As I perused the Saturday newspapers, the headlines shot from the pages. The Citizen: “Area educator guilty of student sex assault” The Laconia Daily Sun: “Former Gilford Middle School teacher admits to sexually assaulting 14-year-old student in 2000” The Concord Monitor: “Ex-educator pleads guilty in sex assault. Gilford High student was 14 at time” The Union Leader: “Former Gilford teacher gets two years in sex assault of student” Sounds like the stuff of cable news channels- except it’s happening right here.
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The Daily Sun article, written by Michael Kitch, tells us
Mathew McGonagle, 36, of Contoocook, who recently resigned as assistant principal at Rundlett Middle school in Concord, pled guilty to one count of felonious sexual assault and two counts of misdemeanor sexual assault in Belknap Superior Court yesterday. The charges followed a lengthy investigation by the Belknap County Sheriff’s Office and Belknap County Attorney’s Office undertaken after a young woman reported that McGonagle sexually assaulted her during the 1999-2000 school year when she was a student at Gilford Middle School.
Remember- we’re talking about a 14 year old! Most of the sexual encounters occurred on school property! As a father of two school age children, I can absolutely feel the rage that must be felt by this poor woman and her family. For a person in authority to violate the trust granted him due to his position as a teacher and, as reported, family friend, is especially egregious. The news reports tell of the confessed child molester’s repeated attempts at pursuing a relationship with the girl after she began to distance herself from her teacher/friend/attacker-even sender her written letters of his desires- which the prosecutors had in their possession.
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What do you think about the sentence? Again from the Daily Sun piece:
McGonagle will serve two years in the Belknap County House of Corrections on the misdemeanor charges followed by a suspended sentence of two and a half years at the New Hampshire State Prison on the felony charge. The suspended sentence requires 20 years of good behavior. In addition, he must undergo sexual offender evaluation and treatment and register as a sexual offender for the remainder of his life. McGonagle’s teaching certificate will be revoked and he will be forbidden from contact with children younger than 16, other than his own.
Remember- the girl was a ninth-grader. He was a 30 year old teacher! Only TWO YEARS IN JAIL? I won’t reprint the somewhat graphic description from the news reports of what the teacher/friend/attacker did to the ninth-grader to earn the “felonious sexual assault” charge- suffice to say it’s nothing a teacher should be doing to a student.
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Let’s further consider the fact that this child predator made a plea bargain, offered in part to rightfully spare the victim further suffering and anguish in a rehash of events during what would surely be a highly publicized trial. Fair enough. But wait- who else benefits from a quick resolution of this messy affair? Certainly the perpetrator is spared the publicity a trial would bring. Might others see his face and recall some instance, as the teacher/friend/attacker’s lawyer calls this “isolated instance,” where “appropriate boundaries were blurred?”
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Might also the “system” itself benefit by a quick conclusion? The schools rely on the constant and ever-growing flow of taxpayer dollars, fueled by happy news, good reports and awards given. Bad news or publicity might cause the folks footing the bill to want a more in-depth look at what’s going on with their dollars. Scrutiny is the bane of any bureaucracy.
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Like the similar Catholic Church pedophile scandal, one wonders how much those in charge and in the know did to cover the tracks of “one of their own?” If that was the second most important factor in the Church scandal after the act itself, how can it be any different here? Who knew and when did they know it? Even the outgoing County Attorney Lauren Noether has asked as much. Again from the Sun:
Although Noether did not prosecute the case, she told the court that “it is easy to turn a blind eye to a teacher molesting a child" and that “those folks close to him and associated with the school, some of them here today, need to recognize this happened on their watch.”
Isn’t that what the Catholic Church was ultimately held responsible for- the cover-up after the fact? Isn’t it true that by a getting a speedy end to this sordid event, those in charge will “move on”?
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The Citizen story reports that many showed up on the guilty party’s behalf:
More than two dozen of McGonagle’s family, friends and former co-workers crowded the courtroom to show their support for McGonagle…
His lawyer asked the court
"not to judge McGonagle solely on the allegations but to consider his record as a talented educator and valued member of the community." McGonagle previously worked in the Gilford and Hopkinton school districts and had until recently served as assistant principal in a large middle school in Concord. During his career, his attorney said, McGonagle has received hundreds of letters of appreciation for his skills as an educator. "You can tell a lot about him by the quality of people around him," the lawyer told the court, gesturing towards the packed seats in the courtroom. By pleading guilty, Rosenberg said his client acknowledges to the state, the court and his victim that he is responsible. In a brief statement to the court, McGonagle expressed "deep apologies to the victim and her family." He conceded that he "did not set clear boundaries with the girl and said as an adult he shouldn’t have crossed them."
In other words, the teacher/friend/attacker was really a standup guy. The girl was fourteen years old!
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The Sun reports the victim, with this matter closed, takes
“solace in knowing McGonagle will never again abuse his position of authority to ensnare other victims in his web.”
It has been six years that she has carried this with her. I wonder if she feels he is a “valued member of the community?”
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