Friday, November 20, 2009 East Central Illinois

Parents mourn daughters' stolen innocence

By: Mary Schenk

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Saturday, April 05, 2008

URBANA – Twelve individual letters were read aloud to Judge Harry Clem by the parents of eight of Jon White's 11 victims. But the authors shared a common thought – punish him to the fullest extent of the law for robbing them of their little girls.

There were tears and sniffling from the observers in the packed courtroom as the parents choked back tears to tell of their misplaced trust in the teacher.

"I'll never forget the excitement in (my daughter's) voice when she called me to say she got the teacher she wanted. 'I got Mr. White. I got Mr. White. He's so nice.' She was so happy," the father said.

"I met you at the parent-teacher conference and you stood tall, shook my hand and looked me in the eye. The thought of that now sickens me, to hold the hand and stare in the face of evil," he said.

He went on to talk of the sleepless nights and the emotional devastation that his daughter and the other members of his family have endured, a universal complaint by the parents.

"As parents, (we) are angry, sad and filled with guilt. We feel like you stole our child's innocence and we should have been there to protect her. But how could we? We trusted you and were so shocked to find out what type of man you really are. You are a father. How could you do this to anyone else's child? How could you take advantage of your position as a teacher?" another mother wrote.

Almost all the parents talked of fun-loving, independent little girls who now have problems trusting almost any male authority figures, obsessing about locked doors, worrying about what will happen to White's wife and daughter, and who don't want to sleep alone. Some of the girls and their parents have received counseling.

Because the families expected a trial, most of the parents chose not to speak to their daughters about what happened to them, a situation that has left the girls even more confused, their parents said.

"The Bloomington School District turned their backs on the children there when they ignored the red flags presented by Mr. White's inappropriate conduct with students there. Because of their inaction, he was able to enter the Urbana School District, where he started to groom his next victims for his predatory behavior at Thomas Paine School. The administrators of the Urbana School District and the administrator of Thomas Paine School also turned their backs on the children when they ignored the allegations of sexual misconduct reported by the parents, when they chose to do an internal investigation, ignoring what they were mandated to do by law," a mother said.

White's attorneys presented 30 letters of support for him, many of them from relatives, neighbors in Villa Grove and at least one from a fellow Thomas Paine teacher.

His mother, Joyce White, talked of her son as a wonderful father, brother, son and husband and asked the judge to impose the fewest amount of years in prison possible.

"I am truly sorry for what everybody has had to go through. However, I am not ashamed of my son. I love him and I will support him as his mother."

His wife, Shayna White, wrote of him being a loving father to their daughter, who will be 2 in May.

"My hope for Jon is that he is able to continue a relationship with his daughter and to provide support for others as he enters this phase of his life," she wrote.

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