Friday, November 20, 2009 East Central Illinois

Jon White case: How could this happen?

By: Amy F. Reiter

E-mail Story Printer-friendly

Sunday, June 15, 2008
Story Photo

Photo by:

amberg

Jon White could have been stopped much earlier.

There were at least seven warning points at which a school employee in either Urbana or McLean County could have justified a call to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

No one did.

And so White – the man convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for acts involving 10 children – kept teaching.

Sexual misconduct in schools is not rare, according to Charol Shakeshaft, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and expert on educator sexual abuse.

In a survey of more than 2,000 students in grades 8-11 – students chosen to be representative of the population – nearly 10 percent reported some kind of unwanted sexual misconduct on the part of an educator. The survey was conducted in 2000 by the American Association of University Women and then analyzed by Shakeshaft for a 2004 report on the subject for the U.S. Department of Education.

State law requires that anyone who works in schools is required to report suspicions of child abuse or neglect to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

The law states that telling a supervisor isn't enough. The act means "when in doubt, call," DCFS spokesman Kendall Marlowe said.

Using documents obtained and interviews conducted by The News-Gazette, this is the story of how calls weren't made.

No one has been charged with a crime for failure to make these calls.

In McLean County

Warning 1:

October 2004

While teaching at Colene Hoose Elementary School in Normal between 2003-2005, White begins viewing pornographic materials online. (He later tells clinical therapist Michael Kleppin he began checking out Web sites at school after his wife expressed disapproval with his interest in pornography, according to Kleppin's March 2008 sex offender evaluation and risk assessment of White, part of the Champaign County court file.)

During a review of computer usage in the district, a network administrator found that the computer in White's first-grade classroom was used to access inappropriate sites, said John Pye, the district's assistant superintendent for operations and human resources, during White's Champaign County sentencing.

According to Pye, White admitted the computer use to school administrators Oct. 29, 2004, and was suspended for five days and told to get counseling.

Warning 2:

2004-05 school year

According to court documents, Courtney Frame, a part-time teachers' aide in White's classroom in Normal, saw a "nude or blurred-out image of a young female movie star" in White's possession, she told the Normal police after White's arrest. White tells Frame the actress looks like a female student at the school.

Warning 3:

April 2005

White gives pictures to the female student at Colene Hoose.

"She said he looked at her funny, and it made her feel weird. It was a red flag," said the girl's mother in an interview with The News-Gazette in February 2007. "We brought the pictures to the principal, Mr. (Edward) Heinemann, and they launched an investigation."

In an interview with the Normal Police Department on Feb. 15, 2007, Frame tells police that Heinemann called her to his office in the spring of 2005 and showed her the picture. According to the court documents, she told the principal she had "seen the photograph in the defendant's hand."

White tells Kleppin during his sex offender evaluation that, because of the pornography and the incident with the pictures, "he was encouraged to resign, which he did."

The principal then writes White a recommendation, stating that White "worked to build a strong connection with his students and parents." Heinemann said parents made positive comments about White, that White "is also willing to go beyond the school day with students."

Heinemann and Pye referred questions to Superintendent Gary Niehaus, who took over after Alan Chapman left the position last year. Niehaus said he could not comment on White's recommendation, but he said the district's policy now is that it does not give a recommendation for any employee who is released or asked to resign.

In Urbana

In August 2005, Urbana is looking for a teacher for Thomas Paine Elementary School.

White applies.

District policy requires that those doing the hiring ask the previous employer the question: "Would you re-employ this person?" and then "If no, why not?"

The Urbana school district denied Freedom of Information Act requests from The News-Gazette for White's personnel file, calling it an "unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." Urbana Superintendent Preston Williams will not answer questions about White, nor will board President Mark Netter, referring questions to the district's attorney, Dennis Weedman.

After White's arrest, the board hired an outside law firm, the Taylor Law Offices, to review the district's actions regarding White.

In an e-mail, Weedman said that review likely will not be made public due to confidentiality issues on the part of students and school employees.

But in Normal before White was hired by Urbana, his personnel file was flagged, so any employment calls about him were directed to Pye.

Pye later told The News-Gazette, "I hadn't been contacted by Urbana when they hired him. I'm not aware that anyone was contacted."

Kathy Wallig, the former Urbana schools spokeswoman, kept a journal of what she saw and heard following White's arrest. She said she kept the journal partly "to deal with my own feelings" and partly because "I needed to remember what had happened if for no other reason than I knew that there would be a criminal case with Jon White.

"Jon White took a toll on a number of people, and he wasn't the only one – he committed the crime, but he wasn't responsible for where he was. There were other people who were responsible for keeping him in the classroom longer than he should have been," she said.

Wallig said she hopes that by sharing her journal, "that people are more alert to the fact that sexual predators look and act just like everybody else. There are clear signs there, but we have to be alert to what they're doing."

Wallig said she left the school district because, though she admires those who teach and administer in public schools, she felt that some people in the district had placed protecting the district's employees above protecting its children and erred in deciding to keep private the results of the external review by the Taylor Law Offices.

"The community pays the bills and supports the district ... or not. To not share the results of that investigation with the community who 'owns' the district was not a decision I could live with," she wrote in an e-mail. "A person needs to believe in her work and feel that it contributes to society in some way, no matter how large or small. But Jon White and the people responsible hammered that belief right out of me. Leaving was the only clear choice I had."

