ROCHESTER, N.Y. – In January, EAGnews learned that 22 employees of the Rochester public school district wrote letters to New York Supreme Court Justice Joanne Winslow, expressing their support for former teacher Matt LoMaglio, who had just been convicted of molesting an eight-year-old student.

We contacted the Monroe County Clerk’s office to obtain copies of the LoMaglio case file. We were eventually informed that the file was available, but copies of the letters written by the teachers were not included.

We then contacted Judge Winslow’s office and learned that because the letters were part of the pre-sentencing phase, they will not be made available to the public. Some government agencies and bureaucrats will be able to access them, but not the people who pay these teachers.

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What a sickening outrage. Taxpayers cough up billions of dollars to support the deeply troubled Rochester school district, yet they have no legal right to learn the identity of school employees who wrote to the court to express sympathy for a teacher who raped a child.

The teachers who expressed support for LoMaglio might have had various motivations. Some may have simply acted out of loyalty to an old friend or a fellow union member.

But others may honestly believe there was nothing terribly wrong with what he did.

According to Kyle Rossi, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted LoMaglio, the teachers who wrote the letters “expressed zero compassion for the student, but full-fledged support for the man who hurt this student.”

Rossi also told EAGnews that many school employees refused to cooperate with the investigation of the rape.

Meanwhile, seven teachers who wrote similar letters in a similar situation in Michigan last year showed a frightening lack of sympathy for the victim or appreciation for the gravity of the crime.

There is definitely cause for parents and other residents to be concerned.

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Dozens of Rochester residents have signed an online petition started by resident Karen Bryant, which demands that “letters written by (Rochester Consolidated School District) employees on behalf of Matthew LoMaglio be immediately released to the public for review” and “The (school district) adopt a new policy that requires all of its employees to cooperate fully with every internal and/or law enforcement investigation involving a report of student abuse.”

Bryant,the petition organizer, wrote the following explanation for her efforts: ” We need to unearth the insidious reasons adults felt compelled to write letters in support of LoMaglio, in spite of the heinous crime he was convicted of. We have a right to know the character of individuals whom we entrust with the care and education of our children.”

Those are reasonable demands. No caring parent will be satisfied with the statement from the school district, which said little can be done about the employees who support LoMaglio, because they have their right to express their opinions about the case, and can’t be compelled to cooperate with criminal investigations.

Rochester parents have a right to read these letters, so they can measure the attitudes of the people who wrote in support of LoMaglio. Do some school employees really think too much is made of student molestation? Are they the type of people who are likely to turn their heads if they notice evidence of this sort of thing happening again?

Rochester parents have no way of knowing, and that has to be frightening for them.

In a decent world, parents would be able to assume that when they send their children to school, they will be in the care of adults who put their safety before all other considerations. We have no doubt that’s generally the case with most schools and most teachers.

But there are apparently at least 22 employees in the Rochester district who may not consider student safety their highest priority.

Who are these people, Judge Winslow? Why can’t their letters be released to the public, so that the school board, in conjunction with citizens, can determine if their continued employment is in the best interest of the children of Rochester?

These people wrote to the court, a tax-supported government agency. Shouldn’t all correspondence addressed to government agencies be the public’s business?

A scary example from Michigan

Last year Neal Erickson, a former teacher in the West Branch-Rose City school district in Michigan, was sentenced to 15-30 years in prison for molesting a student in his early teens for three years.

The judge in the case, and the community as a whole, were shocked to learn that seven teachers wrote letters to the court in the pre-sentencing phase, urging leniency for Erickson.

Unlike the Rochester case, the letters were released to the public in due haste. And the judge joined the rest of the community in expressing his disgust toward those who wrote on Erickson’s behalf.

“I am appalled and ashamed that the public would rally around, in this case, you,” Judge Michael Bumgartner told Erickson. “What you did was a jab in the eye with a sharp stick to every parent who trusts a teacher.”

Perhaps the most shocking of the letters came from Erickson’s wife, herself a longtime teacher in a nearby high school. She claimed she knew her husband’s young victim was not damaged by the molestation.

“While I acknowledge that Neal’s conduct was wrong, I do not believe (the boy) was damaged by Neal’s actions, and I base my opinion on my personal interaction with (the victim), both before and after Neal’s actions.”

Are there any parents out there who would like their children to be taught by that miserable woman?

Some of the other teacher comments were nearly as disturbing:

“I am asking that Neal be given the absolute minimum sentence, based on the circumstances surrounding this case.”

“Our community’s children are not at risk in Neal’s presence – he is not a predator. Rather he found a strong emotional tie to one particular individual who was too young to be experiencing that type of relationship.”

“Although Neal has pleaded guilty to a single charge of criminal sexual conduct, evidence of this being a one-time incident reaffirms the fact that he is not a sexual predator.”

Again, the molestations occurred over a three-year period. It was hardly a one-time incident.

These Michigan letter writers sound a lot like the Rochester letter writers, as described by the assistant district attorney – zero compassion for the student, full support for the rapist.

Hundreds of citizens of the Michigan school district demanded that the school board fire the seven teachers. Board members expressed their sympathy, but declined to take action due to the likelihood of expensive lawsuits that would follow.

In response, 87 students were removed from the small, rural school district by their parents, costing the district about $600,000 in state funding.

Rochester parents should have the right to make similar decisions on whether to move their child out of the school district, based on full knowledge of all the facts. And full knowledge will only come with the release of the letters.