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'Passing the trash' a problem for schools in Ohio and beyond
By Jay Skebba
When Patrick Murtha first came to Rossford Schools in search of a job, he told school board members that he was “looking for a change.” It was 2004, and fresh off a stint in southern Ohio working as the Athens City Schools athletic director, Mr. Murtha said he wanted to move to another small town. Hence how he ended up before the school board in nondescript Rossford — a northwest Ohio community few outside the Toledo area could find on a map. What he didn’t tell the school board, according to a recent investigation conducted by a district administrator, is that he was departing his former job after running into trouble for inappropriately touching members of the Athens school community. Now Mr. Murtha again finds himself without a job, and again finds himself under scrutiny for acting inappropriately with young people he came into contact with because of his role as a school administrator and assistant principal. Fifteen years after he was hired, school officials are under fire over how they’ve handled Mr. Murtha’s dismissal, and how he came to work in the district in the first place. While the district’s report puts the onus on Mr. Murtha for self-reporting his own disciplinary problems, it’s unclear what steps Rossford Schools leaders independently took at the time to check on Mr. Murtha’s past transgressions because, as Superintendent Dan Creps noted in a letter to district families this week, none of the current board members were in place in 2004. Board members and Mr. Creps largely refused to discuss with The Blade Mr. Murtha’s employment or their investigation until a board meeting Wednesday. All five board members and Mr. Creps admitted mistakes were made in handling the fallout, and offered apologies. It’s not clear if district leaders went to the police once accusations by at least three Rossford students surfaced about Mr. Murtha’s conduct. Experts contend both issues — how well school districts check the backgrounds of those they employ, and whether school officials report to police potential issues of student harassment or assault committed by teachers, coaches, and administrators — cut to the heart of a long-simmering problem for educational institutions. It even comes with a catchphrase: “passing the trash,” or the act of educators with a history of troubling behavior to leave a school district, then find a job in another school down the road, on the other side of the state, or even across the country. In some cases, personnel files are not requested or received. In others, a Google search should be enough for a district to unearth a shady past. It's unclear if officials and board members working in Rossford in 2004 looked at Mr. Murtha's personnel file. When The Blade obtained the file earlier this year, it contained a letter of reprimand; a simple Internet search turned up multiple media reports from Athens, Ohio, published at the time of the incidents. But often these sorts of checks are overlooked for a variety of reasons, with a fear of litigation being perhaps one of the biggest culprits, said Jetta Bernier, a spokesman for the Boston-based Enough Abuse Campaign. "A lot of schools right now will get a call from another school or youth organization saying, 'So-and-so worked there, can you tell me about them?' Nowadays people are so afraid to get sued they won't talk about any misconduct," Ms. Bernier said. From Toledo to Rossford to Chicago Passing the trash has been happening for decades, as demonstrated by Rossford’s own history. Harold "Jerry" Mash was suspected of sexually abusing a child while teaching in Toledo Public Schools in the 1970s. He resigned from TPS, only to later find work as an English teacher for Rossford Schools. In 1976, Mash was found guilty of sexually abusing a Rossford teenager. Mash was 31 at the time, but the case was tried in Wood County Juvenile Court. Records show Mash was fined $300 and sentenced to six months in jail unless he continued therapy. Mash resigned from Rossford before he could be fired in 1976. He told board members he intended to leave the education field. But a former board member who did not wish to be named told The Blade in 2012 that they wanted at the time to make sure Mash never worked again as a teacher and flagged his activity with the Ohio Department of Education. However, the department said in 2012 it had no records of his conviction or any allegations on file. The state granted Mash another license in 1987, although it's unclear if he ever taught again in the state. Ohio's background check laws took effect in 1994. The Ohio Revised Code requires criminal background checks for licensed employees when they apply or renew a certificate, license, or permit issued by the education department unless they have undergone a check in the past five years. What is clear is that Mash eventually moved to Illinois and was hired by Chicago Public Schools in 1990. He worked as a teacher for 22 years until he was sued in 2012 by two former students — at least one from Rossford, the other is a John Doe — accusing him of molestation and grooming. Claudia Vercellotti, coordinator of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, helped the former students file the lawsuit. She said stronger laws are needed to prevent people like Mash from slipping through the cracks. "People like Mash ... become emboldened when they get away with these crimes," Ms. Vercellotti said. "Let's call them what they are; they're crimes." Mr. Murtha has not been charged with any crimes. Rossford Police and the Wood County Sheriff's Office have no police reports related to his misconduct. Ms. Vercellotti said it's best for students to take complaints to law enforcement. She wondered why Rossford allowed one of its own employees to conduct the most recent investigation. "It should not have been the trained pool from Rossford's own to conduct an investigation, but rather law enforcement and independent investigators," she said. "They demonstrated they can't police their own in the ‘70s." ‘A very strict definition’ A district investigation into Mr. Murtha’s behavior concluded it was "more likely than not" that he made repeated physical and unwanted contacts with multiple female students. Accusations that he pinched the nose, tugged the ear, and messed up the hair of one girl he touched “about 40 times” were found to be credible, as were other students’ assertions that Mr. Murtha stared at their “private areas,” and made them uncomfortable, among other behavior. Mr. Murtha left his job at Athens Schools in southeast Ohio in 2004 after he made repeated sexual comments to an Ohio University student working as a trainee at the high school. He was reprimanded by the then-superintendent