School Board President Robert Gleason, who was also on the board back in 2011, said the board didn’t have any further comment on Miller.
Meanwhile many parents & students Within the district are asking questions such as was the situation handled properly? Why wasn’t Miller fired from the school district? And have other students been affected?
According to the affidavit employment records show that Miller was warned & disciplined numerous times for inappropriately touching students.
As our Nicole Fuschino spoke with Today said they never rose to the level of chargeable until now.
We continue our team coverage with Nicole Fuschino who’s been working to get the answers to those questions Today.
After investigator interviews reveal that Shawn Miller an elementary Music Teacher at Westmont Hilltop has been behaving inappropriately for years
It wasn’t until this week he was charged with a disturbing new allegation raping a 9 year old student in 2015.
“I give a lot of credit to the victim in this case for coming forward, providing full disclosure, which I’m sure was not easy for them to do. The support the family has given to this victim is very admirable.”
Employment records obtained by the District Attorney, show that Miller was warned and disciplined over the years by the district for inappropriately touching students & making comments.
“Charges cannot be brought based upon rumors. Charges can be based upon hard evidence. A lot of times, there will be rumors in the community, but no victim actually comes forward and makes a statement and provides that information.”
Upper Yoder Police say the victim experienced similar harassment earlier in 2011 but that it never rose to the level of chargeable.
Officials say even though mandated reporter laws child line these instances straight to police it doesn’t always amount to anything.
“The victim did state that she felt like no one really heard her the first time, so when the situation escalated, she stated that she didn’t come forward with the escalation because she didn’t think anything was going to happen.”
We spoke with Michael Carbonara who was the Assistant District Attorney during the time of these allegations recommending termination or another action
Saying “I believed it was important for the family, the district attorney’s office and the school district to have a historical written record of the investigation so the school district could take disciplinary action against Mr. Miller and/or put future school board members on notice about Mr. Miller’s behavior to prevent a similar incident from occurring again. ”
“The recommendations made to the school district were based on my professional opinion that Mr. Miller’s behavior was not an isolated event and that he had engaged in other questionable behaviors that violated moral and ethical codes that teachers should maintain toward children.”
“The district may have not been aware of these other behaviors, but it was apparent to me after the investigation that protections were needed for the students attending the district.”
Police say they have had even more victims come forward in recent days and hope more continue to
“I would implore any victim of any type of crime like this to please come forward. Be it if you’re being harmed in school, church, home, friend’s house, relatives house. Please come forward and tell law enforcement your story.”
