Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Stonehill Student Exonerated In Rape Charges

Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON--A Plymouth County Grand Jury has dismissed rape and sexual assault charges against a 21-year-old Stonehill College tutor who was accused of molesting an 8-year-old Angelo Elementary School student in Brockton during class time where he was employed as a work-study student.
"This is a very, very, very good day," said Michael P. Doolin, the attorney for Kevin Treseler, the Millis man accused of the crimes against the third girl.
Doolin said he was notified the grand jury failed to indict this morning and that Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz's office has filed a dismissal in the case.
"I knew from the start that Mr. Treseler didn't do this," Doolin said. "The evidence presented at the time just didn't make any sense," he said.
A May 26 probable cause hearing will not take place.
Doolin said he could not say if Cruz's office has another suspect in the crime. He pointed those questions to Cruz's office.
Bridget Norton Middleton, spokeswoman for Cruz's office could not immediately be reached for comment.
Doolin said he is unsure if Treseler will return to school right away.
He was suspended from Stonehill College following his March 22 arrest on two counts of rape of a child with force and two counts of indecent assault on a child under 14.
Doolin said he believes Treseler is going to take some time to see what his next step will be.
"After everything he's been through, I think he wants to catch his breath and let this pass," Doolin said.
Doolin said he was notified of the grand jury's decision Wednesday morning and immediately gave word to Treseler's family who had supported him through the ordeal.
"We are very grateful for the grand jury and its work," Doolin said.
Grand jury proceedings are closed to the public and defense attorney's are not allowed to present evidence.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

BHS Fight Sends One To Hospital

BrocktonPost
BROCKTON--An 18-year-old Taunton man is expected to be arraigned in Brockton District Court after allegedly stabbing another student in the back while in school at Brockton High this morning.
According to police records, Joshua Silva, an 18-year-old sophomore from Taunton faces felony assault and battery with a dangerous weapon--a knife, assault to murder and possession of a dangerous weapon on school grounds.
In a statement from school officials, authorities said shortly after 8 a.m. this morning two 18-year-old males had a physical confrontation on school grounds.
When the students were brought to the Red Housemaster’s office to resolve the issue, one of the young men Silva, pulled out a carpet knife and cut the other.
School administrators rushed to break up the fight.
Silva was arrested by school police.
The victim, a senior at Brockton High, was taken
to Signature Brockton Hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.
“This is an aberration,” said Superintendent Matthew H. Malone in a prepared statement. “Brockton High School is a safe and supportive learning environment, an urban high school that has been held up as a national model of excellence. We are appalled that this incident has taken place. We do not condone and will not tolerate violence.”
Principal Susan Szachowicz immediately addressed the incident with students and staff
via the school’s public address system, and then sent an automated phone call to parents to communicate the situation with them.
“No child in any school, but certainly at Brockton High, should ever have to witness
something like this,” Szachowicz said in the statement.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Grand Jury To Decide Alleged Tutor Rape Charges

By Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON—An attorney for a 21-year-old former Stonehill tutor facing charges of rape and sexual assault of a third-grade Brockton student, said he believes his client will be exonerated as the case works its way through the court system.
Kevin Treseler, a Millis man who was arrested March 21 on the Stonehill campus, has been charged with two counts of rape of a child with force and two counts of indecent assault on a child under 14.
According to prosecutors and court documents, the alleged sexual abuse took place during class time at the Angelo Elementary School where Treseler worked as tutor in work-study program with Stonehill College.
“We expect once a grand jury hears the evidence of the case against Mr. Treseler the charges will be dismissed,” said Treseler’s lawyer Michael Doolin after a pretrial conference in Brockton District Court Thursday morning, April 21.
Treseler, who has been suspended from Stonehill College and working in the tutoring program since his arrest, was surrounded by family and friends during a brief pretrial conference.
None of the family or friends preferred to comment.
Treseler is expected back in Brockton District Court for another pretrial conference May 26.
Doolin said it is up to a grand jury to decide if there is enough evidence in the case for it to move to Superior Court where crimes like rape and murder are heard.
Grand jury testimony is not open to the public.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Human Resources Executive Director To Retire

Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON--Human Resources Executive Director Kathy Sirois, a long-time employee in the school system, will retire at the end of June.
Jocelyn Meek, the school department's spokeswoman, said Sirois submitted her letter of retirement to Superintendent Matthew Malone Tuesday afternoon before the School Committee's meeting Tuesday night when Malone had to apologize to the committee and parents for providing for the second time erroneous information about the school department's compliance with state Criminal Offenders Record Information, or CORI, background checks.
"She had been thinking about retiring and it was a decision she made," Meek said Thursday. "Dr. Malone accepted her resignation and is sorry to see her go," she said.
Malone could not immediately be reached for comment.
Sirois, who Meek said has worked in the school system since 1967. Sirois will retire on June 30.
Meek said she did not know if Sirois' retirement had anything to do with the recent spate of misinformation about CORI checks that followed when 21-year-old Kevin Treseler, a Stonehill College student who worked as a tutor in Brockton, was charged with rape and assault of a third-grader at Angelo Elementary School.
Tuesday night, Malone again took responsibility for the second instance of erroneous informaton provided to school committee members and parents since Treseler's arrest.
Tuesday night Malone said he could not trust information from the school department's human resources department because the systems to check information, such as CORI compliance, are outdated.
The first instance Malone said Treseler and other Stonehill tutors had received background checks before working in the schools.
The second instance Malone told school committee members during a closed session meeting employees in the schools had been rechecked every 3 years as state law requires.
Both instances turned out to be wrong.
He said the system consists of paper and file cabinets that with thousands of pieces of paper is too time consuming to confirm who has been rechecked and who has not.
Malone said all 2007 and 2008 employees will be rechecked and that process began this week and could take 6 to 8 weeks to complete.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Malone In Hot Seat Over CORI Info

By Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON—Superintendent Matthew Malone is under fire again from Brockton School Committee members after information Malone provided committee members and parents about school staff background checks for the second time turned out to be wrong.
During a school committee meeting Tuesday night, for the second time Malone took responsibility for misinformation regarding background checks—an issue that arose three weeks ago following the arrest of Kevin Treseler, a 21-year-old Stonehill College student who has been charged with rape and sexual abuse against a third-grade girl in the Angelo Elementary School during class time where he worked as a tutor.
Malone last night said he was wrong when he told School Committee members during a closed session of the board last week that the school department was in compliance with all aspects of the state Criminal Offenders Record Information, or CORI, background checks—including a requirement that all employees be rechecked every three years.
“I can’t trust what’s been done in the past,” Malone said trying to explain why he told school committee members current teachers had been rechecked after working in the school department for 3 years.
All, Malone said, were checked upon hiring, but the required recheck did not take place in 2007.
“There are thousands of pieces of paper to figure it out. It’s a waste of my time to go through it all and figure out who was or wasn’t checked,” Malone said after the meeting. “Instead of going back, I’m just putting in my own system and fixing the problem,” he said.
He said he could not give a number of how many teachers or staff members were or were not checked after the three-year recheck deadline.
The school department, has about 1,350 full-time teachers and staff and about 500 more part-time, said School Financial Officer Aldo Petroni.
School committee member Tim Sullivan said he was disappointed with Malone’s misinformation.
“I feel like I was misled by you. I passed that information on to parents,” Sullivan said.
School committee member William Carpenter said he did the same thing and was surprised to learn Malone had again misinformed the committee and subsequently the public.
“You assured me we were in compliance and now we’re not,” Carpenter said.
The state’s 3-year rule requires all teachers and staff employed in a public school undergo a CORI check upon being hired and again every 3 years.
Malone said he had no idea how many were checked in 2007 and that the 2008 rechecks will be done now along with the 2007 rechecks.
School committee members said they wanted solutions to the problem, including history of past procedures as well as Malone’s recommendation for the school department to update its software systems to electronically record data like employee CORI checks.
Malone said because the current system is a paper and file system that requires a person to match paper CORI authorization forms with paper CORI checks the system is inefficient and difficult to match who was checked and who was not.
Carpenter said while the move to update software systems is a step in the right direction, he demanded copies—the paper copies—of the 2007 authorization forms signed by teachers and staff for permission to have their backgrounds checked.
“Did we miss 10 or 1,010?” Carpenter asked. “The only way to get that answer is to find out the history of what happened—I want to know,” he said.
After initially arguing against it, saying because finger-pointing wouldn’t solve the problem , Malone agreed to provide Carpenter with the authorization forms when other school committee members supported Carpenter’s request.
School committee member James Daley said while no one wants to finger-point he asserted that if an employee is not doing their job correctly, maybe there should be finger-pointing.
“If somebody doing the job is incompetent they should be removed,” Daley said. “There’s a lack of confidence in the information that is coming out. We have to regain that confidence,” he said.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

