The Vanguard after 9 pm on Sunday night received a media alert from the Davis School District that Superintendent Winfred Roberson “will be making a statement to the media in the wake of Friday’s arrest of DJUSD employee, Mr. John O’Brien. The superintendent will be available for limited questions after the statement.”
They add, “The district will host a press conference to address questions that have arisen after the arrest of Mr. John O’Brien. We ask that the media join the superintendent at the district office and please refrain from visiting Harper Junior High School so that students and employees may proceed with learning without undue distraction. This press conference is the only scheduled time for media inquiries.”
The Vanguard will have full coverage of the press conference later today.
PREVIOUS STORY: According to the Davis Police Department, John O’Brien was cited and released on a misdemeanor warrant. He was suspected of inappropriately touching a 16-year-old boy over his clothing at the teen’s residence in September.
Furthermore, a parent was home at the time, but did not witness the alleged conduct.
The Vanguard received a press release from the school district late on Friday afternoon, indicating that Winfred Roberson, superintendent of the Davis Joint Unified School District Superintendent, had sent an urgent communication informing parents, staff and the school community about an issue involving a DJUSD employee.
This was apparently enough information for the school district to issue a press release that they had initiated a termination proceeding based on the fact that Mr. O’Brien, “a teacher at Harper Junior High School, has been charged with sexual battery and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.”
Tim Taylor, vice president of the school board, said, “The District’s own internal investigation led to the Board’s decision to begin the dismissal proceedings with the intention of terminating Mr. O’Brien’s employment. He has been placed on unpaid administrative leave pending the outcome of a dismissal hearing with the California Commission on Professional Competence. “
“Our number one goal is always to keep students safe. We take these matters extremely seriously,” Superintendent Roberson said. “To the best of our knowledge, the alleged events that led to the warrant for Mr. O’Brien’s arrest did not occur on a school campus.”
The press release added, “The school district encourages parents and students with questions or concerns to speak with their school principals or counselors. The superintendent is making himself personally available to those who may wish to meet with him about concerns.”
Harper Junior High Principle Kerin Kelleher wrote parents, “The school district has been notified that a teacher at Harper, Mr. John O’Brien, has been charged with sexual battery and a warrant has been issued for his arrest. The Board of Education has begun dismissal proceedings with the intent of terminating Mr. O’Brien’s employment. Mr. O’Brien has been placed on unpaid administrative leave pending the outcome of a dismissal hearing with the California Commission on Professional Competence.”
She said, as did Mr. Roberson, “To the best of our knowledge, the alleged events that led to the warrant for Mr. O’Brien’s arrest did not occur on a school campus.”
She concluded, “This is a difficult time for Harper. I encourage you to talk to your children and find out if they have questions or concerns. Our counselors are available to meet with anyone who needs to be seen. I am also available if you or your child have questions or concerns. We will be working to fill Mr. O’Brien’s position as soon as possible.”
Superintendent Winfred Roberson’s letter said: “This is to inform you that that a district employee, Mr. John O’Brien, from Harper Junior High has been charged with sexual battery and a warrant has been issued for his arrest. The Board of Education has begun dismissal proceedings with the intent of terminating Mr. O’Brien’s employment. Mr. O’Brien has been placed on unpaid administrative leave pending the outcome of a dismissal hearing with the California Commission on Professional Competence.
“To the best of our knowledge, the alleged events that led to the warrant for arrest did not occur on a school campus.
“I want to assure you that safety of our students is always the first priority in our school district. We take these matters seriously, and we do not tolerate any behavior that compromises the moral and ethical standards to which we hold our educators.
“Fortunately, our district is comprised of a team of talented and dedicated professionals who are working every day to give students the knowledge and tools to succeed. Please be assured that if there are ever allegations of any possible inappropriate conduct by an employee, it will always result in immediate investigation and appropriate action.
“This is another difficult moment for our school district, and we ask you to be sensitive to the situation and to the feelings of others. Please consider talking to you children, and if they have questions or concerns, please have them contact their school counselor. If you have questions or something you want to share, please contact your school principal or you may reach me directly at wroberson@djusd.net.”
