Albemarle Parents Are Right: A School That Punishes Reporting Has Already Failed Its Families

Three Albemarle school officials face charges alleging they failed to report abuse; police say staff feared retaliation, and parents are demanding answers.

Albemarle County parents are right to demand accountability from the School Board after police said several people feared discipline or penalties if they came forward with information. At the Oct. 8 meeting², Hollymead Elementary parent Phil Riese said the board that oversaw the culture could not be the board to fix it¹.

Riese called for the entire board except newcomer David Storm to resign, Cville Right Now reported³. Kurt Burkhart told the board, “The innocence of our students has been shattered by the adults they look up to most.”¹ These parents are not overreacting.

Virginia Code § 63.2-1509 requires school employees who have reason to suspect that a child has been abused or neglected to make a timely report to child-protective authorities. A grand jury indicted three school officials on three separate failures to report each: Deputy Chief Human Resources Officer Brodie Downs, Assistant School Division Counsel and Title IX Coordinator Erin Stone, and former Hollymead principal Joe McCauley. Two counts each allege knowing and intentional failure to report information and evidence of aggravated sexual battery⁴. They return to court Dec. 7⁵.

Behind those charges, former Hollymead coach Michael Swiney faces 20 felony charges involving seven girls. According to court records, all seven were Hollymead students who had Swiney as their coach between 3rd and 5th grade⁵. When the officials charged with acting on a child's complaint are accused of not reporting, who is left for a parent to trust?

Oct. 8Riese told the school board it could not fix the culture it oversaw
JanuaryCallsen hopes to return with legislation clarifying what information can be shared with parents.

felony charges Swiney faces

Police told parents why reports may have gone unmade: detectives discovered that some staff “failed to make a report out of fear of retaliation from the school division.”⁶ A legal duty to protect children ran into a career risk, and the career risk won.

Gov. Abigail Spanberger said, “If there is some culture of fear in retaliation, that is a failure in and of itself.” She said, “People need to know they can, they must, and they are legally obligated to raise their hand.”⁵ A reporting law protects no child if the employee who sees something must weigh it against a paycheck.

Board Chair Rebecca Berlin says, “On personnel matters, the law, the basic fairness, and common decency that should be extended to every employee limit what we can share.” She also said, “we know families are waiting for answers.”¹

Privacy protects an employee's file; it does not answer whether a child's abuse was reported or whether staff can now report without punishment. The board asked Rio District member Jim Dillenbeck to resign, saying he had “disclosed confidential information.”⁷ It is now weighing draft expectations that say members “should not respond directly to public comments during board meetings.”¹

Del. Katrina Callsen, a Democrat who represents the 54th District, says she hopes to return to Richmond in January with legislation clarifying what information can be shared with parents. She called it wrong to find out “via the news that your child was in that person’s classroom or had one-on-one time with them.”¹

Parents should hold her to that bill, press every legislator to back it, and fill the board's town halls, which Berlin said to expect from late October into early November, and ask each member what protects an employee who reports³. Anyone with information on suspected abuse can contact Child Protective Services: - 434-972-4010 The statewide Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline: - 800-552-7096⁶.

Albemarle Parents Are Right: A School That Punishes Reporting Has Already Failed Its Families

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