Jeff Conrad a former attorney in the Lancaster County's DA office and now a criminal defense attorney received an anonymous copy of a "Confidential" Report into the investigation of a Warwick High School music teacher.
The report, requested by the Warwick School Board in 2008 and conducted by local Lancaster County law firm Kegel, Kelin, Almy & Grimm LLP, investigates the actions of the board into the relationship between now convicted music teacher/band director Todd Sheerer & a student.
The report calls into question two board members reaction to information they learned about the teacher & victim's relationship two years before any arrests/actions were taken. According to the report two students witnessed Sheerer and the victim in an embrace and kissing. The witnesses each went to relatives who also happened to be on the school board. The report says Jay Hostetter discouraged his daughter from testifying what she witnessed and Karen Malleus did not believe her grand-niece.
Hostetter tells CBS 21 News he reported the information immediately but the school and the parents did not want to move forward because they didn't believe the claims. He also calls the report innacurate and says not all the meetings listed in the report even took place. When asked if he felt the school let the victim down he responded, "I think her parents let her down......they thought those girls were lying."
Malleus called CBS 21 News back but said she did not want to make a statement at this time.
The report deems both school board members response as innapropriate. Newly eleced board member Jeff Conrad says once he began to read the report his concern grew over who remained on the board. Hostetter's term ends in December but Malleus remains on the board and is now even the head of a newly formed ethics committee.
Conrad says he released the information to the local paper and then to us because he sees a pattern with how the school handles scandals like this. The Sheerer scandal is one of four in the past six years the school has dealt with. He also thinks the public should be able to view the report since taxpayer dollars paid for it, "That's the point of this, it should have been disclosed, let the public make a decision about who is telling the truth."
The School district did not want to comment and would only say they have move forward.