Gayle Jeffries, the assistant superintendent for human resources for Urbana school district, said Wallig's departure was noted at the April 17, 2007, board meeting as resigning for personal reasons.

In an entry dated Feb. 5, Wallig writes about a conversation with then-Superintendent Gene Amberg about White's employment background checks.

"The superintendent (in Normal) said to his knowledge, no one had ever checked references for Jon White," Wallig wrote. "Gene told me (that former Thomas Paine Principal) Janice Bradley had never called Unit 5 for a reference check on Jon White."

When reached for comment, Bradley referred questions to her lawyer, Sheryl Fitzjarrald of Dodson, Piraino & Associates in Champaign. Fitzjarrald did not return calls for comment.

Amberg did not return several messages seeking comment.

On Sept. 20, 2005, the Urbana school board approves White's employment.

Warning 4:

2005-06

From his first year in Urbana, White was bringing girls, two at a time, to his classroom during recess or the after-school program.

Court proceedings have subsequently shown that in that classroom, White blindfolded mostly 7- and 8-year-old girls and told them they would lick a substance off a banana. He would give them treats afterward.

Shakeshaft, the expert on educator sexual misconduct, is not familiar with White's case but said there can be patterns of child sexual offenders, including isolating children from the public sphere.

"It isn't that a teacher's alone with a student, that can happen," she said. "It's that they are alone with closed doors, with the same student over and over – that's a warning sign."

Warning 5:

Nov. 2-3, 2006

On the way home from the Paine after-school program, one girl mentions the actions in White's classroom after school. The mother gets suspicious and asks questions.

According to the court testimony, the girl's parents schedule an appointment with Bradley for the next day.

In a letter to the parents dated Nov. 3, 2006, the same day as the interview with the parents, Bradley tells them that White said the activity happened during school hours as part of a unit on diversity. He said the girls come to his room to clean the classroom and help with papers.

"He did share that the girls have asked to play the 'Taste Activity.' ... The girls see this guessing game as a reward. The girls put on the blindfold themselves. Mr. White is not involved. Mr. White wanted to make it clear that this was not a sexual activity. ... Mr. White apologized for his poor judgment by allowing the girls to do the activity as a reward. ... I support Mr. White regarding his explanation of this situation."

The same day, Bradley sent a copy of the letter to the parents to White, along with a note to White stating: "I appreciate you sharing what happened. I want you to know that this documentation that will be placed in your Personnel Conern's (sic) File that is kept in my office only. The following recommendation are (sic) expected to be followed based on our meeting this morning: Students from the after-school program are not to assist you after school."

The girl's parents next talked with Amberg, the father said in his court testimony. Amberg did not interview the daughter, her father testified.

Warning 6:

Nov. 7, 2006

The daughter is interviewed by Carmelita Thomas, the then-director of human resources, while the girl's mother is in the room. According to court transcripts, the mother says her daughter gave Thomas the same information she'd originally told her parents, as well as "showed her, demonstrated how the taste test went."

According to Wallig, Thomas also interviewed a second girl about the incident.

In a conversation Wallig had with Thomas on Jan. 31, 2007 – after White's arrest – Wallig wrote that Thomas "was amazed at the information the police had about the original incident involving (the two girls). She kept saying 'they didn't tell me that' or 'I didn't know that.'

"She commented that she had always thought the banana had been sliced. She said (girl two) didn't substantiate what (girl one) had said. She said she couldn't believe (girl one) since (girl two) didn't support (girl one's) version of the story. And she said she hadn't contacted DCFS."

Thomas declined to comment for this story.

In his court testimony, Urbana police Investigator Duane Maxey stated that interviews with possible victims of child abuse should be conducted by trained professionals and the interviews should happen as quickly and infrequently as possible.

"For a child to – assuming that the child is traumatized – for a child to have to relive an event that is troubling to them isn't necessarily fair to the child," he said. "Additionally, in order to obtain as accurate a statement as is possible, it's best to do it the first time professionally, forensically, and get it correct."

He said in his testimony, "it's important to communicate to the children in a fashion so as to avoid asking an abnormally high number of leading questions, to avoid coaching them. ... Your questions are designed to elicit information without leading the child on."

Warning 7:

Early January 2007

Just after the winter break, parents of another girl call for a meeting with Bradley to talk about White's behavior. They tell Bradley their daughter, who is not in White's class, has been pulled out of recess to go to his classroom.

In her testimony, the girl's mother says that after talking with the parents, Bradley brought the girl into the room while the parents were there.

Bradley then asked questions of the girl, said her mother. "She started off by asking (the daughter) if she knew who Helen Keller was," the mother said. "Then she asked (the daughter) to describe the taste test.

"She just questioned (the daughter) about different things about it, like how did you get the pass, how did you do the test, you know, when did you do the test and that kind of thing until it was all finished, and she said she was going to investigate our reports and get back to us."

In cross-examination, the parent later said that during the interview, she told Bradley "to stop, that I didn't like her demeanor and/or her tactics and I didn't like the way that everything (the daughter) was saying that (Bradley) was ... finding no validity in it."

Marlowe, the DCFS spokesman, would not speak to the White case, but said in general, "some organizations, including some schools, may still think child abuse should first be investigated internally. That's not the law in Illinois."

According to the DCFS mandated reporter training Web site: "As a person who works with children, it is your legal obligation to report your suspicions to DCFS. It is not your role to investigate what the child has told you."

News-Gazette staff writers Jodi Heckel and Mary Schenk contributed to this report.

Other Jon White stories