PA School Watch Journal

OUTRAGEOUS STORY OF THE DAY!!

Dallas School District used fradulent social security numbers for years to quickly hire employees who did not have the credentials to teach.

The fake numbers were assigned as a stopgap to expedite the hiring process, the report says. The numbers were supposed to serve as temporary identification numbers until employees received real Social Security numbers. Once employees got the real numbers, they were supposed to tell district officials so the fake ones could be replaced.

Some of the numbers were real Social Security numbers already assigned to people elsewhere. And in some cases, the state's educator certification office unknowingly used the bogus numbers to run criminal background checks on the new hires, most of whom were brought in to teach bilingual classes.

The camp counselor has apparently spent his time surrounding himself with children and was

looking forward to the "fringe benefits" of his new job as a teacher to be around young girls.

According to professionals there is someone similar in every school in America.  

2 indicted on child porn charges
By SEAN O'SULLIVAN
The News Journal

Two Wilmington men, including a counselor for a summer camp in Pennsylvania, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on multiple child pornography charges.

The counselor, Brian L. Briggs, 22, worked at the Friends Central School's Trailblazer Summer Camp in Wynnewood, Pa., according to prosecutors.

He was caught in an online sting in whichan FBI agent searched for people trading child pornography on peer-to-peer networks.

During an online session with Briggs, who was using the screen name "TomatoB," Briggs allegedly sent illicit images of minors to the agent, according to court papers.

Briggs also allegedly chatted with the agent about getting a job as a teacher and how that would provide a "fringe benefit" of proximity to young girls and also allegedly confessed to inappropriately touching a child "a few years back" when he was "working at a camp."

Prosecutors said in addition to the job at the camp, Briggs also worked in the school's after-care program. Both jobs involved the supervision of young children.

Investigators tracked the screen name back to Briggs and a subsequent search at Briggs' parents home, where he lived, turned up a thumb drive with more than100 images of suspected child porn, according to court papers.

Briggs also allegedly admitted to investigators that he possessed child porn and had been seeking it out for several years.

His attorney, Edmund "Dan" Lyons, could not be reached for comment. Calls to the school were not returned.

The second man indicted, Edward Brosky, 72, a retiree, was caught in a similar sting.

An agent entered a newsgroup where child pornography had been posted by the user, "Ali-Baba."

The posts and the username then were traced to the married Brosky at his home, which was searched.

According to court papers, agents seized several computers, CDs and DVDs, which contained more than 90,000 suspected child porn images.

At the conclusion of the search, Brosky allegedly admitted to possessing child porn saying, "having child pornography is worse than robbing a bank" and that he preferred images of girls between the ages of nine and 10.

Brosky's attorney, Christopher S. Koyste, said he expects his client will be admitting guilt.

"It is really an addition issue and the government already knows that," Koyste said, adding his client has already seen a therapist and hopes to get into treatment as soon as possible.

Briggs is facing a 14-count indictment and Brosky is facing a 12-count indictment, both include charges of receipt and possession of child pornography.

If convicted on all counts, both men face a minimum mandatory five years in prison and up to life behind bars.

Both have been incarcerated since their arrests several weeks ago.

U.S. Attorney Colm F. Connolly, in a statement, said that those ”who prey on children, regardless of their station in life, standing, job or background - will find themselves primary targets of law enforcement."

Both men are set to be arraigned on the charges Thursday.

Teacher Nabbed In Sex Sting

A Mt. Lebanon High School chemistry teacher is the latest suspect snared in the state Attorney General's Internet sex sting.

Nicholas E. Salvo, 34, of Mt. Lebanon sent sexually explicit messages and videos to an undercover agent whom he thought was a 14-year-old girl, the prosecutor's office announced Friday.

He has been teaching at the school since 1999 and was the girls tennis coach for a brief period of time.

Statistics are funny things. On one hand the use of statistics can quantify a problem. On the other hand when used in reference to people, they can dehumanize an issue and turn it into a mathematical formula.

The following slide show hopefully balances the scope of the sexual abuse of children in educational environments with the voices of the survivors. The survivors quoted do not come from any one case. They do not relate to the cases cited in the slideshow.

Recently a person who viewed this slideshow stated that it is not appropriate for all environments. Consider that a warning- it's not graphic, but it is the truth. The truth is sometimes ugly.

PASchoolWatch2.pdf

According to accounts by former students Father Dennis was a "normal guy", a "great priest". He even received a proclamation from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for coaching a championship basketball team. If the allegations brought forth by four previous students are proven, serial predator can be added to list of Rev. Dennis Killion's traits.

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently published a story about the incidents and there was a follow up story on August 7th about the inconsistencies of the responses about the matter from the church. What did they know and when did they know it? If Rev Killion is found guilty and the church negligent, every person who knew of the abuse is also responsible. It is known as "Passing The Trash" and it is not exclusively a church problem. Many experts believe it is wide spread, hard to detect and harder to stop. Google the phrase "Passing The Trash" and you will be astounded with the information you receive.

The Inquirer article reports that a parish in Bucks County, Pennsylvania directly benefitted from a Delaware state law, The Child Victims Act. The Child Victims Act was enacted on July 10, 2007, and it removes the statute of limitations for child victims of sexual abuse to bring forth civil claims. The law is also retroactive; a child victim previously barred because of an expired statute of limitations was granted a two year window from the date the law was enacted to bring forth a claim. Similar legislation in Pennsylvania has stalled. We can thank Delaware for watching out for Pennsylvania's children.

From our own State House we have new and (not) improved legislation regarding among other things criminal background checks. It is no longer a requirement to produce an original background clearance, now a copy will do. Great, thanks for that!!