What had the students found out? Nearly 30 years on, is Middletown still at risk? Some want the entire board swept clean. Howard "Howdy" White, who abruptly left in 1974 after a parent accused him of inappropriate sexual conduct with a student. In November, the school reported allegations of abuse to the Rhode Island state police for the first time. Read the full Trump indictment charging him with 34 felony counts, 4 people found dead near the beach in Cancun's hotel area. MacLeish, a St. George's alumnus and a lead lawyer in the Boston Catholic Church sex abuse lawsuits, said he is aware of at least 40 people who say they were abused at the school and 12 alleged abusers, either employees or students. By the mid-90s, the students documentary had picked up political steam. sseks is still in close contact with many of the students who passed through his classroom. n the summer of 1991, Middletown high school, roughly 70 miles north of Manhattan in New Yorks verdant Orange County, acquired a handful of video cameras. Mr. Sigler, 54, was charged with second-degree sodomy, which is a felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor. The students documentary originated from a passing comment. Isseks tells me that among city officials his students watchdog role has been missed. Robert Sigler: School district superintendent hired in 1996; arrested in January 2003; pleaded guilty to second-degree sodomy and sentenced in July 2003 to 1? WebMiddletown Area High School has a new head football coach after a hazing scandal that led to the cancellation of its 2022 football season. One graduate said he was molested by Coleman in 1987 during an overnight trip to Boston. His response was disappointed, rather than disciplinary, and she credits his intervention with changing her life. Second sex abuse lawsuit against the Middletown school district. Wendover ReStore Quality Used Furniture in Charlotte, NC. Middletowns school board voted Tuesday night to expel an eighth student in connection with the hazing incidents on the high school football team. Isseks shows me a letter he received from Orange County representatives after he informed them of his students discovery: rather than offer thanks for locating a site of potential risk to the Middletown community, it threatened Isseks and his students with arrest should they ever attempt to return. Is Middletown, as a community, safer today because of the students work? Instead, under the tutelage of Middletown highs popular English teacher, Fred Isseks, a rowdy and diverse group of teenagers organised themselves into an investigative journalism unit. Landscape, for Isseks, is drama solidified. The goal was Officially, Isseks class was open only to the schools oldest students, aged 16 to 18 but, unofficially, it welcomed everyone. Middletown High 200 LaRosa Lane Middletown, CT 06457 Phone: 860-704-4500 Fax: 860-347-2044 MacLeish said he has now spoken to six of Coleman's alleged victims. Ohio Statehas become a veritable factory for producing top-notch NFL wide receivers in recent years. Isseks course, known as Electronic English, would propel many of its students into careers in media production and environmental law, but at the time their work did not receive universal approval. ''Mr. (Asked about this scenario, Robert Gray, deputy commissioner of the Orange County Department of Public Works, disputes that it is a risk or even a physical possibility, noting that the landfill is capped with a waterproof membrane and sloped to prevent precisely such a collapse.). For him and his fellow students, the mud, ticks and ruined shoes were a source of pride, an essential part of fact-checking what the adults in town had been telling them. "It's like a charade of arrogant exceptionalism that is endemic in the school, in the leadership of the school," said Hawk Cramer, an alumnus who says he was molested by the choir director in the 1980s and told Peterson about it in 2004. Other mob-owned companies would mix liquid waste with home heating oil, meaning that unwitting customers could stay warm in the winter, while burning toxic waste at the same time. There is no statute of limitations on rape in Rhode Island. The Buckeyes should remain competitive for the foreseeable future, having recruited 10 of the top 150 players in the 2023 cycle going by (). Humans have long been seduced by the region: 12,500-year-old indigenous archaeological sites have been discovered here, some of the oldest known in North America. Students who participated in the incident face discipline in accordance with the district's student code of conduct and hazing policy, and any staff members involved will also face disciplinary action, Hunter wrote. At the time, Raimist tells me, she was just another bored teenager, with dyed hair, a pair of battered Doc Martens, and an interest in photography. MIDDLETOWN, NJ For the second time this year, a lawsuit has been filed against the Middletown school district alleging underage sex