Teachers' Aide Charged With Sexual Abuse at School for the Deaf
Police say a 37-year-old Windsor Mill man inappropriately touched three students.
Howard County police arrested a 37-year-old man today for allegedly inappropriately touching three female students at the Maryland School for the Deaf.
According to police, three girls claim Clarence Cepheus Taylor, 37, of Windsor Mill, touched them on multiple occasions between 2008 and 2010 when he was working as an evening-shift dorm aide.
One of the girls first reported the incidents to a teacher when she learned that she may not have been the only victim, according to police.
One of the girls told police that when she was 12 and 13, Taylor would hug her and rub his hand across her breast in the hallway of the dorm.
Another told police that between the ages of 10 and 12, when she was an overnight student living in the dorm, Taylor would walk up and brush against her inappropriately with his hand. She also said that he would kiss her when she stood up after taking a drink from the water fountain.
The third girl told police that Taylor walked up behind her and brushed against her inappropriately when she was 13-years-old. She, too, reported that he would kiss her when she stood up from the water fountain.
Administrators at the Columbia campus of the Maryland School for the Deaf would not comment. A statement from the school superintendent's office, at the schools Frederick campus, read:
This is an ongoing investigation being handled by the Howard County Police, and MSD [Maryland School for the Deaf] is not at liberty to comment about this case.
Taylor has been suspended from his current job as a teachers’ aide at the school, according to police.
He was arrested Thursday without incident at his home, according to police and was charged with three felony counts of sexual abuse of a minor.
Police ask anyone with information, or any additional victims, to detectives at 410-313-3200.
This article has been updated with comments from the Maryland School for the Deaf.
Joe
1:16 pm on Thursday, December 6, 2012
Add another to the very very long list of teachers supplanting the priests in the child molesting numbers. When will the same number of law suits and vitriol against teachers begin as it did with the priests? And that continues today as a club against all Catholics by the religious bigots.
CN
2:14 pm on Thursday, December 6, 2012
The molestation of children is a societal problem that is not part of only a few small segments. The ongoing outrage against the Catholic Church is that at the highest levels, they systematically covered it up for decades while simply moving the priests to other locations so that they could continue to molest children. There is no reason to believe that anything like that happened in this case.
Joe
2:48 pm on Thursday, December 6, 2012
"CA teachers’ union supports higher taxes, child molesters and Julio Perez"
"Berndt is going to keep getting his benefits – and he even kept his job back in 1993 when he was first charged with molestation. And he got a $40K payment so that he would retire. Since Berndt got arrested we have found out about a lot more molester teachers in L.A., where most of Perez’ donations come from. The teachers’ union has made it almost impossible for parents to find out about these behaviors. They cover up everything. Do you think Perez is going to stand up for parents’ rights when he is being supported by the same teachers’ union that covers up for molesters - and gets them lifetime benefits even when they get arrested?"
http://ocpoliticsblog.com/julio-perez-endorsed-by-same-teachers-union-that-defends-molesters/
Joe
2:52 pm on Thursday, December 6, 2012
Bid to reform teacher firing process thwarted.
"After passage in the state Senate by a 33-4 bipartisan majority, the Assembly Education Committee bowed this week to the state’s all-too-powerful teachers unions, rejecting a bill authored by Padilla, D-Van Nuys, that would have expedited the dismissal process for teachers accused of sex, violence or drug offenses involving children.
The measure, SB 1530, cleared the Senate by a 33-4 bipartisan majority (a rarity inSacramento). However, intense lobbying by the California Teachers Association and United Teachers Los Angeles resulted in Padilla’s bill falling one vote shy of approval by the Assembly Ed Committee, killing the much-needed reform for this year, if not forever.
Padilla crafted his bill in the wake of several scandalous incidents this past school year in which students were sexually abused by teachers. Perhaps the most notorious case involved Mark Berndt, a third-grade teacher at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles, who was accused of 23 lewd acts against children.
After being fired by the Los Angeles Unified School District, Berndt filed an appeal. While it is likely the school district ultimately would have prevailed, it would have done so only after expending considerable time and money. So the school district actually paid the accused child molester $40,000 to drop his appeal."
