Mayor Randy Brown said a female district employee claimed to him the ETSD personnel director sexually harassed her and other employees.
Mayor Randy Brown is calling for an immediate special meeting of Evesham’s Board of Education to appoint an independent third-party to investigate allegations of sexual harassment against the district’s director of personnel.
Brown called for the investigative third party at a press conference on Jan. 12, which BOE vice president Sandy Student and BOE members Nichole Stone and William McGoey also attended.
During the press conference, Brown described how in mid-December a female employee of the district spoke to him in person, claiming ETSD personnel director and affirmative action officer Richard Dantinne Jr. sexually harassed her and other district employees in 2015.
Upon receiving that information, Brown said he immediately alerted Evesham Township’s solicitor, manager and chief of police with the information and sought guidance via his official township email. Brown shared the email with The Sun and other members of the media at the press conference.
Brown did not name the accuser at the press conference or the email, referring to her only as “Jane Doe.”
After a short phone conversation with Chief of Police Christopher Chew the day after sending his email, Brown said he soon gave an official statement to the police department.
Brown, whose wife teaches in the school district and whose mother taught in the district for more than three decades, said he believes the individual who made the allegations against Dantinne reached out to Brown because district employees are “scared to death to speak up.”
“They don’t want to be sent from one classroom in one school to another because they speak up. They don’t want to be fired if they don’t have tenure,” Brown said.
According to Brown, from what he knows, the allegations against Dantinne came from “young teachers” who were early in their careers.
After the press conference, Police Lt. Joseph Friel confirmed to The Sun that Evesham Police conducted an investigation regarding Brown’s claims, but Friel said the investigation is closed, and there were no criminal charges filed.
Dantinne submitted his resignation to the BOE at its Dec. 15 meeting, days before Brown learned of the allegations against Dantinne and before Brown spoke to police. The only reason for the resignation listed on the BOE’s agenda was “personal.”
Dantinne could not be reached for comment for this story. His resignation to the district is listed as effective Feb. 1. ETSD Superintendent John Scavelli Jr. would could not confirm if Dantinne was still working at any district building on day-to-day basis.
In response to the allegations against Dantinne, Scavelli said any such matters are confidential in nature and the district is prohibited from discussing them in public.
However, speaking generally, Scavelli said the district has “very specific policies and procedures” for dealing with allegations of sexual harassment.
Scavelli said whenever a sexual harassment allegation is made, an investigation is triggered and the individuals involved are provided an opportunity to represent themselves or be represented during the process.
According to the school district website, any employee with information of potential sexual harassment of a staff member must report the information to a building principal, the employee’s immediate supervisor or the district’s affirmative action officer.
In the event of a report of sexual harassment against the district’s affirmative action officer, as is potentially the case with Dantinne, district policy states the superintendent will designate a school official to assume the affirmative action officer’s responsibilities during the investigation.
According to Scavelli, once investigations are complete and conclusions are finalized, “appropriate action is then taken.”
Furthermore, Scavelli said if employee(s) making claims are unsatisfied with the outcome, they could appeal to the BOE.
Scavelli also said should an investigation ever reveal potentially criminal conduct, the district would contact police immediately.
“Let me make this very clear — we investigate any and all allegations with regard to sexual harassment in a timely manner and in accordance with board policy and the law,” Scavelli said.
Scavelli said he was neither notified nor invited to the press conference on Thursday, learning about the meeting only after it had concluded.
Scavelli said boards of education and BOE members cannot discuss personnel matters in public and cannot discuss individual employees’ performance in public “except at a meeting where the employee has been given appropriate notice of the meeting and the employee requests the discussion occur in public.”
According to Scavelli, employee grievances and affirmative action investigations are to remain confidential.
“In my opinion, a news conference appears to be a serious breach of that confidentiality,” Scavelli said.
Dantinne first came to the ETSD in early 2015, after having previously served as principal at Main Road School in Franklin Township.
During the BOE meeting where the ETSD first hired Dantinne, Student was the lone BOE member present to vote against the move. At the time, Student cited a lawsuit settlement from several months prior where the Franklin BOE agreed to pay $75,000 to a family that alleged the Franklin district did not effectively address race-based bullying several white students had aimed at an African-American student at Main Road School from 2005 to 2009.
Before joining the ETSD in 2007, Scavelli also worked in the Franklin district for nearly 12 years, serving his last three years there as superintendent.
