Who Can We Blame?

Who Can We Blame?

Pretend that you are Lynne Scheffler, Principal of St. Joseph School in Lockport. You are passionate about your job, about educating children. It is your mission in life. You spend 21 years developing a level of excellence that is rare throughout the area, such that you receive a national award and recognition. You personally receive multiple awards for your accomplishments. Throughout those years, you have opportunities to move into other, higher paying positions but you turn them down because you stay committed to the community and children in which you have invested yourself.

As a parochial school, finding qualified, caring teachers is difficult because compensation is lower than the public system. All parochial teachers teach because they have a mission to contribute to the lives of others, to children. The pay they receive is not enough justification alone. For a parochial principal looking to fill a hard-to-find role, like science teacher, it is a difficult task.

Your boss, the Pastor, has someone they have worked with for over 20 years and thinks this person would be qualified. The person being recommended has never had any formal complaints reported, and from the personal experience of your boss, this person would be a great fit. This person has worked for multiple schools in the diocese and had just resigned from one due to pressures caused by a politically sensitive social media posting that was unpopular. It was so unpopular that pressure on social media had been put on him to leave. He said that he had posted in error but decided to resign. Certainly, you would think, he would have learned from his mistake and realize that it is safest to separate politics from the job.

The diocese, the central repository of information about all employees, does not have anything in its' files that would prevent you, the principal, from hiring the person your boss has praised. Fingerprints are processed to ensure there are no legal issues associated with the person. In this scenario, you go ahead and hire the teacher.

The teacher does great. Students enjoy his classes, in fact, tell their parents how much they enjoy his classes. He is one of those employees that volunteers to get involved in other activities of the school....everything is great.

Then a sting is set up that proves the teacher is a pedophile. Parents, understandably, are upset that their children would have been exposed to this person as a teacher. The teacher is immediately fired, the diocese is notified (as required by due process) and the teacher is admitted to a local behavioral hospital while arrest is imminent.

Parents and the community are looking for a pound of flesh. They want to make someone pay for bringing a pedophile into this safe space, a school environment that parents have relied upon to keep good care of their children. Since the principal was the person that did the hire, she gets the blame. Forget about everything she has done for the school, the community, the children over the past 21 years.

Could the diocese provide better vetting processes and policies that might have avoided the hire of this teacher? Why not include social media searches in their vetting process that would have raised flags? Should due process be followed when children’s well-being is at risk? In other words, even without any proof or confirmation of wrong doing, should a person be dismissed because of a sense they might be guilty of an offense?

The diocese has been under pressure from the community and media. Lynne Scheffler, as the Principal and the person that made the final hire decision, is the fall person. The loyalty she has had and contributions she has made mean nothing. Those parents that have called for her resignation, and the diocese that has thrown her under the bus with this suspension, have damaged a career without blemish, one that has been held out as an example to follow for other Principals. This is not justice.