Convicted Child Molesters working at FSDB
The personnel of FSDB went through criminal background investigation prior to their employment at FSDB. This is the standard practice for institutions entrusted with the welfare of children.
Yet we have contractors using convicted child molesters to work on projects inside campus. Also included in this group of felonious laborers are drug dealers convicted of illegal drug trafficking. This practice is unacceptable, putting vulnerable deaf and hoh children at risk, all because both FSDB and the contractors want to save few pennies. It is also illegal after the passage of Jessica Lunsford law became effective.  Incredibly the school’s police chief feels the FSDB has the prerogative to permit convicted felons on campus. Something is very wrong with that institution, showing reckless disregard for the safety of its students and in violation of at least one state law.
Convicted pedophiles? I feel sick to my stomach. MZ
.Â
From the newsroom of The St. Augustine Record, St. Augustine, Florida, Sunday, April 1, 2007 …..
Views differ on FSDB workers
Chief: School can decide whether workers fit to serve
by RICHARD PRIOR
The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind has the authority to allow felons on campus after reviewing their criminal histories, according to the school’s police chief.
A former member of the school’s Board of Trustees disagrees with Chief Jerry Chandlee’s understanding of the law.
“I don’t know where (Chandlee) gets that interpretation from,” said Kurt Ponchak, bureau chief of Operations and Compliance for the State Division of Blind Services in Tallahassee. “That’s not the way I remember the law.”
In a letter to the editor of The St. Augustine Record, Chandlee wrote that each school district can decide which workers are “fit to serve in that district.”
“Each district must make its own case-by-case determination of whether an act or acts revealed in a background check disqualifies an individual from employment at the district,” Chandlee wrote.
Chandlee’s letter to the editor was in response to a March 25 story in The Record that dealt with a dozen construction workers and roofers who came on the FSDB campus over the past two years.
The men had been convicted of offenses that included drug sale and trafficking, aggravated battery, and lewd and lascivious molestation of a child.
School districts have been required to run background checks on staff, vendors, contractors and most visitors since the Jessica Lunsford Act became law on May 2, 2005.
The checks include a fingerprint scan as well as a review of state and national criminal databases.
The Act says that those who have been “convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude shall not be employed, engaged to provide services, or serve in any position requiring direct contact with students.”
Jacksonville attorney Mark Gelman, who represents the Jessica Lunsford Foundation, also disagreed with Chandlee’s interpretation of the law.
Background checks either allow a person to work on school grounds or it bars them, Gelman said, agreeing there is no “middle ground” for felons who commit certain crimes.
Howard Jones, a former employee of the FSDB Police Department, notified the Board of Trustees, state agencies and public officials of the apparent violations of the Lunsford Act in a May 2006 letter.
One of the administration’s reactions, according to separate sources, was to form a “Background Review Committee” to hear appeals from the barred felons or their employers.
Members of the committee are Chandlee, school President Elmer Dillingham and Business Office Administrator Terri Wiseman.
“I don’t know what there is to appeal,” said Jones. “You pass the background check, or you don’t. There’s nothing in between.”
The Record does not have any information that the committee’s reviews resulted in additional felons being allowed on campus.
“Philosophically,” having an appeal committee is not a bad idea, Ponchak said.
“But that’s not the issue,” he quickly added. “The issue is they didn’t have that in place when these people were allowed in the school. They arbitrarily did what they wanted to do.”
Chandlee’s letter did not address the issue of allowing felons on campus after the Jessica Lunsford Act became law. Instead, he wrote that Jones had violated the law when he spoke to The Record about the 12 felons who had worked in construction and roofing jobs on campus with the approval of the school’s president.
“It is his attempt at hiding the ball,” Gelman wrote in response. “It is interesting that he (Chandlee) blames (Jones) for violating Florida statutes, indicating that (Jones) (is) violating the personal right of felons.
“He (Chandlee) is the one that is non compliant with Florida statutes.”