for “inappropriate comments” and “touching without consent the hair, face, and/or lower back of various members of the Athens City Schools community.” Rossford’s investigation concluded Mr. Murtha’s acts did not constitute sexual harassment because students’ academic performance did not suffer. Mr. Creps had rejected numerous requests to be interviewed, but spoke to The Blade following Wednesday’s meeting. He said there are mechanisms in place today to lessen the chances of hiring someone like Mr. Murtha with a history of misconduct. He also said the district will review its sexual harassment policy. “That's the first one we need to start with; it's a very strict definition,” Mr. Creps said. “We're in the process of reviewing all of our policies, but this will obviously come to the forefront given the situation. We'll be taking a hard look at it.” Rossford and Mr. Murtha entered into an agreement upon his resignation that called for no record of discipline to be included in his personnel file. The district also agreed to pay him the remainder of his $90,000 salary until his contract expires in July and write him a letter of reference. Brenna Reynolds, a Rossford resident who pays taxes in the school district, doesn’t approve of the arrangement. “It's extremely frustrating as someone who funds his salary,” she said. “It's extremely frustrating to see him basically walk away with no consequences.” Ms. Bernier, the Enough Abuse Campaign spokesman, said letting educators off the hook when it comes to misconduct with students is a concerning practice. “Neither the perpetrator nor the school wants it to go public, which is unfortunate,” she said. “Schools should be leading, not aiding and abetting someone involved in misconduct with a student. They can protect those who abused children or they can protect the students, but they cannot do both.” Mr. Murtha applied for two license renewals with the state department of education earlier this month; both are on hold. In his letter to parents, Mr. Creps said the agreement with Mr. Murtha was arranged to protect students, resolve the matter quickly, and avoid the cost of potential litigation. “Pursuing termination would have also meant that our students would likely be called into court to testify,” Mr. Creps said in the letter. “These students had found the courage to report the behaviors once, and we did not want to put them through a protracted process.” Enough abuse According to the Enough Abuse Campaign, eight states have laws on the books that require new standard practices to address educator sexual misconduct by requiring better screening of prospective school district employees, and by prohibiting schools from entering into confidentiality agreements with problem staff members that suppress information about misconduct. Ohio is among a handful of states where lawmakers are considering enacting such measures. The legislative charge is being led by Sen. Stephanie Kunze (R., Hilliard). In February she introduced Senate Bill 34, which would prohibit “passing the trash” and implement other stopgaps to lessen the chances of it happening. "We're seeing not just in central Ohio, but around the state where school districts have employees with patterns of misconduct," Ms. Kunze said. "We're finding there were not really reviews of some of the personnel files." The bill is currently sitting in committee and awaiting a vote. If passed, it would: ■ Prohibit school employees and board members from assisting someone to get a job at another school if there is reasonable cause the individual committed a sex offense involving a student. ■ Require the Ohio Department of Education to automatically deactivate the license of an educator charged or indicted for certain offenses until the case is resolved. ■ Require ODE to provide the contents of any report received from school authorities regarding educator misconduct when requested by a hiring officer. ■ Allow ODE to consider a license applicant's prior conduct when deciding to issue the license. ODE Director Lori Kelly appeared before the Senate Education Committee in March and endorsed the legislation. Ms. Kunze said she's considering adding language to her bill disallowing employees to retire or resign in lieu of termination following findings of misconduct. ‘Some things may have gone differently’ A day after Mr. Murtha left Rossford schools following his second episode of misconduct, another now ex-Toledo-area educator emerged from a Michigan jail ready to return to Ohio. Patrick Hickey’s release came roughly a year after he pleaded guilty in Lenawee County to a criminal sexual conduct charge for groping a female Addison High School student decades ago when he worked at that district as a teacher and coach. The victim in the case told the court she had a three-year sexual relationship with Hickey starting in September, 1986, while he was working for Addison Schools. After Hickey left his position at Addison, he taught at the now-closed St. Anthony Villa and Findlay schools before moving to Washington Local in 2002. He was superintendent of Washington Local from July, 2007, to December, 2015. He resigned shortly before the school board could consider a resolution to fire him because of 37 charges compiled by a board-hired law firm. Those charges included his failure to inform the district that he left Addison Community Schools in 1990 because of accusations he had inappropriate sexual relations with students. Hickey was forced to register as a sex offender and is barred from obtaining any license from the Ohio Department of Education. “People who prey upon kids ... I don't care if it's light touching or inappropriate comment,” Ms. Vercellotti said. “You can argue they're sick, but they certainly don't belong around children. What is the excuse for adults to cover for them? How long do these actions have to be going on for them to rise to the level of interviews and investigation?” Washington Local School Board President Mark Hughes was not on the board when Hickey was hired, but he said he believes Ms. Kunze’s bill is a good idea. “I think it's only fair that people are transparent with respect to public employees going to other districts,” he said. “You shouldn't hide information that could hurt another district. Some things may have gone differently in Washington Local if they had more knowledge.” Ms. Reynolds has followed the situation involving Mr. Murtha from the beginning. She believes this type of legislation could have prevented him from landing in Rossford. “There's no reason he should have been allowed to work at another school,” Ms. Reynolds said. “We absolutely need policies to protect students and keep people like him from continuing to quietly resign and move from one school to the next.”
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