He added, “This is a priority for my office and I am personally committed to ensuring that we do everything in our power to keep students safe and in the care of dedicated and skilled professionals.”
Parents have been stunned to learn this popular teacher at Harper Jr. High School has been suspended, pending a hearing a hearing of the California Commission on Professional Competence and possible criminal proceedings after being charged with sexual battery.
Several were skeptical of the charges, noting that the teacher, John O’Brien, has been considered a very good teacher but has had some disagreements with administration.
As one parent noted to the Vanguard, “I am really concerned that the district is proceeding with termination when Mr. O’Brien has not been convicted of anything.”
—David M. Greenwald reporting
David wrote:
> He was suspected of inappropriately touching a 16 year old boy
> over his clothing at the teen’s residence in September.
The big questions are:
What was a 40 year old guy doing over at a 16 year old kids house?,and why was the 40 year old guy alone with the kid? (I was never alone in my bedroom with any of my junior high teachers)…
South of Davis
“What was a 40 year old guy doing over at a 16 year old kids house?,and why was the 40 year old guy alone with the kid? (I was never alone in my bedroom with any of my junior high teachers)…”
Wow ! What a lot of assumptions you are implying here based on no information at all, at least as presented here.
First nothing at all has been said about being in a bedroom, alone or not alone. Information was presented that a parent was at the home at the time. We also have been provided with no information at all about the reason for being in the home. One of my best friends when my children were in elementary, junior high and high school was a school teacher. Our children were also very close friends. The four children were in and out of our respective houses all the time as were we. We frequently did not even so much as knock, but would open the door and call out a greeting. We babysat for each other and hosted small get togethers without the other parent present frequently. The fact that my friend was a teacher did not mean that there was any more or less concern than there would have been with any of my other friends.
My point is not that I know what the answers are in this case. I simply do not feel that making the most sordid implication possible in to questions is a sound approach when so little is known to the public about the circumstances.
I agree with Tia. In addition, IMHO, there are many situations where a forty year old may be with a 16 year old. My son had a wonderful guitar teacher at Watermelon music. I allowed him to be alone with my son, in a room with a closed door. Nothing inappropriate happened. At my previous job, there were times when an older woman in her forties or fifties might be alone with a pregnant girl. There were also times when a very trusted adult was alone in my home with my teens and nothing inappropriate occurred. There are so many examples of these situations, I need not write more.
I would have allowed Mr. O.B. around my teens unsupervised. I trusted him and my teens had nothing but good things to say abbout him. Occasionally, they complained that he was strict and expected them to do their homework.
I met Mr. O.B. many times and never got a creepy vibe from him. I still trust him, and if I had to do it all over again, I’ll still allow him around my teens.
I have heard an explanation that I’m not going to print here because it’s unverified, but if true it answers your question in a plausible manner.
Another shocking aspect of this story is a public employee was actually put on “unpaid” leave.
This seems like an unnecessary comment on a story like this.
Not at all, I said another shocking aspect. What’s unnecessary is your retort.
Don wrote:
> This seems like an unnecessary comment on a story like this.
Actually it is a valid point, because it is so rare that a a government employee is put on “unpaid” leave it probably means that the school knows something we don’t know…
P.S. Don may have missed the story in the Washington Post (not Times) last month that said:
“Tens of thousands of federal workers are being kept on paid leave for at least a month — and often for longer stretches that can reach a year or more — while they wait to be punished for misbehavior or cleared and allowed to return to work, government records show. During a three-year period that ended last fall, more than 57,000 employees were sent home for a month or longer. The tab for these workers exceeded $775 million in salary alone.”
S.O.D., there is something called a Union Contract. It is available online. Read it.
sisterhood wrote:
> S.O.D., there is something called a Union Contract. It is available online. Read it.
The recent Washington Post story said that language in union contracts are rarely followed:
“The extensive use of administrative leave continues despite government personnel rules that limit paid leave for employees facing discipline to “rare circumstances” in which the employee is considered a threat. ”
Can you name a single teacher who was put on “unpaid” leave and had a “termination proceeding” started after “just” and allegation of a 16 year old kid?
SOD, good point, and a misdemeanor complaint.
