Child Advocate Report Cites Vernon Schools for Incidents of Adult Sexual Misconduct

HARTFORD, CT – The Office of the Child Advocate released a report this week detailing multiple failures by the Vernon Public School District and the Department of Children and Families in handling allegations of adult sexual misconduct.

The report was in response to a complaint received by the Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) in July 2022 alleging sexual harassment of a student outside of Vernon Public Schools by a VPS employee. The employee, who is not named in the report or supporting documents, was working as a coach in an outlying area at the time of the harassment.

According to the report, the unnamed faculty member was a physical education teacher who had worked for VPS since 2000. The allegations said the teacher had sex between late 2021 and early 2022, when the student was 17 years old. The Department of Children and Families (DCF) conducted an investigation at the time and confirmed the allegations of abuse. No formal charges were filed and the teacher resigned from Vernon Public Schools.

The complaint also alleged that the employee committed other instances of student harassment in the Vernon School District and that the district failed to conduct a timely investigation into those prior allegations. OCA investigators reviewed the teacher’s file and concluded that while there were no instances of adult sexual misconduct in his file, there were several allegations of sexual harassment and/or inappropriate behavior following OCA’s review of DCF records Student charges against the teacher by enrolled students had been filed in the district. The report details five separate teacher-involved incidents dating back to 2003, with most occurring since 2020.

“OCA found widespread deficiencies in the District’s compliance with Title IX and other requirements to prevent and respond to sexual harassment or abuse of children,” State Children’s Attorney Sarah Eagan wrote.

Although there were multiple complaints about the teacher from students and the principal confirmed to OCA investigators that there had been multiple complaints, the Vernon School District never initiated its own investigation into the teacher’s conduct, which is required under Title IX. Additionally, when the OCA asked the Vernon School District about any other Title IX investigations it had conducted, the district responded that there had been none in the last five years. When pressed further, the district provided documentation of two separate investigations it conducted outside the Title IX framework.

However, OCA investigators reviewed DCF records and found that more than two employees had been accused of adult sexual misconduct by people who contacted the DCF Careline. The period in which Vernon Schools claims it did not conduct a Title IX investigation includes the case of former employee Christian Stevenson, who was convicted in September 2021 of multiple felonies, including second-degree possession of child pornography and voyeurism of a child under 16 , was arrested at the age of majority. Stevenson was accused of “secretly taking upskirt images of underage students at school” and “hundreds of photographs, often focusing on the buttocks, breasts and crotch of young female students, taken at Rockville High School.”

“The lack of any documentation of a functioning Title IX system…leads the OCA to conclude that the District is likely to be in compliance with its obligations under federal law to prevent and appropriately respond to concerns about sexual harassment and sexual abuse of enrolled children.” “The district is failing to comply to a significant extent,” the OCA report states.

In response to the investigation conducted by the OCA, Vernon Public Schools implemented several new policies, including revising its sexual harassment reporting forms to allow for better record-keeping and providing new training for staff on adult sexual misconduct, human trafficking, and Title IX requirements for obtaining additional student feedback in surveys on bullying and harassment.

The report also included recommendations for DCF to improve its process for investigating adult sexual misconduct in schools, noting that “such investigations are typically facility- and staff-focused and may differ greatly from family caregiver misconduct investigations.” “

DCF has established a special unit, the Educational Professionals Investigation Unit, to respond to calls received by its Careline.

“The Ministry recognizes the unique nature of the investigations carried out by the Educational Professionals Investigation Unit (EPIU) and is finalizing guidelines and training specific to this work, which will be governed by the Ministry’s existing statutory powers in relation to investigations of abuse and neglect “DCF said in a statement. “Similarly, the department also appreciates the intent (of the recommendation) related to training and oversight for the EPIU. The EPIU was established in 2020 with the goal of centralizing all school personnel investigations under a statewide administrative structure to standardize the practice and procedures for these specific investigations.”

Vernon Public Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment.