In the spring of 2010, Raymond Firth, a former Pacific Rim Elementary School teacher, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for molesting girls in his third-grade classes.
It was a pretty light sentence, the result of a plea bargain, but the good news was that several girls did not have to testify.
The families of two of the girls then sued Firth and the Carlsbad school district. Trial in February.
The righteous case against the pedophile warrants no discussion. The dicey case against the school district does.
http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html
The plaintiffs argue the pervert should haved been exposed, perhaps before the girls were molested.
Over six years, Firth was counseled several times over such things as holding hands with students, allowing them to sit on his lap, closing doors when alone with a student. Red flags? In hindsight, oh, God, yes. In real time, however, the principal appeared to buy into the perception that Firth was a charismatic teacher to whom kids naturally clung.
Four years ago, a girl told her mother that Firth had fondled her. The district immediately alerted police and placed Firth on paid leave.
A few weeks later, Firth submitted his resignation. He cited “personal reasons” for his departure.
In a settlement agreement, the district cut Firth a check for $16,000 and promised not to share the contents of his file to a potential employer. (The state credentialing agency, however, had been notified.)
To the plaintiffs’ attorney, David Ring, this arrangement smacks of a corrupt Catholic diocese, a “passing of the trash” to an unsuspecting school district.
“We got lucky here,” Ring told me. “He didn’t get the next job.”
In reality, it was unlikely Firth would ever have been hired as a teacher. Inquiring principals would have heard a warning dog whistle in Carlsbad’s legalese response. Still, stranger things have happened, especially out of state.
As the district was cutting Firth loose, the district attorney was having trouble building a case in the winter of ‘07. Not enough evidence. Just one little girl’s word.
It was only when another girl came forward a year later that the DA charged Firth. Once the court case hit the local press, another girl came forward. And then another.
I asked Superintendent John Roach, who’s retiring next year, if he regrets not broadcasting to parents why Firth suddenly disappeared from the classroom, an official silence that stoked the narrative of some critics that Carlsbad tried to cover up the scandal.
“We believed he was guilty,” Roach said, but believing is different from saying so in public and getting ahead of a criminal probe.
Here’s the rub.
If a newspaper had been tipped to all the information available in late 2007 — the counseling of Firth, the first girl’s unproven allegation, Firth’s generic resignation, the $16,000 payoff, the confidentiality agreement, the DA’s stymied investigation — it might not have run a story for fear of a libel suit.
Depends on the editor. And the editor’s lawyer.
Can a school district be blamed for failing to do what a newspaper might not have done?
Don’t think so.