abuse by one of its teachers decades ago. As Ive started digitising some of this stuff, Isseks says, referring to his voluminous personal archives, including hundreds of pages of documents formally requested from Middletown administrators, theres a sense that were forgetting where the landfills are. The district and Athletic Director Scott Govern are working to find other opportunities for the cheerleaders and marching band, as well as alternative plans for homecoming. Status: Administrative charges filed in December 2003, accusing Cohen of failing to properly report concerns about the sexual misconduct of Sigler; arbitration to decide validity of those charges under way; applied for superintendent's position (for which he was not hired); no longer possible to come back to high school as principal; under restructuring, Cohen would have to apply for a newly created position of executive principal or a house principal. "In high school, [plaintiff] met girls his age and eventually started dating them. As a retired compactor operator explains to Isseks students in the film, sometimes there was so much bloody hospital waste on the ground, it looked as if he had run someone over. The agency said it had no authority to act because the alleged victims were over 18. WebThe Middletown Area School District's Superintendent has released an update about the Middletown High School hazing incident on their official website. Its absolutely correct that there is a tremendous amount of toxic waste remaining in that landfill We make no attempt to deny that, Mills says, flanked by county officials. MIDDLETOWN, R.I. -- For more than a century, St. George's School has been part of the pedigree of some of America's richest and most influential families. PennLive previously reportedthat Scott Acri resigned as head coach andRob Brodish was to serve as interim head coach for the rest of the season. Whats more, the log confirmed that much of this dumping had been done by haulage firms connected to the East Coast mob, including one owned by the Mongelli organised crime family. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. Although the landfills had been a dependable source of local employment, Pahucki won, signalling a clear shift in opinion, fuelled in no small part by Isseks students, who had been broadcasting their in-progress documentary on a local television channel. Another alumnus, Harry Groome, said he was raped by an upperclassman with a broomstick in 1978 in front of at least five students, an episode so widely known that it was alluded to in the yearbook. Support local journalism. Some text has been added or changed to clarify the locations of the landfills around Middletown. Click here to learn more about the role the Lancaster County Local Journalism Fund plays in Lancaster County and to make a tax-deductible donation. . WebFor Sale: 20553 Santa Clara Ave, Middletown, CA 95461 $80,000 MLS# LC22110662 STUNNING NEARLY AN ACRE Lot set on the outskirts of Middletown in an area of new Police also charged one student with unlawful restraint, simple assault and hazing, three students with unlawful restraint and hazing and four students with violating the hazing statute. How to Find a Reputable Charlotte Restoration Company. Students taking Fred Isseks Electronic English course uncovered environmental crimes. Superintendent Dr. Chelton Hunter wrote in a letter to parents Wednesday that the video "demonstrates that this hazing was much more widespread, and involved many more students, than we had previously known.". He alleged a history teacher at Thorne Middle School sexually abused him "hundreds, if not thousands of times" from 1978 to 1983. / AP. On their way across the parking lot, they ran into Isseks. At one point, a DEC employee arrives and begins taking photographs of us from the opposite river bank. This article was amended on 5 February 2020. One or both of the Orange County and Al Turi landfills could then slide into and block the Wallkill River. Superintendent Chelton Hunter earlier said team members had been in the high school turf room used for heat acclimation practice sessions when an Aug. 11 cellphone video showed a group of students restraining two of their teammates and using a muscle therapy gun and another piece of athletic equipment to poke their buttock areas. A police report was filed on Aug. 12, leading to a monthlong investigation in which more than 80 people were interviewed. Although there are no leachate streams visible on our hike, Cleaver notes that previously prominent mounds of rip-rap dry stone rubble that had been dropped along the edge of the landfill to prevent it from slumping have disappeared below the waterline. Just outside the city are synthetic landforms that swelled into being in the 1960s. The days of journalisms one-way street of simply producing stories for the public have long been over. Birmingham tells me that he grew accustomed to seeing local politicians annoyed at the students, irritated