I recall reading that there are dozens of teachers in the LAUSD who report every day to an office, surf the web, read, all making $60 – 100,000 per year with full benefits, while their criminal felony allegations work their way through the system, for years upon years.
Does the accused have tenure?
He was acting as mentor for the boy, it is reported in The Enterprise.
There must be more to this for the District to take such drastic action.
ryankelly
“There must be more to this for the District to take such drastic action.”
Maybe……or maybe not.
Within my system we have great medical legal coverage if there is a question of malpractice. Not so if the question is of inappropriate conduct. For that accusation, we are completely on our own regardless of how egregious the accusation. When the accusation of inappropriate conduct arises we are immediately relieved of our patient care duties and are solely responsible for hiring and paying for our own defense. This is based on accusation alone and has nothing to do with the merits of the charge. This has caused our department to make dramatically different recomendations to our female practitioners. It has always been the case that male gynecologists were chaperoned during their exams. This is now the recommendation for women practitioners also due to charges of “inappropriate touching” in breast and pelvic exams requested by the patient herself.
In our society, it is entirely possible for a completely innocent individual to be accused of “inappropriate behavior” and have action taken against them, or not be defended, even against false accusation. I would strongly urge a complete airing of fact prior to making any judgements.
Tia wrote:
> When the accusation of inappropriate conduct arises we are immediately
> relieved of our patient care duties and are solely responsible for hiring
>and paying for our own defense.
Thanks for letting us know what Kaiser does, but do you know ANY company (or public entity) that “initiates termination proceeding” (like the school district has done) after “just” an “allegation”?
“that “initiates termination proceeding” (like the school district has done) after “just” an “allegation”?”
I have absolutely no knowledge of how any other business or public entity handles such situations. However, I do feel that no business or public entity handles all personnel situations appropriately. We have evidence of the past school board and administration handling one recent situation ( the volleyball coach/ school board member) in a manner that many in the community felt was completely inappropriate. I do not think that it is too far a stretch to think that maybe some additional information/ and or a conviction would be appropriate prior to passing judgement in a situation about which we know very little. My position is that questions that imply that there was an impropriety or that the authorities would not be acting if “they did not know something we don’t” with its implication of guilt are premature, unhelpful, and possibly unnecessarily damaging to this man’s reputation.
I did work at a quasi state agency approximately 30 years ago, where a man was escorted out of his office and terminated without a shred of real proof other than his ex-girlfriend’s (mistress, he was married) words. So, yes, it does happen.
I just read a story last night where a young female student at an Ivy League school claimed rape, didn’t file charges, and the young man was ran out of town (and college) in the blink of an eye.
He had a friend, a college teacher formerly from UC Davis, who helped him fight what he felt was an untrue allegation, the story started to unravel, and it turned out the Father of the girl was a very wealthy benefactor of the college. It also turned out that the young woman had made similar unproven accusations about another young man in her past.
Don’t forget the recent stories here in the Davis Vanguard about the Indian-American gentleman who many feels was falsely accused by his own step daughter.
TBD, and let’s not forget the Duke lacrosse team scandal where the team was falsely accused of rape by a liar who was backed by Al Sharpton and other race baiters.
nifong remains one of the few lawyers along with ken anderson in the morton case of being disbarred over prosecutorial misconduct.
Tia, Thank you for this information. In your profession, there would be high risk for a false accusation.I have always asked a new male gynecologist to allow a nurse or woman office assistant present during my initial few exams, until I felt comfortable with the doctor. The ones that showed any kind of body language like I was inconveniencing them – I did not return to that doctor. A friend of mine was a lawyer and he used to ask his office assistant to be in and out of his office, until he felt comfortable with new clients, just to protect himself.
I recommend the movie “Enough Said” to anyone who wants to understand how parents can sometimes be put in awkward situations with their teens’ friends.
sisterhood
I am only surprised by the fact that you had to ask. I was unaware that any male gynecologists anywhere would expose themselves to this kind of accusation.
