NEW YORK
The Journal News
Jonathan Bandler , jbandler@lohud.com December 11, 2016
Through early January, reporters will be looking back at and following up on stories and topics that were the most popular with our readers in 2016, according to metrics on lohud.com. This story is part of that series.
A Kiryas Joel principal seen on a pair of videos in close physical contact with young boys had no choice but to leave the school because of the firestorm of publicity, a longtime community activist said this week.
But Joseph Waldman, whose own children and grandchildren had gone to the school, insisted that his inquiries into the videos and the principal’s behavior revealed what he had suspected: that the longtime, respected educator was no molester, but used a loving form of discipline to straighten out misbehaving students.
“He showed a very, very fine fatherly type of love to the kids,” Waldman said. “Instead of expelling the kid, throwing him out of school, bringing anguish to his parents … he is expressing love, expressing feeling, so the kid knows they’re not a throwaway kid.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.