School Officials Tighten CORI Check Rules

By Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON—Brockton’s School Committee will propose at its next meeting Tuesday night a new, strict policy that would require anyone—teachers, staff, teacher’s aides, tutors, chaperones, volunteers, and any contractors—to undergo criminal background checks before being allowed to work in or with students in Brockton Public Schools.
The move comes in the wake of the arrest of Kevin Treseler, a 21-year-old Stonehill College student who is accused of forcible rape and sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl during class time at the Angelo Elementary School where Treseler worked as a math tutor.
School committee member Timothy Sullivan said following a special School Committee meeting Tuesday night, officials will require everyone who may have any kind of access to students to be checked for criminal offenses—a policy that goes far beyond state requirements.
“It will help students in the future, but it won’t help this 8-year-old girl. I feel so bad for her,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said the School Committee will have its subcommittee draft a new policy that will eventually be adopted by the full committee.
Last night members of the School Committee met in a special session with Malone and other administrators to discuss what were described as privacy, legal and confidentiality issues surrounding the Angelo arrest.
Treseler was arrested on the Stonehill campus in Easton two weeks ago. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment March 22.
School administrators have come under fire during the two weeks since Treseler’s arrest after Malone initially publicly said Treseler had been checked and then admitted Treseler and about six other tutors did not undergo a Criminal Offenders Record Information, or CORI, background check before beginning work as tutors.
Malone said a batch of six tutors-including Tresler—was not checked in October, 2009 which is when Treseler began working in Brockton schools.
“It was a mistake, a snafu, a glitch, an error in processing,” Malone said.
Treseler began tutoring in Brockton’s schools in October 2009, then did not work as part of the work study program until last December. He returned to the classroom in January, court documents show.
The well-established federally-funded tutoring program employs about 150 Stonehill students in all of the city’s schools.
Malone said more than 600 people—teacher’s aides, volunteers, chaperones—perform all types of tasks within the schools during the year.
He said state law only requires those employed by the schools who may have unmonitored access to students must undergo criminal checks every three years and does not include volunteers, chaperones, teacher’s aides and contractors who may do work in the schools.
The state offers free CORI checks for school departments, officials said. Private entities, such as the media, must pay for the service.
Malone said once Treseler’s arrest was made school officials began scouring its records and found Treseler (Pictured below) and others in the tutoring program did not have their backgrounds checked.
He said the paper work was lost amid the thousands of criminal checks the school department processes each month.
Malone said the school department conducts about 1,000 criminal checks per month—a figure several school committee members questioned.
After Treseler’s arrest, officials learned Treseler was arrested for possession of marijuana—a misdemeanor charge that was dismissed.
Malone said it is unlikely Treseler would have been excluded from the tutoring program because of the marijuana charge, although Treseler likely would have been called in by officials for an interview or other screening steps had the background check been performed.
Malone said when he realized Treseler had not been CORI checked he contacted the media to take it back and takes full responsibility for the misinformation.
Malone said school officials have spent the last two weeks rechecking backgrounds of every tutor, volunteer and others who enter Brockton schools in the wake of the arrest and sexual assault charges—actions described as a “Herculean” task.
“We have owned this from the start,” said Superintendent Matthew Malone. “We have been fully transparent, up front and honest about the situation,” he said.
He said the double-checks on Stonehill’s tutors—done with the help of Stonehill—have all come back clean and after about a week suspension of the tutoring program at the Angelo School, all tutors are back in the classroom.
He said no one other than Treseler has been fired or relieved of their tutoring positions.
Malone said he is not waiting for the School Committee to approve a new policy.
He said he has instituted a new 3-step procedure of background checks, including a review panel of “red-flagged” applicants.
“We’re (checking) everyone,” Malone said.
Malone said the first change is no one—he stressed no one—will be allowed to enter the schools either as an employee or volunteer—until a CORI check is returned and is clean.
If there is a crime, violation or any other red flag, Malone said a review panel must—and stressed must—interview the candidate to decide if the person should be allowed to have contact with students.
He said anyone with a felony such as armed robbery, theft, sex crimes or drug distribution on their record will be rejected, but others with misdemeanors such as drunk driving, driving violations or in Treseler’s case, marijuana possession, would require a judgment call by the review panel.
He said all CORI paperwork would be kept under lock and key in the human resources department and available within minutes to administrators with clearance.
Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting was held in closed session because officials said matters that would be discussed included personnel issues, the confidentiality of the student involved in the sexual assault charges, and the legal case against Treseler.
School committee members William Carpenter and Patricia Joyce questioned the need for the closed session and said once matters veered toward policy and not individual performance or confidentiality they would move to go into open session.
After the meeting Carpenter said he believed the closed session was absolutely necessary and feels more confident that gaps in the background checks have been closed saying the committee "grilled" administrators over the matter.
“Parents should feel very comfortable that no one will have access to students in Brockton Public Schools without having had a background check,” Carpenter said.
However, Carpenter disagreed school officials were completely transparent in the beginning because initially Malone said Treseler had undergone a background check and then it turned out he was not.
“I think things could have been handled better. I think the administration could do a better job of how they present information to the media. I think it’s a learning experience for them,” Carpenter said. “In the beginning mixed messages were sent and created a lot of questions,” he said.
Carpenter said the new CORI check policy is a step in the right direction. He said during the closed session he asked officials to ensure school bus drivers are included in the CORI process.
He said it is unclear what the process is for bus drivers at the moment.
While he is in complete agreement about the steps the school officials have taken to close the gaps in the background check procedure, he warns that, although criminal checks can eliminate a lot of potential problems, it does not resolve issues surrounding the protection and safety of students.
“Criminal checks are not a panacea,” Carpenter said. “CORI checks are just a screen. It doesn’t predict future behavior,” he said.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Martin To Be Honored At BHS Spring Concert