State Sen. Nancy Argenziano (R-District 3), author of the Jessica Lunsford Act, is working this session on a “glitch” bill, which will specify the crimes that bar felons from campus.
This bill also will include penalties for school districts that don’t follow the law’s requirements.
Violations would be classified third-degree felonies, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Gelman said he discussed The Record’s March 25 story with Mark Lunsford, who was “very upset, particularly with the part about the sex offender being allowed at the school.”
When that happened, Lunsford felt, “That was a big slap in the face to the Jessica Lunsford Act,” said Gelman. “Mark was very disappointed to hear that happened. He thinks there should be some accountability.”
The law was named for the 9-year-old Citrus County girl who was abducted from her home in February 2005 and buried alive in a 2‡-foot hole under John Evander Couey’s front porch.
A Miami jury found Couey guilty on March 7 and recommended the death penalty.
© 2007 The St. Augustine RecordÂ
http://staugustine.com/stories/040107/news_4504209.shtml
The boldings of certain sentences were done by MZ.
e mail contact: mishkazena@aol.com
The personnel of FSDB went through criminal background investigation prior to their employment at FSDB. This is the standard practice for institutions entrusted with the welfare of children.
Yet we have contractors using convicted child molesters to work on projects inside campus. Also included in this group of felonious laborers are drug dealers convicted of illegal drug trafficking. This practice is unacceptable, putting vulnerable deaf and hoh children at risk, all because both FSDB and the contractors want to save few pennies. It is also illegal after the passage of Jessica Lunsford law became effective.  Incredibly the school’s police chief feels the FSDB has the prerogative to permit convicted felons on campus. Something is very wrong with that institution, showing reckless disregard for the safety of its students and in violation of at least one state law.
Convicted pedophiles? I feel sick to my stomach. MZ
.Â
From the newsroom of The St. Augustine Record, St. Augustine, Florida, Sunday, April 1, 2007 …..
Views differ on FSDB workers
Chief: School can decide whether workers fit to serve
by RICHARD PRIOR
The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind has the authority to allow felons on campus after reviewing their criminal histories, according to the school’s police chief.
A former member of the school’s Board of Trustees disagrees with Chief Jerry Chandlee’s understanding of the law.
“I don’t know where (Chandlee) gets that interpretation from,” said Kurt Ponchak, bureau chief of Operations and Compliance for the State Division of Blind Services in Tallahassee. “That’s not the way I remember the law.”
In a letter to the editor of The St. Augustine Record, Chandlee wrote that each school district can decide which workers are “fit to serve in that district.”
“Each district must make its own case-by-case determination of whether an act or acts revealed in a background check disqualifies an individual from employment at the district,” Chandlee wrote.
Chandlee’s letter to the editor was in response to a March 25 story in The Record that dealt with a dozen construction workers and roofers who came on the FSDB campus over the past two years.
The men had been convicted of offenses that included drug sale and trafficking, aggravated battery, and lewd and lascivious molestation of a child.
School districts have been required to run background checks on staff, vendors, contractors and most visitors since the Jessica Lunsford Act became law on May 2, 2005.
The checks include a fingerprint scan as well as a review of state and national criminal databases.
The Act says that those who have been “convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude shall not be employed, engaged to provide services, or serve in any position requiring direct contact with students.”
Jacksonville attorney Mark Gelman, who represents the Jessica Lunsford Foundation, also disagreed with Chandlee’s interpretation of the law.
Background checks either allow a person to work on school grounds or it bars them, Gelman said, agreeing there is no “middle ground” for felons who commit certain crimes.
Howard Jones, a former employee of the FSDB Police Department, notified the Board of Trustees, state agencies and public officials of the apparent violations of the Lunsford Act in a May 2006 letter.
One of the administration’s reactions, according to separate sources, was to form a “Background Review Committee” to hear appeals from the barred felons or their employers.
Members of the committee are Chandlee, school President Elmer Dillingham and Business Office Administrator Terri Wiseman.
