The Robert Hawkins matter has not ended with the trial, his guilty plea nor now with his sentencing. Another ugly side of the story was that other teachers apparently knew of the affair and did not report it to authorities so action could be taken to stop it. Of these teachers, two were terminated by the District and one was allowed to resign. The District Attorney’s office is still apparently looking into allegations about what was known by other teachers.
Now the District must face the possibility that such teachers may be back in Council Rock next fall, once again in the position of being entrusted with children’s well-being.
During Mr. Hawkins’ trial on November 18th, after his guilty plea, he was asked specific questions about specific other teachers and whether they had known and assisted in covering up the affair. The convicted teacher took the 5th Amendment and would not respond to any of those questions. During his sentencing on March 10th, the prosecution indicated that the defense attorney had refused allocution, a process during which the details of the crime are specifically verbally admitted. Presumably part of the allocution would have gone to the actions of other teachers during the cover-up of the affair.
Since teachers were let go by the District, people may have thought it’s all behind the District, but it is not quite that simple. Some (if not all) of the impacted teachers and their Union have filed grievances and these matters appear to be heading for arbitration hearings. If the teachers and Union prevail, these individuals who apparently knew of Mr. Hawkins’ behavior but did not inform authorities to intercede on behalf of the victim, these individuals could be back working for the school district in September 2010.
These individuals who were deemed not to have protected a student of the District from Mr. Hawkins will be back in a position of caring for children in Council Rock schools. Considering the trust that has been lost not just by the existence of the affair but by other teachers apparently standing by and letting it happen, it is hard to think that this trust could somehow be magically restored.
During the sentencing of Mr. Hawkins, Mark Klein spoke about the loss of trust and how the District had been impacted. He urged the judge to make the cooperation by Mr. Hawkins in arbitration hearings for these former colleagues a condition of the sentence. The judge did impose conditions to make Mr. Hawkins available to give depositions and information for those hearings and said his cooperation would be considered if a motion were to be filed in the future. Based on the refusal by Mr. Hawkins to answer questions at all November 18th and the refusal by the defense attorney to have him undergo allocution, it is unclear if cooperation will be forthcoming.
It was noted toward the end of the sentencing that one of the arbitration hearings is occurring this coming Monday. Others are presumably happening in the near future.
The public has a right to be concerned with the potential reinstatement of these teachers and the effort by the Union. They also deserve to know how aggressively the District will work to ensure that anyone who knew of the affair and allowed it to go on will not get the chance to have Council Rock students entrusted to them again.
Filed under: Administration, Council Rock, Crime, Ethics, Law, Policies, Students, Teachers, Uncategorized Tagged: | Administration, Contracts, Crime, Ethics, Policies, School Board, Students, Teachers
I think that the word you are looking for is “allegedly” and not “apparently”. If it were apparent, then there would be no arbitration hearings. If they do end up back teaching in the schools, then that means that they were found to be innocent, and thus unaware of Hawkins’ behavior. Which is entirely possible. Except, of course, for the one who resigned.
how about you keep your opinions out of your articles watchdog
One question – how if these teachers indeed did NOT know about what was occurring? When is Hawkins’ word all of a sudden proof of anything? If they knew and it would get him out of jail earlier, then he would have said something by now. He did not plead the fifth in his latest court situation; he said that the teachers did not know. So if they didn’t know, then they got fired for nothing, and they should get their jobs back while getting back pay and time served.
@’council rock parent’ : the legal system often fails to convict guilty people more appropriate than finding them innocent, we should call it failed to prove them guilty
Are you kidding me? just because they are being accused of something does NOT mean that they are guilty. I have faith in our legal system and agree to abide by court decisions. MUCH investigation has gone into these cases, so if they are found innocent, then I accept that. What a pessimist you are to think that our legal system fails more often than not.
I’m embarrassed to say that looking back now and closely examining the goings on of past students I have come to the realization that this is NOT the first student who has fallen prey to this teacher, and this is something that has been going on for a number of years now! I am not going to make the assumption that other teachers were aware, however I find it VERY hard to believe that other teachers in the school are that incredibly naive!!!