Breaking News: School District Blames Second Graders For Teacher Molesting Them; Says They Were ‘Old Enough’ To Know Better

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A Florida school district were accused of blaming four third-grade girls for being molested by their teacher in 2005.

Breaking News: School District Blames Second Graders For Teacher Molesting Them; Says They Were ‘Old Enough’ To Know Better

The Sun Sentinel reported that the Palm Beach County School District had recently agreed to pay the four victims, who are now adults, $3.6 million to settle the lawsuit. The girls had accused Coral Sunset Elementary teacher Blake Sinrod for molesting them in the classroom. Sinrod, now 46, was pleaded guilty in May 2006 to child abuse charges involving two of his victims.

Police got involved after one of the girls told her mother that Sinrod had touched her during a reading group. She claimed he touched her under her clothing and instructed her to touch his private area over his clothing, documents obtained by the paper revealed.

The three other girls, who were about 9 at the time, recounted similar stories to police.

In their answer to the lawsuit, the Palm Beach School District maintained that the victims were “old enough to understand the consequences of their actions” when they complied with Sinrod’s instructions. Ultimately, the district concluded that the girls “conducted themselves in a careless and negligent manner.”

The district allegedly disregarded similar complaints made against the teacher in 2003. The recent lawsuit alleged that the assistant principal told a second grader’s parents that Sinrod was a “highly recommended teacher” and that their daughter must have been lying. The school district still contended this point, arguing that the complaint made to thevassistant principal didn’t reach the level of negligence on the district’s part, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Court records indicated that adjudication was halted after Sinrod met the terms of his probation. The New York Daily News reported that the district fired him in 2006 and his license was revoked in 2008.

The civil case was in appeals for several years and made its way to the Florida Supreme Court before all parties could reach an agreement.

“The young women and their families are pleased with the result, relieved the case is finally coming to an end,”

attorney Marc Wites told The Post.

On Wednesday, the Palm Beach County School District released a statement explained their controversial legal tactics.

“The Board, with its attorneys, must consider all legal defenses on a case by case basis, however, this current School Board has never taken the position that a child could be implicit in their own child abuse,”

stated the school.

The FBI is hoping you can help them identify a suspected child predator

NEWS: FBI Seeks Help Identifying Predator Seen In Child-sex Video

According to the investigators, the woman — known only by the bureau as Jane Doe 39 — can be seen in a video with a child who was being sexually exploited.
The video turned up during an FBI investigation and forwarded to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), an organization that works closely with the FBI in stopping child predators.

“We know the video has been traded on the Internet,” said Special Agent Susan Romash, who investigates child exploitation cases as part of the FBI’s Violent Crimes Against Children program. “And we know this child is a victim who needs our help.”

In the video, the bureau said, the adult woman was heard speaking Vietnamese and, at one point, shown her face. Two images of her face were released by the FBI on Wednesday, along with an audio clip of her voice.

“Our hope,” said Romash in a press release regarding the investigation, “is that someone will recognize this individual’s face — or her voice — and come forward with information.”
The effort to identify and arrest Jane Doe 39 is a part of the FBI’s Operation Rescue Me and Endangered Child Alert Program (ECAP).

Operation Rescue Me identifies child victims of sexual exploitation by using high-tech image analysis technology. ECAP seeks public and media assistance in identifying the John and Jane Does who display their faces — and other distinguishing characteristics such as tattoos – in the pornographic images and videos of children.

The video depicting Jane Doe 39 and a child victim was first spotted by NCMEC in April 2016, but it’s not clear where or when it was recorded. The woman is described as an Asian female, likely between the ages of 25 and 35, with long black hair. She was wearing a white, yellow, blue, and red floral dress.