“I don’t know what there is to appeal,” said Jones. “You pass the background check, or you don’t. There’s nothing in between.”
The Record does not have any information that the committee’s reviews resulted in additional felons being allowed on campus.
“Philosophically,” having an appeal committee is not a bad idea, Ponchak said.
“But that’s not the issue,” he quickly added. “The issue is they didn’t have that in place when these people were allowed in the school. They arbitrarily did what they wanted to do.”
Chandlee’s letter did not address the issue of allowing felons on campus after the Jessica Lunsford Act became law. Instead, he wrote that Jones had violated the law when he spoke to The Record about the 12 felons who had worked in construction and roofing jobs on campus with the approval of the school’s president.
“It is his attempt at hiding the ball,” Gelman wrote in response. “It is interesting that he (Chandlee) blames (Jones) for violating Florida statutes, indicating that (Jones) (is) violating the personal right of felons.
“He (Chandlee) is the one that is non compliant with Florida statutes.”
State Sen. Nancy Argenziano (R-District 3), author of the Jessica Lunsford Act, is working this session on a “glitch” bill, which will specify the crimes that bar felons from campus.
This bill also will include penalties for school districts that don’t follow the law’s requirements.
Violations would be classified third-degree felonies, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Gelman said he discussed The Record’s March 25 story with Mark Lunsford, who was “very upset, particularly with the part about the sex offender being allowed at the school.”
When that happened, Lunsford felt, “That was a big slap in the face to the Jessica Lunsford Act,” said Gelman. “Mark was very disappointed to hear that happened. He thinks there should be some accountability.”
The law was named for the 9-year-old Citrus County girl who was abducted from her home in February 2005 and buried alive in a 2‡-foot hole under John Evander Couey’s front porch.
A Miami jury found Couey guilty on March 7 and recommended the death penalty.
© 2007 The St. Augustine RecordÂ
http://staugustine.com/stories/040107/news_4504209.shtml
The boldings of certain sentences were done by MZ.
e mail contact: mishkazena@aol.com
April 1st, 2007 at 12:34 pm
That police chief needs to be fired. No buts about it!
April 1st, 2007 at 12:59 pm
This is appalling. With this disconnection between state laws and the schools’ administrative practices, we need to become involved and ask our schools if they screen campus contractors same as their own staff.
Statistically, deaf children (and other disabled children) are more vulnerable and more often victimized than most children. The protection for our children needs to be set at a higher level.
A zero tolerance policy for felons having drug or sex crimes convictions in our schools for the deaf!
April 1st, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Sad, but why did you have to post it on April Fools Day?
April 1st, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Are we in North Carolina at all surprised? No! Not at all! We KNOW that people like Frank Turk and Len Aron also knew about Elmer Dillingham in North Carolina School for the Deaf. However, they chose to protect him. We were glad this is coming out. Someone needs to check not only North Carolina School for the Deaf, Morganton, but also Vocational Rehabilitation counselors there, who protected Dillingham. We hope there will be some Deaf women (former cheerleaders) to speak out because Deaf Florida is now new victims!
April 1st, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Not too surprised .. it happens everywhere.
April 1st, 2007 at 3:02 pm
As an FSD alumni, I continue to find this disappointing.
I call upon Elmer and FSD’s BoT to end this practice immediately.
If it results in getting contracted services at a higher cost, so be it. This is the price we pay to have a safe learning community at FSD.
April 1st, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Deaf Pundit and Dianez, I agree.
K, it was on the news today. News don’t go unreported because today is April Fools Day
Todd, I hope FSDB will come to its senses, especially with the outrage from the public.
April 1st, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Lord. Pedophiles on campus is the worst yet! The article I came across did not mention these - just that one had drug trafficking history and another felonious assault. I guess more detailed information emerged after the initial publication a week ago. They really dug up dirt on FSDB. The deaf community down there needs to roll up their sleeves and do something to protect the children.
