OH- Board takes deacon’s license, SNAP seeks answers

OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, August 7, 2014

For more info: David Clohessy ( 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com ), Judy Jones (636-433-2511, SNAPjudy@gmail.com )

Deacon loses teaching license
SNAP to bishop: “Tell parents why”
Four others were disciplined at same time
Each has been credibly accused of molesting kids
Victims say “Catholic officials must now finally ‘come clean’”

Education officials have permanently revoked the teaching license of a Catholic deacon and a victim’s support group is calling on Youngstown’s bishop and parochial school staff to explain why.

The group says that Deacon Ernest Formichelli, who also taught in several Catholic schools, has molested at least one child.

According to minutes of the September 2013 meeting of the Ohio State Board of Education, the board revoked Formichelli’s teaching license and “orders Formichelli be permanently ineligible to apply for any license issued by the State Board of Education.”

Formichelli “waived his right to a hearing,” the minutes say, and has forfeited both his five-year professional high school teaching license, issued in 2012, and permanent non-tax teaching certificate issued in 1978.

“We strongly suspect a victim or concerned parent reported to the state that Formichelli was accused of molesting at least one child,” said Judy Jones, the Midwest associate director of the Survivors Network of those Abuse by Priests (SNAP). “For the safety of kids and the healing of victims, Bishop George Murry must make public why this deacon’s license was revoked.”

Four other teachers lost their licenses at that same board meeting. All of them have been publicly accused of molesting kids. (They are Kelsey L. Hartmann, Mercades R. Blue, Thomas J. Mouat Jr. and Jeffery S. Rohrer Jr.) The wording in the state board’s minutes about all five cases is identical.

“Few adults voluntarily give up the chance to teach school, anywhere in Ohio, unless they fear what an investigation into their actions will reveal,” said David Clohessy, SNAP’s director. “I worked for a school district for five years. When state education officials take action and yank a teacher’s license, it’s not over something trivial.”

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