Joe
2:53 pm on Thursday, December 6, 2012
SB 1350 would have modified the broken-down process for firing teachers, which in one notable L.A. Unified case took eight years and nearly $2 million before the district was able to rid itself of Matthew Kim, a teacher accused of sexual misconduct.
Among other provisions, the bill would have empowered school districts to make decisions on firing teachers rather than the current process, which leaves that up to a three-member appeals panel (which includes an administrative law judge and representatives chosen by the teacher and the district).
It also would have allowed school districts to place teachers on unpaid suspension if they are suspected of serious misconduct, and would have eliminated the 45-day notice to teachers facing disciplinary action, during which time the teacher my very well remain in the classroom."
http://www.calwatchdog.com/2012/06/29/bid-to-reform-teacher-firing-process-thwarted/
Unions are making attempts to protect these child molesters.
Brook Hubbard
3:31 pm on Thursday, December 6, 2012
After all, an incident in California reflects the current atmosphere in Maryland and is indicative of all the teacher union's in the country. </sarcasm>
Have to love Hasty Generalization fallacies.
Joe
3:42 pm on Thursday, December 6, 2012
Not just California but in most every state in the country.
The exact same generalizing that the religious bigots used against all Catholics AND the priests that continues to this day.
It is disturbing that you see my comment as more appropriate for your snide posting than the issue of children being molested by teachers for which you have nothing to say .
Brook Hubbard
7:53 pm on Thursday, December 6, 2012
Do you have articles from other states to prove your claim about teacher's unions? We can find those about priests from many states... I would like to see just as many about teacher's unions.
Nice try with the ad hominem attack, but no one else here is going to buy it. So far the only person who believes you have the moral or logical high ground in anything you say is yourself.
Joe
9:11 am on Friday, December 7, 2012
No ad hominem, it was direct. Do you also blame the rape victims for the crime of rape? Your comment was against me not the molester. That is sick. Seemingly defending the molesters from my pointing the widespread issue out. That sir is not the moral high ground.
Polly
6:55 am on Friday, December 7, 2012
Joe - I'm no "religious bigot" but, I am a mother and as such I'm disgusted at anyone and everyone, especially those that have some power over children, to take advantage of that trust to molest children for their own sick perversion.
Priests and the Catholic Church abuses go back very many decades. The Boy Scouts more recently. Oh and let's not forget Jerry Sandusky. I could go on and on but you get the picture.
If you are Catholic and are offended then by all means step up and do the right thing by those innocent, defenseless children and stop defending the molesters, whoever they may be.
Your thinking offends me and I'm sure many others.
Joe
9:08 am on Friday, December 7, 2012
How immoral has this country become when people are more concerned about someone ONLY pointing out a widespread ongoing issue with people molesting and raping CHILDREN, then the act itself?
Being offended by my pointing out the problem with this group more than the molesting of children tells me we have more immoral people than i thought.
When the person pointing out the problem is more of a concern to you than the act of molesting children, we seem to be lost morally.
Polly says curiously "...and stop defending the molesters". If you can point out where I defend molesters as Mr Hubbard has, point it out. I am the one bringing up the problem and you and Hubbard are the ones more concerned with my comments than the molesters actions. Truly bizarre.
If my bringing the issue up offends you Polly, tfb. It must be talked about and the molesters arrested and jailed.
Joe
9:24 am on Friday, December 7, 2012
Teachers Unions Go to Bat for Sexual Predators
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443437504577547313612049308.html
"In the last five years in New York City, 97 tenured teachers or school employees have been charged by the Department of Education with sexual misconduct. Among the charges substantiated by the city's special commissioner of investigation—that is, found to have sufficient merit that an arbitrator's full examination was justified—in the 2011-12 school year:
• An assistant principal at a Brooklyn high school made explicit sexual remarks to three different girls, including asking one of them if she would perform oral sex on him.
• A teacher in Queens had a sexual relationship with a 13-year old girl and sent her inappropriate messages through email and Facebook.
If this kind of behavior were happening in any adult workplace in America, there would be zero tolerance. Yet our public school children are defenseless.
Here's why. Under current New York law, an accusation is first vetted by an independent investigator. (In New York City, that's the special commissioner of investigation; elsewhere in the state, it can be an independent law firm or the local school superintendent.) Then the case goes before an employment arbitrator. The local teachers union and school district together choose the arbitrators, who in turn are paid up to $1,400 per day. And therein lies the problem. "
Joe
9:28 am on Friday, December 7, 2012
Court battle ongoing, despite conviction.
http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/local/north_counties/court-battle-ongoing-despite-conviction
"He was charged with 12 counts for having a sexual relationship with one of his teenage students. By the time Kostelecky was convicted last June, the school district won a court ruling reversing the arbitrator's decision.
Kostelecky, who surrendered his teaching license and resigned, was sentenced in August to 10 years in prison.
You might think that's the end of both cases. But it's not.
Three weeks after the conviction, the teachers' union appealed the circuit court's decision to the state court of appeals. That ruling came Thursday, when the appeals court ruled in favor of the WEA and the arbitrator's original ruling for Kostelecky.
FOX 11 asked the union why it would appeal a case on behalf a teacher convicted of sexually assaulting a student.
While the union didn't directly answer the questions and declined a phone interview, a spokeswoman with the Wisconsin Education Association Council sent FOX 11 a statement from UniServ on behalf of the Wausaukee Education Association."
Joe
9:30 am on Friday, December 7, 2012
Sex Offenders in Schools & the People Who Protect Them
http://www.parenting.com/blogs/mom-congress/protected-sex-offenders
Joe
9:32 am on Friday, December 7, 2012
Incompetent Administrators, Not Unions, Keep Molesters in the Classroom
http://modeducation.blogspot.com/2012/07/incompetent-administrators-not-unions.html
You asked i provided. Now talk about those teachers who are molesting children not someone pointing out the very widespread problem of predatory teachers.
Joe
4:14 pm on Friday, December 7, 2012
"Teachers Unions Go to Bat for Sexual Predators "
online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443437504577547313612049308.html
Greg G.
1:33 am on Saturday, December 8, 2012
Joe, you started the whole conversation with a huge chip on your shoulder, held your hand in front of your face and yelled, "Hit my hand" and then got upset when you got punched in the face after pulling away your hand and yelling Haha missed my hand. Anyone, whether from a religious background or unionized environment enabling the continuation of child molestation is a criminal and should be treated as such..period. Cut the histrionics it is pedestrian and pointless. Child offenders and any that help them should be dealt with swiftly and with the harshest penalties available. .
Joe
10:31 am on Saturday, December 8, 2012
No one hit me. Not even close. Some saw my comment as worse than molesting children and had more to say about me than the molester. That is absolutely sick.
Now you chime in with your blather about me more than the molesters who teach our children and make empty characterizations which have no basis in reality.
I am only pointing out the facts which some seem to deny or want kept in the cloakroom with the molesters. If ANY group of people, say priests or coaches or congresspeople, had the same numbers of arrests for molestation you can believe the story would be bigger.
The absolute numbers from one particular group of people, who by the way have access to your children, is very disturbing to those without a bias toward those pointing it out. Immorality is seemingly more prevalent than I thought.
Anonyomous
10:14 pm on Friday, December 21, 2012
First of all, I have to say that I think the girls were coached to put together their claims. I have to say this because there has been a lot of sexual things going on at the Frederick campus and the Columbia Campus and they were constantly swept under the rug. There had been ADMIN level individuals abusing their powers, having sex on the school grounds, cheating on their spouses, etc...but no one did anything about this. But, back to the point about the molestations...where were the dorm supervisors. There were at least 2 dorm supervisors overnight and at least one per shift...how could this have been overlooked. What was a residential counselor doing in the girls wing? When all this happened where were the supervisors? Why werent suspicions raised then? I would never send my child to neither one of these campus for the fact that they conceal things from the parents , do a lot of illegal things.....Just crazy....These are not ASSUMPTIONS...i know for a fact, that is why they are preventing us from discussing the matter. Let's say it's true...they are willing to sacrifice one staff member to protect their own. This is because they don't want investigators digging into their businesses.