This is a follow-up email sent to the Superintendent of SAU65/Kearsarge.
Dear Superintendent Fortney,
I am taking my time to inquire about any steps you or your staff have taken to alert families in the school district about the crimes committed by Marc Jacques. Not only was he walking freely around children, soccer players, and families during the soccer games, but he was also coaching and volunteering in the school district. I don’t recall seeing any documentation showing when he was removed from the volunteer list.
Jacques was arrested and convicted of possessing child pornography, but additional evidence was discovered while he was volunteering at SAU65 and attending the girls’ soccer games.
I was examining some of the new charges that have been filed against Jacques:
According to a statement from the office of U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young, the latest illicit content found in Jacques’ possession includes “several videos and images that appear to depict pubescent, minor females engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”
It was also reported that:
On Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced new charges against Marc Jacques, including a new count of possessing child sex abuse images after he was caught downloading videos and photos depicting children being sexually abused while he was on bail.
Have you notified parents that they should contact the U.S. Attorney to make sure their daughters weren’t part of his photo collection? Jacques superimposed faces of children on sexual abuse images. What exactly have you done to make sure parents are assured that their children are not involved, or that they can contact the U.S. Attorney directly to make sure their children were not part of his collection of photos and videos?
More from the article:
According to Homeland Security Investigations Agent Derek Dunn’s affidavit, Marc Jacques accessed and downloaded the child sex abuse images in August and September using devices that his probation officer was supposed to be monitoring. Marc Jacques was allowed to use a laptop, a desktop computer, and a cell phone while on bail after his probation officer installed monitoring software.
In both instances, the monitoring software captured the activity when Marc Jacques allegedly downloaded the child sex abuse material, but his probation officer never checked the software reports until October, Dunn writes. The videos and images reportedly depict young prepubescent girls being abused.
Thankfully, a few of us parents were monitoring the situation last fall because if it were left up to your administration, children on other soccer teams would have been exposed to this child sexual predator and could have become unwilling victims.
It took a few moms who were mocked by one of your employees to get the justice system to act and prevent the girls on these other soccer teams from encountering Marc Jacques and his cell phone.
You were aware of Jacques’ arrest and conviction but did nothing to stop him from attending the games. Yet, in Bow, the administrators called upon the police to issue a no-trespass order to a father who wore an armband to one of their soccer games.
Can you understand the disappointment that many parents feel knowing that the people charged with protecting their children did nothing about any of this? It was left to a few moms to warn other school administrators of what their students would be walking into if their teams played against the Kearsarge Girls Soccer team. Did you need a policy or a law to do what moms figured out themselves? If so, that’s a big failure in leadership.
It would help the families in your district to fully understand what you’ve done to keep parents informed since Jacques’s arrest. Some of them are uncomfortable addressing you or the school board due to the many failures of this administration. They contacted me and asked if I would contact you on their behalf. Not only do the girls in SAU65 feel as if they’ve been silenced, but the parents are now turning to me because they don’t want their daughters to face additional scrutiny if they speak up. The culture and climate appear to be hostile towards some girls on the soccer team and now their parents, too. This has caused some families to withdraw their children and move them to another school.
I know you’ve been working with some parents, but the community should be fully informed of what happened, how this was handled, and how parents will be or have been informed.
—
Ann Marie Banfield
TRUST REQUIRES TRANSPARENCY
Editor: Links were added to this article for context, and were not in the original email.