by Birminghams own habit of showing up to film town hall meetings, filing endless freedom of information requests. It's ruined lives. At the time, Smith lived in a trailer just outside the Wallkill landfill gates. You name it, its in that landfill and I know its in there, because I buried lots of it. The towns supervisor at the time, Howard Mills, described by the local newspaper as a Republican icon, admits later in the film that this was not an exaggeration. Rachel Raimist was one of the first students to get involved in the landfill documentary. In 2019, there was a change in New Jersey law to allow sex abuse lawsuits to be brought decades after the alleged abuse occurred. Although some of the dumps investigated by the students were as far as 15 miles outside Middletown on land within the boundaries of neighbouring municipalities others were right down the hill, along the banks of the Wallkill River. ''It's a bad example because it's someone you look up to,'' he said. To his delight, several said yes. Middletown residents were told it was all just certified municipal waste. On Aug. 12, Lower Swatara Township police received a report from Middletown Area High School that a video was posted on social media showing an assault on a football player during a practice on Aug. 11, the release said. I remember coming home just generally muddy and dirty, and sometimes smelling a little like a dump, Birmingham says. In the late 1980s, a burglar had broken in late at night, it was claimed, and, improbably, stolen this notebook: the only record of what had been dumped and buried there and by whom. Just one week after our visit, however, the US General Accounting Office releases a report echoing Isseks warning. The players were fully clothed at the time, and Hunter said it didn't appear that any student's body was physically penetrated. Separately, Rhode Island state police are looking into possible sex-crime charges and other offenses, including failure to report abuse. To me, it was like: theres no way theres a toxic waste dump basically in my backyard. According to the district attorney, "police learned that three other students were also assaulted over the last year during various incidents, with at least one incident occurring at a residence.". Status: Voted off the board in May (came in dead last out of five school board candidates). "Rather, two of these individuals committed repeated sexual assaults and encouraged others to participate under the guise of hazing.". Last spring, 39 teams competed in Class L, Botti said, and 32 made the state tournament. Hamblet thanked him, but nothing else happened, Groome said. The school superintendent in this growing city flanked by the Catskill Mountains was charged today with sexually molesting a 14-year-old boy in his school district. The Middletown Area School District's school board expelled seven students involved in the August hazing incident that prompted the district t, Ten students have been charged in last month's alleged hazing incident involving the Middletown Area High School football team, the Dauphin Co. Middletown Area High School has a new head football coach after a hazing scandal that led to the cancellation of its2022 football season. Get the WITF Mobile App An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. "This offer is an attempt to right a wrong," Peterson wrote to the man in a 2006 letter obtained by the AP. During the last ice age, he explains, massive glaciers sculpted the land into the gentle bowls and valleys that would later be so appealing to Middletowns 20th-century landfill entrepreneurs. Saturday, April 1 at 7 PM. "I want this school to thrive in the future, but it cannot thrive until we flush out the bad, and Eric Peterson has got to go," Groome said. "It was because the prestige and the fundraising capacity of the school was more important than any one kid.". The release said 10 students have been charged with having involvement in the incident and that six students, ages 14-17, were sexually assaulted over the year. According to the release, police are continuing to investigate other allegations of assault that took place at a football camp over the summer by the same perpetrators. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. In the film, we see Stone standing in the road, hands on his hips, loudly arguing with a landfill official; his attempts to run chemical tests had been consistently thwarted, his samples physically confiscated by police. We know we must work to address the culture of this team, educate our student body about hazing, and put programs in place to help us ensure that this kind of atmosphere is never allowed to exist in our school facilities.". Two students, both 17, are charged with multiple counts of criminal attempt to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, unlawful restraint, simple assault and hazing, according to the release. Rather than leaning toward the water, as the ground around them