do it.

I had a few heartbreaking calls to make during my years of teaching. One involved very prominent people, but I survived it because of the law. The parents attacked me at first, but they kept hearing from everyone that I was required to do it if told about it. They were told I had no choice. They came around and eventually gave me a hug in the presence of their counselor.

[kas125]

3. I worked at an elementary school for ten years and I had to

report several times. After the first time, which was a six year old who showed me the cuts left after being beaten with an extension cord, the kids spread the word - if something bad is happening to you at home, tell Mrs. S and she'll take care if it. The things those kids told me haunted me and sometimes still do.

[madfloridian]

4. What stunned me was the initial reaction of the principal in one case.

Her first words to me were to the effect that these parents had 6 kids and would never do those things. She wondered why the other teachers had not reported them, and implied that I was over-reacting. Since the kid had told me twice, more definitely the 2nd time, the 2nd time in an accusatory way....I had no choice.

Turns out there was serious stuff going on, and in the long run the parents thanked me. The principal was sheepish afterward.

It's a law that protects those who use it as they should.

[DonCoquixote]

5. THIS is the other side of private schools

Especially Church run ones, where the purpose is to enforce and preserve Church power, the kids be damned.

[madfloridian]

6. I checked to see if this was one of many Catholic schools converted to charter...

in Florida. I found this article. It does not appear to be one of them that changed the last year or so, but I am doing some more checking.

http://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/conversion-anxiety-parochial-to-charter-school-transitions-spark-concern

"The creative folks at the Archdiocese of Miami think they have found a new group of donors to bail out their financially strapped parishes and parochial schools: the taxpayers of Florida.

According to Florida Catholic, several Catholic schools in South Florida that closed due to declining enrollment or money problems reopened this fall as publicly funded charter schools.

"What was intended as a pilot program at one parish – Corpus Christi in Wynwood – will become, for financial reasons, the norm at seven more," the diocesan newspaper reported.

Charters, the newspaper said, opened in August where five other Catholic schools closed last June: Sacred Heart, Our Lady of Divine Providence in Sweetwater, St. Francis Xavier in Overtown, St. Stephen in Miramar and St. Clement in Fort Lauderdale. A seventh charter opened at St. Malachy in Tamarac, and an eighth opened in Miami Gardens, in a building used by St. Monica School."

[DonCoquixote]

7. This one may not be

But we both know that the Catholic schools are attempting to gain power by this, as well as the Baptist ones.

[madfloridian]

8. And getting taxpayer money while doing so.

What bothers me so much is that so few even care or notice.

[DreamSmoker]

9. But the Preist have free run and no accountability what so ever

[madfloridian]

10. ABC Video: Teacher was told to keep her mouth shut or be fired.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-teachers-fired-reporting-abuse-catholic-school/story?id=14914129#.TsguWlawVmo