Schools didn’t act on report

Probe uncovers 2nd incident involving Gorton student

John Howell
Posted 6/25/15

Investigation of an incident at Gorton Junior High School has revealed another situation where the administration took little or no action after being informed a teacher had drawn a penis on the arm …

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Schools didn’t act on report

Probe uncovers 2nd incident involving Gorton student

Posted

Investigation of an incident at Gorton Junior High School has revealed another situation where the administration took little or no action after being informed a teacher had drawn a penis on the arm of a female student.

The incident, which allegedly occurred in November of 2013 at the school, came to light when Warwick Police investigated allegations that the teacher, Mario Atoyan, had drawn a penis on the arm of one female student and feces on another. That case surfaced after Atoyan’s indictment by a grand jury on first and second degree sexual assault involving a North Kingstown 15-year-old girl last June. Following his arrest, Warwick Schools suspended Atoyan without pay, but when Superintendent Richard D’Agostino claimed there had been no prior complaints about the teacher, accusations to the contrary surfaced.

The revelation there were two instances where Atoyan drew inappropriate images and wrote “penis head” on the arms of female students is included in a report to yet be made public by the Warwick School Committee.

The committee launched an investigation of how the school administration handled allegations against Atoyan after Warwick Police did its own investigation but brought no action when parents of the girls chose not to press charges.

The committee then retained attorney Vincent Ragosta to do the investigation.

Ragosta said Monday he gave the committee a verbal report, with a stenographer present, in a closed meeting on May 11. He said he was asked to follow up on several details, including the superintendent’s responsiveness to parental complaints, which he did at a May 21 closed meeting.

“My task has been completed and reported out,” Ragosta said. He said his files have been turned over to school counsel Andrew Henneous. At the June 9 committee meeting, committee chair Jennifer Ahearn said Henneous would review the report and that based on his recommendations policies for the handling of such complaints would be reviewed and announced. She did not say when or whether the report would be released.

Ahearn could not be reached for comment on this story.

Ragosta said Warwick Police were highly cooperative in his investigation, providing him with an “abundant amount of material.” He said their work led them to discover an incident involving a third girl and that the matter had been brought to the attention of the administration with “no apparent follow up.”

In all, Ragosta interviewed six people, including members of the school administration. A stenographer was present for the sessions and transcripts were included as part of his report. Ragosta said he worked 93.7 hours on the investigation and has billed the department $26,718.75.

Ragosta said the administration had email complaints from the mothers of the students that cited specifics.

“They had it right there, laid out in two cases and it’s pretty shocking,” he said. “Hopefully people in Warwick have learned a lesson from that.”

D’Agostino announced his retirement after serving Warwick schools 33 years earlier this month.

Comments

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  • jackiemama63

    Confusing. So the WPD were involved, the parents opted to not to do anything about it, what was the School Dept. supposed to do? Did Admin. notify the WTU regar? ding the allegations? Did anyone (including the parents) notify the School Committee, the WTU? What can they do to this guy if the families don't want to press charges? The School Dept. probably couldn't do anything because there was no one to press the claim. I don't know. Still dicey, the whole thing. Why isn't the School Committee shouting from the rooftops that Dr. D'Agostino, Mr. Mullen, and Mrs. Healy were at fault for this? Too many questions remain, and it doesn't look like the School Committee is willing to answer them.

    Thursday, June 25, 2015 Report this

  • JohnStark

    Some details are, indeed, confusing. But the overarching theme here is Outrage! If I have the story straight, a teacher drew a penis on the arm of a female student (though the gender doesn't really matter) and perhaps multiple students. Parents of these students chose not to press charges, so the matter was essentially dropped by profoundly inept school beaurocrats. What?! In what profession is it OK to draw a penis on someone's arm? What would happen to you, the reader, if you drew a penis on someone's arm in the workplace? This is abuse, exploitation, and assault. While I may disagree with the parents' decision not to press charges, I can understand it. Such charges would put their kid in a potentially awkward situation at school. I get it. But the notion that the school dept. Did Nothing is beyond comprehension. So we have a teacher who draws porn on a student's arm, then gets arrested for assaulting his niece. Just down the hall, another shining star is arrested for trolling the internet for teenage boys...in the same week!!! And the school committee continues to hide under their collective desks. This is just leaderless, gutless, and very expensive chaos.

    Thursday, June 25, 2015 Report this

  • markyc

    From this article, I am led to believe that until the NK indictment the Warwick School Committee was unaware of the overall situation concerning the teacher in question. Whether or not charges were pressed, the earlier incidents should have been made known to the Warwick School Committee & the information retained in the teachers" personnel file(confidential). The present School Superintendent is retiring; this situation is grounds for misconduct. These type of incidents between professional staff & students can not be tolerated. From recent events, there appears to be a level of secrecy not only between the Warwick School Committee & the public school community, but between the School Administration, the School Committee, the Mayor, City Council, AND the school community. It's time the Warwick School Committee/School Administration to get their collective act together.

