It Worked When They Did It On Law And Order

Frequent reader(s) of this blog know the dawn of a new age is the death of the previous one...er...we mean know we keep the wolf from our door by engaging in compensated activities at the local educorporate training facility. Or, as one of our more erudite colleagues put it once, we touch the future.

Scary huh? Well, our point is we didn't just walk into this career, nosirree. It took years of classroom training, internships under the guidance of experienced mentors, apprenticing with masters, post graduate training and through it all we accumulated precious experience which we used to sharpen our skills, improve our professional judgment and hone our craft.

We tell you all of this by way of demonstrating that teachers are highly trained, talented professionals able to cope with the tremendous responsibility of educating the youth of this great country. Well, except for these guys.

A former Upper St. Clair High School student who already claimed she had been raped once was raped again on school property after school officials used her as bait in a failed attempt to catch students they believed were having sex in the building,

Umm...What?

The allegation was made in a lengthy response filed by attorneys for the unidentified former student against the district's motion to throw out the lawsuit brought by the former student. Upper St. Clair school district is asking U.S. District Chief Judge Gary L. Lancaster to find in its favor, arguing that the plaintiffs cannot prove the district was deliberately indifferent to the possibility that the student would be assaulted.

Right. Because how else can you say "We care" if not by putting a student who had been sexually assaulted in a position where she could be assaulted again while you watched.

According to the brief by the student's attorney, on Feb. 4, 2008, the girl went to one of her teachers, Esther von Waldow, and told her that a boy, with whom she'd had previous problems, had forced her to have sex with him after school. The girl told Ms. von Waldow that he forced another student to have sex, as well.

Ah. See here's where years of training and experience kick in.

Ms. von Waldow, according to the brief, immediately went to school administrators with concerns and offered several options to make sure the girls in question got home safely. They included offering herself to walk the girls to their school bus.

See, that right there is caring. That's professionalism. That's going the extra mile, so all you teacher bashers out there you remember Mrs. von Waldow the next time you get ready to get all up on your high horse and explain to teachers why they aren't doing their jobs.

But, the filing said, school Principal Michael Ghilani had a different idea.

Rats. A principal with an idea. This can't be good.

"Instead, Ghilani wanted to keep Jane Doe on school property and not let her leave. Ghilani's plan, known as the 'sting operation,' was to use Jane Doe as 'bait' to lead the school administrators to [the boy] and perhaps other girls."

OK, here's our question: Were all the police on vacation that day?

He devised a plan to have school police officers follow the students in question to determine who they were and where they were going.

Yeah. "School police officers." These are the substitute bus drivers and second string janitorial staff moonlighting for a few extra bucks. This is going to end well.

The officers followed the students and believed that they had gone home for the day.

Hmm...Sherlock Holmes they ain't.

The girl's attorneys contend that two girls were raped in the stairwell that afternoon, including their client.

Well let's see. Two girls raped, plus the client and, of course at at least one perpetrator. That's four kids at minimum running around the school after hours (when it's mostly empty) and principal Ghilani's crack detective squad couldn't find any of them. You think there may be a flaw in your logic there Mr. Ghilani sir?

But in court documents filed by the school district, there are allegations that relationships between the boy in question and several of the girls who claim to be victims were consensual. The district argues that the girls liked him, and were jealous of the others.

Why didn't you say so in the first place? It's all the girls' fault. Case closed.

School officials also claim that they knew nothing of any sexual assaults by the boy until the morning of Feb. 5, 2008 -- the day after the alleged "sting."

They claimed this right after it was announced that Ms. von Waldow had been granted "personal leave" so she could take that trip to Tahiti she'd always dreamed about. All expenses paid of course. Upper St. Clair cares about their teachers donchano.