BrocktonPost
BROCKTON--Robert A. Martin, who for nearly 40 years has given back to Brockton as a volunteer and city administrator, will be honored Wednesday night during the Brockton High School Band's Spring Concert after being chosen as the 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award winner by the Brockton High School Alumni Association.
The award is presented annually to a BHS graduate whose outstanding service has been a benefit to Brockton and beyond.
According to a statement from the alumni association, Martin was employed by the City of Brockton for 37 years and has been a leader in numerous city organizations, including helping to launch Brockton's Promise, Brockton After Dark and Brockton Fights Back.
A 1965 BHS graduate, in 1972 Martin was appointed the city’s first substance abuse coordinator and helped begin the Brockton Area Drug Program which was the city's first comprehensive youth drug treatment program.
Prior to working for the city, Martin served his country during a tour of duty in Vietnam as an Army Intelligence Officer.
As a member of former Mayor David Crosby's administration Martin reorganized all the human services accounts into the Division of Human Resources.
Over the years, Martin's talents and organizational skills have been recognized and numerous mayors have sought Martin in their administrations.
Martin has worn many hats including, Acting Chief Procurement Officer, Acting Executive Health Officer, Acting Council on Aging Director, Acting Constituent Services Director and Acting Veterans Services Officer.
Martin was instrumental in the establishment and implementation of a methadone treatment and counseling van in Brockton.
Martin said he considers being an advocate for the construction of Brockton Neighborhood Health Center in the city's downtown as one of his proudest accomplishments.
Another of his beloved works is helping to establish a corporate partnership with the city and Coca-Cola Company--a liaison that sends dozens of Brockton children to summer camp each year.
Martin joins good company. Previous award winners include Armond Columbo, Kenneth Feinberg, Carol Thomas, David Henderson, Moises Rodrigues, Chris Sawyer, Larry Siskind, Jimmy Jamoulis, Lynn Jamoulis, Jackie Jones and Ellen Yaffe.
Martin will receive the award at the Brockton High School Spring Concert.
The concert will be held at the BHS Auditorium Wednesday April 6, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the BHS administration building during school hours or at the door--if the concert is not sold out.

School Comm To Discuss Background Checks

BrocktonPost
BROCKTON--The Brockton School Committee will meet tonight to discuss how a handful of Stonehill college students working as tutors in a much-needed program in the schools did not have their criminal backgrounds checked as per school policy--including one tutor who has been charged with sexually assaulting a third-grader during classtime at the Angelo Elementary School.
"This is not a regularly scheduled School Committee meeting. It was called as a special meeting by Vice-Chair Tom Minichiello after discussion with myself...specifically to make an inquiry in to the CORI checks of employees, volunteers, tutors, etc.," said School Committee member Bill Carpenter in an email.
"Obviously,this inquiry is in the wake of the Angelo School incident and the changing explanations as to whether this tutor and others working in the schools were properly CORI'd," Carpenter stated.
School committee members have said administrators have said some tutors and others within the schools have been checked through the Criminal Offenders Record Inquiry, or CORI, however others have not, including Kevin Treseler,(pictured above), who was arrested and charged last month with rape and sexual assault charges when an 8-year-old Angelo student told police Treseler allegedly molested her several times during classtime.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m.
The school's Finance Committee will meet prior to the 7 p.m. start.
Carpenter said he expects committee members to go into closed session to discuss the job performance of employees involved with the background checks.
He said Minichiello has requested advice from the school committee's attorney about the possible executive session. Kevin Treseler, faces rape and sexual assault charges after an 8-year-old girl told police Treseler molested her several times since December while he was a math tutor at the Angelo Elementary School.