Posted on 02/22/2011 5:07:03 PM PST by infoguy
On Saturday (2/19/11), the Los Angeles Times published an article, "Ex-high school principal gets 8 years for molesting four girls." The case involved Jonas Vital Silverio, who had pleaded no contest to 10 counts of lewd acts on a child 14 or 15 years old.
At first blush, the story seems to be just another stomach-turning account of child abuse in our nation's public schools. But buried in the middle of the article was a troubling detail:
[Los Angeles County] Prosecutor Stephanie Chavez said Silverio had a history of sexual misconduct.
In 1995, Silverio was placed on probation for a misdemeanor conviction of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.
In other words, Silverio was serving as the boss at Firebaugh High School in Lynwood, California, even though he had a criminal record for having sex with an underage girl.
One cannot help but wonder: How on earth does a person with such a conviction on his record rise to such a lofty position in a school?
Kudos to the Times for at least including this important fact in its article. (Other local outlets didn't note it at all.) But, again, this shocking detail only merited a passing mention in the middle of the Times' story.
The lack of investigative reporting of this troubling school case only reinforces the clear and pervasive double standard in the media when reporting cases or allegations of child abuse. While the media has aggressively investigated and trumpeted decades-old cases involving Catholic priests from just about anywhere in the world, it has not been nearly as eager to report the massive abuse and cover-ups happening today in our nation's public schools.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
the infowarrior
The L.A. Times reported, "Since Silverio had never received U.S. citizenship, [his attorney] said, he is likely to be deported to the Philippines upon release from prison."
The whole thing is bad, imho.
Hey, Teachers Union! Thanks for the standards. Nice to have you on the job. You guys need some more "rights", do ya?
The significant thing was that he was a public school teacher. New York City had a whole raft of people like him (all legal citizens, btw) collecting full paychecks at 100 Livingstone Street (Bd of Ed headquarters) because they had already been arrested or at the very least kicked out of schools so often that even the lawyers said it was impossible to return them to a classroom.
The only reason they were not fired was because of the union. I don’t know what it would have taken to get a union teacher fired. Apparently, merely abusing or raping a child was not enough. Kill the union.
Los Angeles County] Prosecutor Stephanie Chavez said Silverio had a history of sexual misconduct.
In 1995, Silverio was placed on probation for a misdemeanor conviction of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.
How can that be a misdemeanor? It sounds at the very least statutory rape.
“How can that be a misdemeanor? It sounds at the very least statutory rape.”
I thought the same thing.
His defense was that “She was asking for it”. That was enough to bring it down to a misdemeanor. It’s California for Pete’s sake!
In 1995, Silverio was placed on probation for a misdemeanor conviction of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. In other words, Silverio was serving as the boss at Firebaugh High School in Lynwood, California, even though he had a criminal record for having sex with an underage girl.
This is just too darn much.
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