Principal in the dock
Prosecuting Skinner school head serves no one's interests
The Rocky
Published March 12, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
On Tuesday, Denver Skinner Middle School Principal Nicole Veltze pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor count of failing to report an allegation of child abuse or neglect at her school. Trial is set for June 16, but we hope the charge will be dismissed at a motions hearing set for April 25. Based on what is known about the case, no reasonable jury, in our opinion, would convict her.
When a student came to her on a Friday afternoon in December and reported being inappropriately touched by two classmates, Veltze found herself caught between a legal rock and a hard place. She had to decide whether the incident constituted sexual abuse or harassment.
State law requires school officials to immediately report to governmental authorities any reasonable knowledge or suspicion of "abuse or neglect." But according to Denver Public Schools policy - a policy, incidentally, signed off on by both the Denver Department of Human Services and the Denver Police Department - harassment requires only a report to an administrator in the district's human resources department.
Ultimately, Veltze decided it was a case of harassment and followed all DPS procedures, including informing the girl's parents, whom she arranged to meet with the following Monday.
The next day, however, the parents called the police and Veltze now finds herself in a legal tangle because she didn't report the incident "immediately," never mind that she didn't feel she had to report the incident at all.
What kind of a law is it that requires someone to make a judgment, then punishes them for doing so? A flawed one, in our view. If District Attorney Mitch Morrissey considers such incidents sexual assaults, that's his prerogative. He has effectively communicated that opinion to the district. But he shouldn't be charging principals who, even under the most damning interpretation of their behavior, make what is clearly a well-intentioned mistake.
Veltze didn't try to suppress the incident, hush it up, or fail to punish the perpetrators. If she had done one of those things, it might explain the DA's action. The implications of Veltze's predicament for harried educators are sobering. It's more likely than ever, for example, that they will report every little brush against a buttocks or every kiss an exuberant 5-year-old plants on another 5-year-old.
Roxane White, Denver's Human Services chief, has already complained that additional reports generated in the wake of the Veltze incident have resulted in "huge system problems" for her "stressed staff." And we're sure Police Chief Gerry Whitman is none too pleased by the prospect of a similar flood of reports inundating his department. Each trivial incident reported impairs the ability of authorities to properly pursue more serious cases, and imposes greater costs that must ultimately be paid by taxpayers.
And what about the children involved in all this? Is the fearful overreporting of incidents really in their interests, either?
In a letter last month to his DPS colleagues, DPS legal counsel John Kechriotis noted that both the DA and police department "understand their obligation to provide us guidance" regarding "what incidents / factual circumstances rise to a level that triggers your reporting obligation for child abuse / neglect." We certainly hope Kechriotis is correct. It would be a shame if the DA's office limited its communication to the blunt instrument of filing charges against what it considers wayward principals.
If the district's instructions for identifying reportable incidents are inadequate - if they tilt decisions too much against reports to police and toward handling incidents as harassment - then they should be revised to reflect the DA's concerns. But prosecute Veltze? Principals would be fools to apply any guidelines so long as she's in the dock. Her prosecution tells them to report absolutely everything - and to let parents, police and social workers clean up the ensuing mess.
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March 12, 2008
6:28 a.m.
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vudumom writes:
I usually come down on the side of parents when it comes to schools.I have to side with her on this one.I think she did everything should could do to disfuse the situation.She handled the boys,she talked to the girl and her mother and she was still looking into everything and had assured the mother everything was being done.The mother agreed and for some reason called police the next day.
I have 2 kids and I know they can start to embellish stories the more time they tell them.I think the mother was wrong to handle it this way,unless there was something more severe that happened that the girl didn't tell the principal.In that case again the principal wasn't wrong because she didn't know.
This is going to cause chaos in the DHS system that is already in chaos.
What the hell is going on in the D.A.'s office in Denver?
March 12, 2008
6:31 a.m.
Suggest removal
VVVV writes:
If you can't prosecute a minor, just shoot the messenger. Sounds like standard procedure for the police department.
March 12, 2008
7:45 a.m.
Suggest removal
Jim writes:
Who's runing the DPS asylum anyway?
March 12, 2008
1:57 p.m.
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peterpi writes:
Jim,
The answer to your question is DA Morrissey. The "DPS asylum" followed its own procedures. A parent apparently decided that wasn't good enough, and now DA Morrissey is potentially sending a fine principal to prison, because she used what a reasonable person would consider to be sound judgement. This time, it isn't DPS' fault. It's the fault of a publicity seeking DA who, ahem, just happens to be running for re-election.
March 12, 2008
2:54 p.m.
Suggest removal
vudumom writes:
What I like about the Denver Da's office and Morrissey is their keen sense of justice.
They arrest a principal who did her job correctly.
They let a mother walk out of jail with no charges after admitting to helping her unregistered sex offender boyfriend stuff the body of her daughter in trash bags and then in a suitcase and dumping the body.Then calling the police and saying that a white man took her and kidnapped her.Not one charge!
This a**hole has got to go!