Best yet, fire the supt for failing to conform to the Jessica Lundsford law. However, the way it is written is vague and open to different interpretations, especially, “direct contact with children.” The supt can argue that the construction workers do not have direct contact with children since they work on the construction site among other workers where there are no children. We all know it is bull and political but that is how politicians would twist to justify contracting felons to work on campus. The law may need to be rewritten to be more concise.
April 1st, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Funny I sent info about this to Ridor as a news tip several days ago and he didn’t post on it at all. Easy to tell who truly cares about deaf issues and who’s just on the bandwagon for sensationalism. Thank you, Elizabeth, for writing about this and being a serious blogger one can turn to for real news.
April 1st, 2007 at 11:30 pm
Minor correction, Ridor had a one sentence link. My point stands, though. Bah!
April 2nd, 2007 at 12:31 am
Haven’t they learned from some incidents back in the late 80’s? There was a situation with several elementary school boys being molested. Two former houseparents were arrested. It was a shock among many of the students who grew up there and were under their care. The school provided counseling to the boys and their families. It was all over the news back then.
I wish they will take this more seriously and consider their students’ safety.
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:50 am
Hmmm… very interesting - I totally agree with the majority that this practice is WAY out of bounds, regardless of whether roofers have “direct contact” with children. A pedophile, given the opportunity, will figure out a way to get “direct contact” with his victims. Its part of the “pedophile profile” to deviously identify and prey on victims.
Has anyone ever done a criminal background check on the supt??? Just a thought that it might be helpful to post publicly some of his “alleged” wrongdoings in North Carolina…
April 2nd, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Pedophiles have been here for many thousand years but more are caught today.
FYI that the name pedophile was unknown until 1980’s.
Sorry for saying that but pedolphies were not mentioned in the Holy Bible that they should be either stoned or burned to death, but the bridals who did not mark the bed of the first night were to face the death….
Can’t find the website about how much money the teen and kiddie porno industries raked. Yes, Ten billion dollars yearly….image how that money would bring happiness to the children of the world by planting flowers and build playgrounds.
I really do not understand why most men do not want to be bothered to get off their behinds to help to demolish the industries.
Since pedophiles can’t be cured so I think it is a good idea to imprison them for life making toys for children instead of setting them free after a few years to terrorize children. Well, this is the men’s laws slapping on the wrists, no I mean on the claws.
April 2nd, 2007 at 4:22 pm
I agreed with almost all who posted here….
what made me so disguisted is all molesters who got out of prisons are being protected and being pampered by the laws in their neighborhoods.
What really scares me is I found out that pedophiles are so numerous that many courts would not bother to send them to prisons due to overcrowded prisons. I think that pedophiles are more dangerous than bank robberies. Banks are insured but the victims are not and they may end up spending lots of money and time on therapies. Who pay for their remedies? The pedophiles or the Federal? Remember that the pedophiles are being pampered, not the victims in this world.
April 2nd, 2007 at 6:40 pm
I once applied for the Maryland School of the Deaf houseparent postiton back in 1987 before returning to Gallaudet.
I was asked an hypthotethical question whether I will do as one of the student reported to me about the ongoing sexual molestation.
I answered “I will call the police department in the first place, then report to the adminstration”
Guess what? I never was hired at all. I really never wanted to work as the residential advisor due to the adminstrative/deaf politics or adminstrative coverups.
Every school officials, staffers and instructrors ought to do anything to protect students from getting sexually or physically, mentally and verbally abused.
The real issue about the responsibility of law enforcement officials and probation officers to ensure that their former sex offenders to be not employed within the educational or preschool facilities.
That’s why I wrote the research paper about the questionable effectiveness of sexual offense laws in general whether laws give false pretenses about everything take care of sexual offenders. Totally untrue in many ways.
The constitutional issues about double jeopardy and other things also apply to every lawbreakers.
We really do not have any programs to prevent anyone become the child sex predator or rapist in the first place.
From my own academic research on profiles of child molestors, some parents of would-be child sex predators are also at fault in some ways.
Too many Americans have real hangups about sex which contribute to real confusion about what we are supposed to do about our sexuality.