I don’t think we should assume that there is necessarily more to this. What we do know, is that this offense was charged as a misdemeanor and Mr. O’B was not taken into custody, so it is obviously not considered to be a serious offense. Given that, according to the Enterprise, the incident was unwitnessed, I am surprised by the actions taken by DJUSD against Mr. O’B and even more surprised that the Superintendent disclosed the confidential personnel actions in his email to the general public.
This is the same leadership group that muffed the Nancy Peterson drama for almost 2 years.
Then we find out that the investigation of the volleyball coaches stance was completely ignored by the $20,000 “professional” investigation. How could the law firm / investigator never call the witnesses to the alleged bullying / irrational behavior by Peterson, and on top of that, then find against her (the coach)?
Incompetence, laziness, what?
The “Emptyprise”‘s motto should be-
Arrested? Front page.
Not guilty? Not newsworthy.
True or not, his career is effectively ended by the charge.
;>)/
So much for innocent until proven guilty.
I believe if Mr.O.B. is innocent, he should be allowed to deduct, dollar for dollar, from his California income tax, any and all legal expenses, if his accuser refuses to pay them. CA law needs to be changed to allow for such a deduction.
sisterhood wrote:
> I believe if Mr.O.B. is innocent, he should be allowed to deduct, dollar for
> dollar, from his California income tax, any and all legal expenses
Do you feel that “anyone” (in the public or private sector) should be able to do this?
Ok… assume a marginal tax rate of 6% (probably on the high side). So if legal defense costs $50,000 (probably on low side), your idea mean he only loses $47,000 to defend against what may be a bogus charge. Very understanding of you. Now, if you were talking a tax CREDIT…
1. I am at a loss to understand why a teacher would be put on “unpaid leave” before being convicted of whatever crime he is being charged with. Is there something in the teacher employment contract that allows for this? What if the teacher is ultimately found not guilty? Does he get his job back? Back pay? Or is he effectively banished from the teaching profession because of an accusation that could never be sufficiently proved?
2. Many sexual abusers appear charming to everyone – look at Jerry Sandusky, who got away with sexually abusing minors for years and years. Everyone thought he was a pillar of the community until he was finally caught and it was revealed he was in fact a sexual predator of the worst order. The jury is still out on Mr. O’Brien (pardon the pun), no matter how “nice” he has appeared in the past.
3. Innocent until proven guilty should be the order of the day, but effectively the DJUSD seems to have decided this teacher is guilty until proven innocent. I’m baffled by this concept, but that is probably because I don’t understand school policy/employment contract specifics.
Many people get a vibe, not just reacting to someone’s “niceness”. Look at the new movie, Night Crawler. The Gyllenhaal character appeared “nice” in many situations, but one could obviously detect a creep vibe beneath the surface.
I never detected a creepy vibe from Mr. O.B., a fine teacher who helped both my son and daughter.
My pals in law enforcement have told me some people are good at detecting vibes. They develop almost a sixth sense at it.
True, to a point. We all have vibes about people and circumstances at some time or another. The challenge is to be able to distinguish vibes from undetected personal prejudice. Many vibes are wolves in sheep’s clothing. I rely on my vibes about 15% of the time, and then only as a tie-breaker.
Hello Mr. Coleman,
I think your 15% sounds very reasonable. I wonder if a woman’s vibe skills may be slightly better honed, because we have to deal with men approaching us for interaction and we have to rule out the creepy ones at a very young age. Thanks for your input.
There is a current case of alleged student molestation in Concord where the Contra Costa DA was hammered. The teacher, Joseph Martin (?) had something like 14 accusers and over 120 charges of molestation filed.
He recently was acquitted of 20 or 30 counts, and the remainder were hung, but hugely in his favor (towards innocence). His defense lawyer has said the allegations stem from his handling of special needs / ADHD children, and that he sometimes patted them on their chest as a way to reassure them and calm them down.
I know an individual who is connected to the case, and apparently one parent may have become the defacto ring leader for these charges. When the trial finally started, several of the main children contradicted their earlier sworn statements, and it appeared that there had been some heavy coaching.
Even though they took a whipping, the Contra Costa DA is now retrying the case on 20 or so counts. His career is over, he has spent several years in jail, and the two trials have wiped away the extended family’s nest egg.
