Urbana School District Reacts to Accusations Against a Teacher

The Urbana School District has made its first change, after one of its teachers is charged with sex crimes against his students.
 Superintendent Gene Amberg told parents that Thomas Paine Elementary School Principal Janice Bradley has been put on paid leave.
  Parents packed the room for an open forum, regarding Thomas Paine Second Grade Teacher Jon White.
  Investigators say White forced three of his students to play oral sex games.
   Parents with kids in White's class, expressed their anger at a public forum held at the School. Many questions focused on why the District took so long looking into the accusations against White. Last November, a parent filed a complaint, but the District said nothing was found after an internal investigation. The District also did not notify the Department of Family and Children's Services about the complaint. Parents also questioned why the District did not notify the Government agency even though it is policy to contact DCFS under these circumstances. Amberg says he's looking into what happened.
   Meanwhile, parents are asking why they didn't get letters home about complaints against their child's teacher. Many say they would have made the decision to remove their child from the school, had they known before.  Lydia Carter had a son in White's class. She raised the question that if the District could mail home letters regarding a health concern, why couldn't they do the same in this situation? Carter brought a letter describing a strep throat problem in her child's classroom to the meeting as reference. "If you did it for strep throat couldn't you have done it for sex crimes?" asked Lydia Carter. " Even if it was an allegation." She says the turn-around for the letter was less than 48 hours.
    District administrators knew tonight's meeting wouldn't be easy. Superintendent Amberg started off the meeting, saying he understands why parents are upset, but he also added that there will be some questions they could not answer because of the on-going investigation. "I know it's affected morale here," he said. "It's affected morale in all of our schools... but we will have an internal review of the situation." Amberg added the district will be reviewing it's hiring procedures.  For more information on that look for WCIA 3s story titled "Jon Whites Past."