Our country usually tolerate the high level of violence on our mass media, not sexual stuff. That kinda give mixed and conflicted messages to individuals.
I did submit the research paper to the Department of U.S. Justice back in mid-90s and never heard anything from them on the profiles of child molestors how we could really keep those people from predate our youngsters in the first place.
i could understand why some deaf pedophiles really fear me very much after exposing their true selfs.
Handful of people mistakenly assumed that I would be open-minded about such thinigs, but not when come to such vulnerable population like the underage youngsters.
Enuff talks! Let’s get in action and mobilize the parents of deaf FSDB and other community activists against child molestors to raise more visibility and real results of getting pedophiles off the FSDB campus.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
April 2nd, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Cy, that’s a possible angle the supt may have used. Will he get away with this, now that the media have discovered the felonies of these laborers?
I_C, yes, pedophiles are extraordinarily exceptional in finding opportunites to victimize children.
Jessica, new management. I guess they didn’t learn from the past administration.
Cyan, thanks. yes, this concerns me very much. Too many kids in deaf schools were preyed by predators.
Susan, interesting about the term pedophile not coined until in 80’s. Knowing that pedophiles are never cured, the information about some convicted pedophiles not going to prisons due to overcrowding is depressing.
RLM, hmm, you brought up a good point. I think most policies require notification of administration first. I think reporting it to the police first seem more prudent, to minimize the the allegations of cover-ups some schools were accused of. I would like to see the research papers if you still have them. Maybe you could publish them.
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:24 am
Compare with hearing children, Deaf girls and boys have more chance of getting molested by monsters. I dont think felons should work on the deaf campus at all. We all know that the predators are not cured. They should not be around the Deaf children at all. Don’t we have enough problems of ourselves. Do we need them on deaf campus? Hope the parents and employees protest… We are with you.
April 6th, 2007 at 11:43 am
FSDB PRESIDENT AND HEAD OF SECURITY SHOULD BOTH BE FIRED. As a parent of a child who attends the school, I have no faith in the administration to make sure my child is safe. also what is wrong with dept of education for passing the buck and allowing the board of directors to police themselves. dept of ed. in tallahasee also dropped the ball. shame , shame
April 11th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
I would like for “G” and “Alison” to contact me via my email address which is wild6orchid@yahoo.com. I would like to talk to them about this issue. Thanks!
April 12th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
I’m a FSDB alumni. I’m disgusted by the disregard Supertinendent Dillingham has toward the safety of the students who attends classes and lives on campus.
“G” on this blog said that Dillingham has been protected by North Carolina. I’d like to ask “G” these questions: How did he get into trouble? What is the real Dillingham like?
Dillingham took over as principal of the deaf department in spring 1995 at FSDB, and within the next 5 years, he became the supertindent. I’ve been hearing several not-so-nice things about him since his tenure as supertindent begun. I’d like to know the facts about him, as I’m considering setting up a petition drive to force him to address our concerns, and if he doesn’t, to demand for his resignation.
Many thanks.
May 6th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Check out siant augustine record sunday may 6 addition available on line. dillingham at it again?
May 8th, 2007 at 6:02 am
I am one of the parent of a child who attend fsdb, and what am baffled at is how the school could hire convicted people when i asked to volunteer at the school few years ago when my daughter first attend fsdb and they said I can`t volunteer because of my background in georgia due to domestic dispute on my record which is nothing compare to convicted child molesters and drug dealers, there was no violent on my record just arguement with my wife which every hearing people consider violent because of way deaf people use sign language when arguing with one other seem violent in hearing peoples eyes. huh!!! The staffs and parents are afraid of the president ad the polce chief because they can get you in trouble,’becareful you could get in trouble’ that is the famous quote from the school principal when i complained to the school of unfair treatment the students are getting. marty
November 29th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
What is the matter with everyone? People who molest don’t stop. How could anyone think people with records should be allowed around children… at all… much less children who may not be able to communicate… this is outrageous!