The defense attorney has said this is one of the most overcharged cases in decades, and I am guessing he is referring to the infamous McMartin preschool case.
TBD wrote:
> Even though they took a whipping, the Contra Costa DA
> is now retrying the case on 20 or so counts.
Sounds like another “McMartin Trial” (see below from the Wikipedia if you were not born yet or living outside the US in the 80’s).
I know guys getting divorced that have been accused of abusing their own kids and until we change things where there is (almost) no downside of making false accusations we are going to have a lot more of them (and a lot more money wasted by “tough on molestation” DAs doing everything they can to put the falsely accused in jail.)
“The McMartin preschool trial was a day care sexual abuse case of the 1980s. Members of the McMartin family, who operated a preschool in California, were charged with numerous acts of sexual abuse of children in their care. Accusations were made in 1983. Arrests and the pretrial investigation ran from 1984 to 1987, and the trial ran from 1987 to 1990. After six years of criminal trials, no convictions were obtained, and all charges were dropped in 1990. When the trial ended in 1990 it had been the longest and most expensive criminal trial in American history.”
it seems like a fairly minor charge to lose one’s job over, but i guess working with kids you have to err on the side of caution. still, there are a lot of troubling dimensions to this.
Really, if true, and that’s a big if, it doesn’t sound minor to me.
When I was working at a private school, in the early 1980s, an art teacher was destroyed by a rumour campaign, instigated by a student, who’s advances, he had scorned. The vindictive and entirely fabricated accusation quickly became public knowledge. Without a charge filed or an investigation of any kind, the man’s life was ruined. Fully six lustrum hence, long after a recantation by the accuser, the mention of his name in the community usually elicits, ” Oh yeah, the guy that molested that girl.”
Once the charge was made public, the die was cast!
;>)/
kinda’ recall a similar situation in a small town in Massachusetts a number of years back. But hen, the falsely accused were killed. Guess we’re doing better now.
IF the current charge is provably untrue, and IF the teacher’s personal and professional life are ruined, for say the next 25 years, how would ‘restorative justice’ help?
This strikes me as a very difficult case for the school district. On the one hand, it is entirely possible that this is a troubled boy–who needed mentoring, apparently–and perhaps he made up the story or misinterpreted something quite innocent. If it turns out the teacher did nothing inappropriate, his name has been needlessly and painfully tarnished. On the other hand, if the teacher did molest this child, the school district would be blasted if it did not take immediate action. And, if the district truly believes the boy’s story, it would be irresponsible not to proceed to fire the teacher right away.
Knowing no parties involved, I have no idea just what happened. However, I would not be too surprised either way. Some kids, especially ones who are troubled, tell lies. (I am not saying I know this boy is troubled, only that it is possible.) And, of course, there are adults who act inappropriately with kids, as we see from the drumbeat of stories of teachers having sexual relations with high school aged students.
In most circumstances, I would prefer to have a legal system where the name of the accused were kept secret until he pleads guilty or is convicted. We do this with women (and of course children) who claim they are victims of sex crimes, and I think it is right to hide their names in cases like these. But we drag the person accused through the mud from the start, whether guilty or not. Yet, when you have an accusation of a public school teacher molesting a student, even if it is a misdemeanor charge, I don’t see how you could ever keep his name clear during the process. They have to take him out of his classroom. And the District is obliged to inform parents of the general nature of the alleged crime. So once those two things happen, his name will inevitably come out. But in most cases–I am thinking of the owner of Cafe Mediteranee* who was accused of felony sexual assault and then pled to a very minor crime–I think all would be best served if the judicial process played itself out and a person accused of this sort of crime could salvage his name if he is never convicted.
*Restaurants fail for many reasons. I am not sure why Cafe Med failed. But I would not doubt that the bad pub from the rape case hurt it badly enough to push it under.
What Rich said. What I don’t understand about this story is why does the school have the teacher up for discharge before the case has played out. I agree that the school’s hands are tied and suspension without pay is warranted, but if the charges prove to be false he should be reinstated with full back pay.
Hey guys,
The press conference happened. I’ll have a short story on it tomorrow, but there wasn’t a lot of new information so I don’t see a point in a breaking news story.
