The case of a suburban Berwyn elementary-school band teacher accused of sexually abusing 16 female pupils between 1998 and 2003 is more than an exercise in criminal justice. It has raised serious questions about two powerful forces: the desire of parents to protect their children and the tendency of institutions to make judgments better trusted to outside professionals.
Before this case goes in toto to Lawyerland, with lawsuits littering 26th Street, it’s crucial to note that not all the facts are yet known. School officials and police offer different accounts of what was alleged about Robert J. Sperlik Jr. and when. The 45-year-old teacher, now jailed, allegedly restrained girls and improperly touched them. Some Berwyn parents, though, suspect a witch hunt and have asked whether the charges are exaggerated.
Cops and courts will resolve those clashing views of what occurred. What should rivet officials of every school, every organization and every institution that deals with kids is the question of whether school officials had reason to suspect abuse but didn’t aggressively react.
Berwyn Director of Public Safety Frank Marzullo has said school personnel records show that officials of South Berwyn School District 100 had reprimanded Sperlik in 2001 for “inappropriate touching” of pupils, but didn’t notify police or the state Department of Children and Family Services as required by law.
That explosive but vague phrase “inappropriate touching” has sparked copious speculation and innuendo that will be easier to evaluate when district records become public. Same for what Berwyn police say is a letter written several years ago by one of Sperlik’s pupils, reportedly alleging that Sperlik had abused her. The family of the girl, now 15, has filed a federal lawsuit accusing District 100 officials of inaction after receiving the letter.
Neither school officials nor the police have released the letter, and the girl’s family doesn’t have a copy. Thomas Melody, the school district’s attorney, says the letter doesn’t mention alleged sexual abuse and adds that officials didn’t believe contact between Sperlik and pupils warranted notification of police or DCFS. “If it appeared to us that something bad was happening to a kid, we would have reported it,” Melody says. “We understand when we have to report to DCFS.”
School officials may indeed understand a 30-year-old state law that requires them to report suspected child abuse or neglect to police and DCFS. Last year, in Cook County alone, schools made 5,008 such reports, according to DCFS.
As well they should. If the crisis involving abuse by clerics of the Roman Catholic and several other churches teaches anything, it is that superiors who kept quiet created nothing but problems for themselves. Inaction by bishops who ignored serious allegations against clerics set up still more innocents for future attacks by the predators–and invited massive damage awards.
Someone who works with children and is guilty of improper contact should be rooted out. Or, if not guilty, he or she should be exonerated. Sperlik, it appears, wound up with some sort of reprimand–but with no outside judgment of his culpability or innocence.
Police and child-welfare workers frequently field such reports and over the last 15 years have become more adept at distinguishing fact from fiction. Early on, what, exactly, would have been wrong with Berwyn school officials’ calling police and DCFS, reporting that they had received some sort of accusation (if those turn out to be the facts), and inviting the designated professionals to decide whether criminal conduct occurred or whether no legal action was required.
Sexual-abuse crises should teach all who work with children that the last thing they want to possess is evidence they haven’t shared. Not only because their silence may be illegal, but because those who entrust their children to them expect them to work in the sunshine.
When all the facts and documents become public, the actions of Berwyn school officials will, or won’t, be judged legal, responsible and reasonable. Those are three different standards.
But quite apart from the murky Berwyn case:
Anyone, anywhere, who says, “We handle accusations of possible child abuse ourselves” invites public suspicion. That lesson ought to reverberate wherever adults supervise kids.
