Last year several parents, including myself, began warning school administrators about a child sexual predator attending the high school girl’s soccer games. Several parents went to work to not only warn administrators, but to address the court system that allowed Marc Jacques to roam freely at these soccer games.
FROM THE U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE:
Marc Jacques, 50, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Paul Barbadoro to 60 months in federal prison and 5 years of supervised release. The defendant was ordered to pay $26,500 in restitution. On March 18, 2024, Jacques pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of child pornography.
Between 2018 and 2022, Jacques’ IP address had been reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in connection with at least 40 CyberTips related to the online sexual exploitation of children. Between November 24 and December 6, 2021, Jacques uploaded 49 files of apparent CSAM to the social media platform Kik. Law enforcement executed a federal search warrant on Jacques’ residence and person in June 2022. Forensic examination of Jacques’ electronic devices revealed the presence of over 200 files of apparent child sexual abuse material (CSAM) as well as chats between Jacques and others related to the sexual exploitation of children and the sharing of CSAM. In at least one chat conversation, Jacques sent videos of CSAM to others.
Some parents had discovered that Marc Jacques was attending the Kearsarge Girls Soccer games after his conviction. His trans identifying son was playing on the girls soccer team, and had at one time, worked as a volunteer at the school.
These parents decided to look ahead at the games coming up, and warn school administrators about the threat children would face if they attended the soccer game. Since Jacques collects photos of children and superimposes them to make pictures of children being sexually abused, many parents would not want their children playing or watching the game from the sidelines. Jacques was even pictured at the games with his cell phone out, and mingling with young children.
One of those school administrators contacted was Superintendent Mike Flynn from Hopkinton. Flynn did what was legally required of him by contacting law enforcement, but he never went that extra step to let the parents know what was going on. Parents were never notified that their daughters would be playing in front of a child sexual predator who uses pictures of children to create sexual abuse photos for himself, and child sex predators on the web.
I attended one of the school board meetings addressing this lack of action, and asked the board to develop a policy that spells this out. If you need a policy to do the right thing, then develop one. To this day, that hasn’t happened in Hopkinton.
Compare that to how Sanborn handled the same situation. Sanborn administrators sent notifications to parents about the dangerous situation their children would be walking into. They even followed up with parents to make sure they understand everything. The didn’t need a policy to act. They didn’t need a policy to do the right thing.
The Superintendent of Hopkinton, Mike Flynn will be leaving his position as Superintendent, and has been hired by the Derry School District. Derry parents may want to take note of this glaring problem. Do you need a policy to direct your new Superintendent to warn parents when their children are walking into a situation where they may encounter a child sexual predator? That might be a question for your new Superintendent. Do you need a policy to do the right thing?
Parents have also reported to me that the Hopkinton administrators didn’t get back to them when some of them contacted them directly. Hopefully that will not be the case in Derry. We pay their salaries, they should at least be available for a response.
Thankfully these parents pushed the U.S. Attorney’s office to act on all of this, and re-arrested Jacques back in the fall. He was found to have more sexually graphic photos of children. Once images are shared on the dark web, there’s no way for parents to retrieve them.
Parents could have decided if they wanted their children to play the soccer game against Kearsarge. They could have attended that game to monitor the situation but they were never given the information to make that decision.
Kearsarge administrators did nothing to prevent a child sexual predator attending their girls’ soccer game. They could have issued a no-tress pass order, and contacted the U.S. District Attorney’s office too.
These administrators failed to protect the children who were entrusted in their care. Superintendent Forty from Kearsarge is still working in the district. Mike Flynn has moved on to Derry. Where’s the accountability? In the corporate world, this lack of leadership wouldn’t fly.