The one piece I guess is that he was placed on paid admin leave in September when the allegation happened and based on the investigation, the decision to charge, they have placed him on unpaid leave and started dismissal proceedings.
Davis teacher charged with inappropriately touching 16 year old male student. He will according to the court be arraigned in February, so we might not know much for awhile.
It would seem that the District could have added the additional info which indicates that an investigation was done, etc. rather than what it sounded like, reacting to accusations without investigation. I still believe innocent until proven guilty.
And wonder why the Board member spoke up for the media?
Do you know if the 16 year old was currently one of Mr. O’Brien’s students? It’s just that most 16 year olds are at the high school not junior high.
I’m not understanding why the district feels that just because the teacher has been charged that he now has to be dismissed (??). As far as I thought, being charged with something does not equal being guilty of something, and when I’ve sat on a jury, there are specific instructions that you cannot impute guilt to someone just because they have been charged. Why is the standard any lower with the school district? Because–what if he is innocent?!?
It seems like this guy’s career is ruined either way, and if this situation ends up coming down to a vindictive kid, this is horribly tragic and unfair.
A friend of mine whose daughter attends Harper told me today that the kids are being asked to come forward if they have been touched inappropriately by this teacher. To me, this sounds like a leading question (and has shades of the McMartin preschool incident cited above).
I agree with KSmith. This sounds like a leading question.
Thank you for the update, David.
Mr. O.B., if you’re reading this, hang in there. Have faith that it will all turn out okay. Many believe in you.
“What if you defend him on that blog, and he really did it? Won’t you feel foolish?” Someone asked me yesterday.
What if no one supported him, and he was innocent? That was my reply. I am not close personal pals with Mr. O.B. But I spoke with him many times when he taught my son, then my daughter. He was kind, professional, passionate about teaching. When my son started seventh grade, a group of kids were a little shy about going out on the Holmes lunch area. The older kids were boisterous, and a tad intimidating. Mr. O.B. gave up his own personal lunch hour to supervise them while a group of them ate lunch and listened to CD’s in his classroom. Eventually, they got up their nerve to go eat lunch in the lunch yard. How many teachers do you know that care enough to do that?
My daughter will be embarrassed that I tell this tale, but she’ll be okay. She asked Mr. O.B. only one time if she could talk to him about an assignment after class, but that particular day he was already busy. So she copied someone elses’s work, and he told her she’d get an F or she’d have to re-do a new assignment. I spoke with him about this on the phone, and I sided with him. I spoke with my daughter about consequences for bad choices. She did do the make up assignment at a lower grade. I did not harass the principal about Mr. O.B., like other helicopter parents perhaps may have. I felt he did the right thing.
There are other anecdotes about this fine teacher, and his fine work.
So, “what if ” my vibes are wrong? I’ll support Mr. O. and offer him help, because he helped my kids.
What if we all did nothing, like a reverse Kitty Genovese situation? No crime, but the crowd did not help?
I’d rather make a mistake in trusting this man. Either way, I’ll feel okay. And he’ll be okay, too.
Agree with Rich — except that this city has close to 20 years experience with John O’Brien’s exemplary work with the kids of Davis.
I remember John O’Brien from many, many years ago, before he was a teacher, when he was a completely beloved favorite counselor at Camp Putah for many summers when my kids were there. We were all so thrilled when he was hired and started as a teacher at Holmes when my son was there. When Harper opened and Mr O’Brien decided to move there, those of us with kids staying at Holmes were so sad to see him leave. He was always professional — knew how to engage kids with his warmth and humor while still being an adult, modeling and expecting responsibility and respect.
After all these many years that Mr O’Brien has done stellar work in various capacities with kids in this small town — apparently without any similar accusations, or I suspect we would have heard about them (accusations like that spread like wildfire in a town like Davis) — I find the uncorroborated allegations unbelievable.
Unfortunately, after last year’s poor decision-making by the school district and its mistreatment of a beloved coach, it is not difficult to believe the district has once again completely overreacted and treated an employee shamefully. (I believe this is largely the same School Board and administration. I don’t think the newly elected School Board members have been sworn in yet.)