Investigations show New Hampshire teacher secretly took student for abortion

A public school teacher was fired for taking a student to an abortion clinic without informing the child’s parents. an investigation report by the New Hampshire Department of Education.

In response to criticism of his statements about the inappropriate behavior of some public school employees, Education Minister Frank Edelblut has released a series of reports and complaints that have been brought to his ministry, including the investigation report into a teacher who called in sick to get a student to have an abortion.

Edelblut declined to comment on the report. Details are sparse and no one at the agency would speak to NHJournal officially about the incident. The names of the school, the principal and the teacher are all redacted, as is the identity of the student.

According to the redacted document, the teacher spent weeks advising the student about her “options” and then helped her terminate the pregnancy.

Concerned about the student’s safety, the teacher went to the clinic before the appointment. She then called in sick due to food poisoning in order to accompany the girl to the clinic.

“(The teacher) stated that the student had no one to support him, so he offered to go with him,” the investigation found.

According to the report, the teacher was fired shortly after school administrators learned of the matter.

The incident raises questions about transparency in public schools and reignites debate about school systems like Manchester that have made it their mission to keep information secret from parents. Some lawmakers in New Hampshire are outraged.

“I am appalled to hear that a teacher in our New Hampshire schools believed that the right way to help a pregnant student who felt abandoned during her pregnancy was to look for abortion clinics and call in sick to take the student to have an abortion, rather than helping her talk to her parents and find support from her family,” said Derry Republican state Rep. Erica Layon.

State Senator Tim Lang (R-Sanbornton), who advocates for greater parental access to classroom activities and curriculum, said schools must stop keeping secrets from families.

“Parents have the right to know everything that happens with their child at school. Keeping secrets or acting behind parents’ backs is never good public policy,” Lang told NHJournal. “It’s not good for the child either. It teaches children through the actions of ‘trusted adults’ that it’s OK to be deceptive, and that doesn’t produce good citizens for our future.”

Layon says the student’s parents have a right to know.

“By taking the rightful place of this student’s parents, this teacher denied her family the opportunity to engage and support her,” Layon said. “Undermining families should not be taken lightly, and assuming the worst of parents sets a dangerous precedent.”

Melanie Israel, a visiting scholar at the Heritage Foundation’s Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, said parents in New Hampshire should be concerned that teachers feel justified in taking such action.

“I don’t think most parents would agree with that,” Israel said.

The report states that the teacher counseled the student during class time and then called in sick to take the girl for an abortion – also during class time. Israel noted that students in public schools typically need their parents’ permission to leave school grounds or go on field trips.

“This raises questions for many parents: Who do they trust their children to for hours every day? What kind of interaction do teachers have with their students outside of class?” Israel said.

The investigation report does not address whether the teacher violated state law. The student’s age at the time of the abortion is not disclosed in the redacted report, but if she was a minor, parents must be notified under New Hampshire law.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office declined to comment on the incident or whether criminal charges might be filed against the teacher.

Israel said parents in New Hampshire have a right to know if any laws were broken in the incident. They should also be aware that if Democrats get their way, parents will never know if their underage daughter was taken to get an abortion by an adult teacher, she said.

President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies are pushing for the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would override all state abortion laws, including the requirement to notify parents of minors who seek to terminate their pregnancy, Israel said.

New Hampshire’s all-Democratic federal delegation is united behind federal abortion legislation that would override laws passed by New Hampshire residents through their local legislators.

“If this bill were to come into force, parents would no longer have any way to defend themselves against it,” Israel said.