Wednesday, August 29, 2012

DA investigating PPS handling of abuse allegations

From the Tribune:

http://triblive.com/news/2494540-74/lellock-district-abuse-report-student-1999-child-investigation-law-attorney#axzz24p46KhNN

51 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! I am hoping this is not as bad as it appears to be.

Questioner said...

PG article on the topic:

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/pittsburgh-public-schools-police-officer-investigated-in-alleged-sex-assaults-650846/

Questioner said...

WPXI on the topic:

http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/police-pittsburgh-school-officer-accused-inappropr/nRLDD/

- Definitely a difference in tone among the various news organizations.

Anonymous said...

Q, Jody Spolar's husband works for the Post Gazette.

Anonymous said...

This case is going to be a real money maker for Lisa Fischett's old business partner, Bob Buetter, whom the district contracts with for ad hoc public relations services.

Anonymous said...

FLASHBACK : Pure Reform Nov. 2011

"Randall Taylor said...

I, and the Board, encountered a similar situation in, I believe, 1999.
An employee was found"wrestling" with a student, aged about 13, in a secluded area of a school. The District at that time wanted to turn it over, also, to Jody Spolar. I refused I told the Administration "either they call the Police or I do". I eventually called then Commander Gwen Elliott. They investigated and the parents of student wanted it dropped. They should know better.
Stunning, although not surprising, that they did not feel need to share with Board. Why did they have to? Board would have agreed with Roosevelt decision.
Public must ask: What is District doing to protect our children? How many other incidents does the public NOT know about? And we demand that Board and Administration follow State Law which mandates you MUST report to Police. They investigate! NOT Jody Spolar.
November 15, 2011 11:19 PM "

http://purereform.blogspot.com/2011/11/former-westinghouse-coach-under.html

Questioner said...

Good for you Randall doing the right thing. By notifying authorities you may well have saved PPS from a Penn State type situation, or at least lessened the problem.

Anonymous said...

Why is the school district spending my tax dollars to have private investigators on this case when the District Attorney and Pittsburgh Police are conducting a criminal investigation of the matter?

I hope the DA takes a real hard look at obstruction of justice.

Anonymous said...

"Parents wanted it dropped." I wonder who pressured them to do so? Never the less, the officer should have been fired. He must have had connections to save his job.

Also, if they wanted it dropped then, why has it resurfaced now?

Anonymous said...

I was at carrick H.S about 4 to 5 years ago and there was a teacher having an affair with a student .They got caught by a security guard.He reported to the principle .the principle was Dr.murphy and he reported it to school safety.so the safety department investigated it and found it was true.So dr Murphy repermanded the security guard and influenced him to say he did not see anything ,so he did.fadzen wanted a statement from this security guard,Dr Murphy told him this is what you write down.YOU DID NOT SEE ANYTHING or you will loose your job.So every time fazden would confront the security guard about the incident the guard would have to tell dr.murphy.she would call the board and tell them that fadzen was harrison the guard and the board would call fadzen in and repermand him for doing his job.So why did dr.murphy cover up a crime and she needs to be investagated.That female student was my cousin and I can't do any thing about it because she does not want any thing to happen to the teacher.

Anonymous said...

It is getting bigger...

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2012/08/29/more-alleged-victims-of-city-school-police-officer-come-forward/

Questioner said...

Tribune article about PPS hiring a private firm to investigate:

http://triblive.com/home/2501564-74/lellock-district-abuse-1999-police-pittsburgh-allegations-child-fink-hired#axzz24p46KhNN

Anonymous said...

Does anyone recall how long and for what period Dale Frederick was superintendent?

Anonymous said...

Neither the District Attorney nor the Deputy District Attorney seemed confused about their interest in investigating the recent Lellock reports. I can't wait to see their response to Solicitor Weiss' justification for hiring a private firm.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:13 do you believe jean finks comment from that article .She said the board handled it propertly at the time lelock did that to that child.What a joke.If that were her child she would have wanted his head .Its time for her to go and live out her glory years in denile.She never speaks up at those board meetings and goes by what colaizzi says does.My heart goes out to those victims .

Anonymous said...

Is it just a coincidence that the only person who wanted to fire Lellock just got fired?

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:09.The reason they fired fadzen was dirty politics,from the administration ,to all the white board members.Fadzen got fired for doing his
Job and the police officer accused got 20 days paid vacation and still is getting paid until the investigation is over.So who and what does this officer have on some board members and adminastration that they did not fire him like fadzen suggested.I think the D.A should first question Jody spolar ( she was there in the 90s ) .Rember this officer drove roseavelt around a lot and don't think the 2 didn't talk and got some protection from the adminastration because of it.

Anonymous said...

I know second hand that Roosevelt was gunning for Fazden for a long time. I never understood why, now maybe I do.

Anonymous said...

Let them all Rot in hell for what they have done

Anonymous said...

Fascinating to see much different the news coverage by the Post Gazette is from the rest of media market.

Anonymous said...

Jody spolar and Rosevelt sent fazden a memo saying he could not go outside police for incidents unless he got approval from his boss. This was design so they could protect the imagin of the district and not the safety of the children. Thus criminal actions went unreported. Jody needs to be fired arested a prosecuted and get rosevelt back here and lock him up as well.

Anonymous said...

Helen Faison was interim superintendent from June or July of 1999 through 2000 until John Thompson was hired. Not sure which month this was reported...prior to Frederick's resignation or during the interim?

Anonymous said...

Who was Fazden's boss?

Anonymous said...

Does anyone remember the circumstances of Frederick's departure? How long do investigations usually take, not the distict's, but the DA's?

Anonymous said...

Frederick didn't stay long, maybe 9 months. Couldn't deal with the bs of central office.

Anonymous said...

A guard at Carrick has been heard saying that he has already been told that he will be the guard promoted to Police Officer if they fire Lellock. His qualifications: he covered up on instructions from then principal Murphy two cases of Carrick teachers having affairs with students.
One was a female soccer coach who was in a sexual relationship with a female student to the extent that the student moved in with the teacher. The second case involved a female teacher who was having sex with a male student.
Once Fadzen found out about the cover up, he went ballistic, but the guard is getting promoted and Fadzen is fired, go figure!

Anonymous said...

Don't forget that PELA Principal Murphy is now been rewarded as Principal on Special Assignment to assist her colleagues with how to document teacher behaviors for unsatisfactory ratings through the RISE process. RISE is now the mission of PPS and the safety of students and staff well that's at the bottom of the list. Yes, another failed PELA. The question is: Why are these PELA principals permitted to continually fail without consequence as our schools continue to decline in student performance because principals fail to enforce the Code of Conduct for student behavior.

Anonymous said...

I was watching KDKA around 5 pm. They did a story about another boy at Rooney that is now talking. He claims in 1995 he was caught with a weapon and the officer, Lellock let him go in exchange for the kid performing oral sex on Lellock. The kid said something along the lined about.."I wanted to stab him in the neck". Child predators have no boundries and they don't stop. The story aired at 5PM, but I have not found it online.

PPS has been comfortable having this person employed while knowing he at the very least wrestled with middle school boys, while wearing underwear in a school closet? Who besides a pedophile wrestles with young boys in underwear in school closets? They made an excuse for that?

Why did Roosevelt protect him?

Anonymous said...

Found the KDKA story regarding 2005.

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2012/09/06/new-details-emerge-in-alleged-assault-case-involving-school-officer/

Sick.

Anonymous said...

So let me get this straight: Roosevelt/Lane/Fischetti/Weiss/Spolar spend years and several hundred thousand dollars investigating a couple of traffic stops, but protect this pedophile with the posh job of playing sidekick to Superintendent Roosevelt?

Anonymous said...

Did the school district cut its communications and marketing department? With so many of these recent stories I cannot help but notice that PPS has no comment.

Are Lisa Fischetti and Ebony Pugh still with the administration?

Anonymous said...

The district is investigating too, right? This is not a story that they can ignore and expect people to lose interest. The admin should be out communicating to parents about new safeguards. NOW.

Questioner said...

Hmm, wouldn't Roosevelt have been aware of reports of a problem, even if they stemmed from incidents that took place before his term began? And wouldn't he then have had some sort of responsibility to be sure that all reports had been investigated and investigated adequately? Did he meet this responsibility?

Anonymous said...

Q, I am sure the District Attorney's office has been made aware of the close relationship Roosevelt and Lellock had and will serve a search warrant for any emails between the two.

Anonymous said...

Lellock was highly thought of during the current Lane administration too. He was once dispatched to drive to Harrisburg to pick up a notebook that Dr. Lane forgot. I think at the time the phrase that was used was "he's the only one we can trust."

I'd love to know what was in the notebook that regular US mail or even Fed Ex wasn't adequate.

Questioner said...

To be more precise, the issue would probably be whether Roosevelt was aware that for whatever reason (turnover in the office of the superintendent, parents wanting to drop the issue, etc), reports of problems had not been thoroughly investigated.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Why is KDKA the only news outlet reporting this story?

The DA was granted a search warrant for PPS.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/pittsburghkdka-15751084/police-run-search-warrant-at-pittsburgh-public-schools-30523035.html

Anonymous said...

" Anonymous said...
So let me get this straight: Roosevelt/Lane/Fischetti/Weiss/Spolar spend years and several hundred thousand dollars investigating a couple of traffic stops, but protect this pedophile with the posh job of playing sidekick to Superintendent Roosevelt?

September 7, 2012 5:36 AM


You nailed it.

John said...

There are a number of people on Bellefield Avenue who should be held responsible for the actions discussed here. There are even more who should have their letters of resignation ready. Is this not a SCHOOL district?

Anonymous said...

Just listened to a bit of the Marty Griffin show (pause for readers to cringe). The hour focused on incidents in Kansas City and the pps situation. Most callers grabbed onto the priest in KC and I do not believe any called about the pps situation. I think we want to believe so badly that such awful things did not happen and that there was no coverup here. Anyway it sounds like the DA's office may be making some announcements soon. If this topic is not at the top of every meeting agenda can we assume anything will change?

Anonymous said...

I agree this story needs to be on page one!

Anonymous said...

Apparently the blame for all of this negative publicity for the district is on the fired person, not the pedophile and his actions on these children. How can intelligent, educated people believe how absurd this is and how one person could get these children to lie about the pain and suffering they have endured for the past few years or decade of their lives. What is wrong with these people?

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, but can you clarify that? I have not heard what you have put forward here. Are you saying that the Rooney story was completely fabricated? Or are you talking about the Carrick stories?

Anonymous said...

I think 12:17 was being sarcastic...

What happened at Carrick?

Anonymous said...

Rooney...oh it's true!

What happened at Carrick?

Anonymous said...

Search this blog for recent posts about Carrick. You'll get at least some info about what allegedly happened at that school.

Anonymous said...

Oh I thought it was something new.
The Carrick issue is true too.

Anonymous said...

I searched and have no idea what the Carrick issue is/was!

Anonymous said...

Then you haven't read this thread very closely. Seems like they have had numerous issues.

Anonymous said...

Look above under the August 29th, September 4th and 5th posts.
This is an example of one of the issues that happened at Carrick.