    Thursday, June 25, 2015 Report this

  • jackiemama63

    I guess for me, the underlying question is...For all the "outrage" certain City Council members and certain School Committee members demonstrated, if there was anything the WPS Administrators could have done, INCLUDING the Principal at Gorton, Social Worker (most likely was informed), Resource Officer (was informed) why wouldn't they have done it? They have no allegiance to that teacher, so why did nothing happen? Why is the School Committee not releasing the information? Why is the focus only on three people, when, it is obvious others were involved as well? Who benefits from protecting this teacher?

    Thursday, June 25, 2015 Report this

  • jackiemama63

    Regarding the City Council members and School Committee members...If there was wrongdoing by the three named parties, why are they not publicly stating that as fact? Why allow one to remain in her job and two to retire with their benefits?

    Thursday, June 25, 2015 Report this

  • bendover

    Since when did it become OK to not press charges when there are two felony counts involved? The folks in the know who did nothing...charge them with misprision of a felony...What of the civil rights of the student or students involved? All these great policy wonks and so called "educated" people....Ignorance of the law is no defense...The fact a high speed guy like Ragosta was brought into the picture, then retirement paperwork gets put in and all the rest...A rock at low tide can figure out what this whole mess is all about...There should be resignations or heads on platters...Typical RI shuffle...Look at the Antonucci debacle in Cranston as a recent example. In the end, the taxpayers draw the short straw. "Beam me UP!"

    Thursday, June 25, 2015 Report this

  • JohnStark

    Jackie, the reason nothing was done is that, at the core, they all want to circle the wagons and protect the brand. Why not summarily fire the teacher on the spot and let the WTU argue, in public, that drawing a penis on a student's arm is OK? Secondary to the act, what troubles me most is the secrecy surrounding all this. My sense is that this was handled in such a deplorable and embarrassing manner that the SC just hopes it will go away and people will forget. Again, it's cowardly and a gross abandonment of the public trust, which they were elected to uphold.

    Thursday, June 25, 2015 Report this

  • jackiemama63

    Well said John. Thank you.

    Thursday, June 25, 2015 Report this

  • TomDaniels

    My son was bullied by 3 teachers when he was in 6th grade, so bad he was pulling his hair screaming he couldn't take it any more. He is a special ed student with autism and is not a behavior issue at all. The kids where made to sit in the auditorium before school where the were yelled at to be quiet because of the yelling he would cover his ears he was told by a TA that covering his ears made him look weird! Any one who knows anything about Autism would know that loud noises will cover their ears to block out the sound. When I went to the Principal to complain the Special Ed TEACHER and her TA started calling him bratty and pick on him trying to make him out to be that behavior issue. We called for a meeting where it was agreed that he would not sit in the auditorium. The next day he was pulled aside by the TA and questioned about what he said in the meeting. When we questioned her intentions it was stated by the SPECIAL ED TEACHER that she just wanted to know what had changed in his IEP. That is the TEACHERS job. One day the 6th graders where out in the hall way and the 6th grade teachers came out screaming at them to be quiet one of the other teachers slammed her door when the teacher started yelling my son of course covered his ears, this TEACHER went NUTS. She made him repeat 3 times in front of the whole class that covering my ears is disrespectful to the teacher. And yes she was well aware of his disability We again called for a meeting the day before the meeting my son was giving a "BLUE CARD" form the TA for what she called a physical touch of another student. That was it I kept him out of school and took him to discuss the issues with Dr. D. While we were there we meet in passing the Special Ed Asst. director that handled his case. I told him what was going on and than went in the meeting with Dr.D We spent about an hour of hearing things my son never told us what was going on. Dr. D asked what would happen if he talked to the teachers and my son said "don't bother cause their going to lie to you to." Later that afternoon we went to our meeting where we were meet by the SPECIAL ED TEACHER sitting fold her arms across her chest with a look of disgust on her face. When I brought up the blue card I explain that in my opinion I didn't think they knew how to handle kids with Autism. She jumped up SCREAMING "THIS MEETINGS OVER I WANT UNION REPRESENTATION" AND STATED THAT MAYBE YOUR SON NEEDS TO GO BACK TO HIS HOME SCHOOL WHERE HE BELONGS" . Guess what nothing was done. These people are STILL TEACHING YOUR CHILDREN. We went to a lawyer who told us we would need about $200,000 thousand to fight the school department over the bulling. Nice. If you look at the Warwick School Department Anti Bulling Policy it does not state any where about TEACHER BULLING STUDENTS. WHy is that?

    Thursday, June 25, 2015 Report this

  • TomDaniels

    Thursday, June 25, 2015 Report this

  • jahills1006

    As far as the "school administration" at Gorton; we pulled our daughter out of 8th grade last September after only three days of school. The atmosphere in that school was very unfriendly/safe towards girls.

    Friday, June 26, 2015 Report this

  • wwkvoter

    The outrage is that the administration apparently did not act enough on the information, regardless of parents wishes. In any job I have ever held, drawing genitalia on another human would have (at the very least) cost me my job. One more example of the vast differences in accountability between the public sector such as school employees, and the private sector where most of us work.

    Saturday, June 27, 2015 Report this