eroded, they were instead falling back toward the landfill, evidence that their roots were being pushed out from beneath. David Birmingham and Fred Isseks walk through the woods. Contact the Middletown Patch reporter: Carly.baldwin@patch.com Subscribe to Patch: https://patch.com/subscribe, Man Sues Middletown School District, Alleging Sex Abuse. In 2002, Groome said, he sent a letter to Hamblet describing what happened. The man says that between the years of 1995 -1997, Sherry Diodato, a former Language Arts teacher at Thompson Middle School, befriended him, groomed him and began a sexual relationship with him. Ten students have been charged in last month's alleged hazing incident involving the Middletown Area High School football team, the Dauphin County District Attorneys Office announced in a news release Tuesday. Harrisburg, PA 17111 According to Gina Martinez of CBS News, an investigation began after a video posted to social media appeared to show a player being sexually assaulted during a team practice on Aug. 11. Middletown sits amid rich, rolling agricultural lands and mountains with biblical names, such as Mount Adam and Mount Eve. The Buckeyes already had the best wide receiver in the class of 2024, withJeremiah Smith on board. Rather, two of these individuals committed repeated sexual assaults and encouraged others to participate under the guise of hazing.. [Plaintiff] stopped calling Sherry after that and the sexual abuse stopped," read the lawsuit. "The kind of hazing that occurred in our facilities with this team is reprehensible," Hunter wrote. WebThe school, in Pennsylvanias Middletown Area School District, is just outside Middletown, a borough of about 9,000 residents situated roughly a 10-mile drive Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Despite Clintons thumbs-up, the narrator of this scene drily remarks that the students received no official response. They invited local representatives into the schools new media studio for a political debate, and covered topics such as the citys curfew for teens. Getty/Middletown Area School District/Facebook Composite. More importantly, Isseks tells me, the books mysterious reappearance in the sheriffs archive was a sign that the students efforts were succeeding. More than a year after the documentary was finished, Middletown politicians found themselves confronting yet another controversial project, this time a waste-to-ethanol plant. As the months since Sigler's arrest in January 2003 slid off the calendar, many of those same players who seemed immune to the fever pitch of gossip and accusations that surrounded Sigler's arrest slipped away as well. All of the assaults involved the same two main perpetrators, the release said. For Isseks and his students, the logbook was undeniable proof of illegality not just evidence of toxic dumping, but of collusion between town officials and corrupt waste-hauling firms. Pahucki served in local government from 1994-2013, and still lives in the area, where he now works as a real estate broker. The school acknowledged he raped or otherwise abused at least 17 students. Middletown cancels football season after more hazing videos found: superintendent, By opting into newsletters you are agreeing to our, School district offers to host Middletown cheerleaders, marching band during football season, In-depth preview capsules for all 27 L-L League football Week 2 games, Middletown Area School Board expels students, explores anti-hazing plan following August incident, 10 students charged in Middletown football hazing scandal: DA's office, Middletown School Board expels eighth student Tuesday night after charges announced by Dauphin County DA, Middletown Area School District names new football coach after 2022 hazing incident. Middletown Town-Wide Garage: See Participating Locations, Discolored Water In Middletown? This continued for a month, he said, at her home or in parks and all when his teacher's then-fianc, Dr. Diodato, was not at home. Status: Submitted his resignation September 2003; ordered to stay home for the 30 days between time he gave notice until his resignation took effect. If nothing else, weve got to provide maps for the future, so that people know where not to build their houses or to dig their wells. What had the students found out? The documentary is a mix of handheld footage, produced during various acts of trespass at the countys landfills, and formal, on-camera interviews with politicians and retired landfill workers, often staged in the high schools recording studio. After more videos surfaced, the school district canceled the football season. Rather, two of these individuals committed repeated sexual assaults and encouraged others to participate under the guise of hazing.. Status: Highland View Place home sold in July 2003; denied parole in July; next parole hearing in 2006; suing the school district for $76,000 in back pay he says is owed to him. 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