Susan Martin, principal of St. John LaLande Catholic School in Blue Springs, has been suspended while the state investigates allegations reported to the Missouri Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline and the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department of Human Services.
A parent who wrote one of three such reports said the allegations involved neither physical nor sexual abuse by Martin herself, but serious, ongoing physical harassment that had not been addressed by school administrators throughout the year.
The mother, whose sixth-grader will begin attending another school at the end of spring break Tuesday, said she ultimately filed a complaint with the state because “I don’t think they’re providing child safety, and I don’t think she took the steps advised by the state. Our plan was to stay with our believing family, but that’s not what we can do.
She didn’t want to be named, even though the school obviously knows who she is, “because I know the power of the Catholic Church” to retaliate against those who report wrongdoing.
Martin is not solely responsible, she said. “The priest, I received 11 phone calls and he never called me back. Susan said, “Father is too busy for this sort of thing. »
It was Father Sean McCaffery, parish priest of St. John’s, who announced Martin’s suspension in a letter to parish families just before Easter. “I am writing to inform you of recent developments regarding our school administration,” he wrote.
“On Monday,” McCaffery’s letter said, “a report was filed with the Division of Children and Families, triggering an investigation. As a precaution, our Director, Ms. Susan Martin, has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of this investigation. Please be assured that the safety and well-being of our students remains our top priority and we are committed to fully cooperating with the investigation process.
Meanwhile, the letter said: “Mr. Joe Monachino will assist in administrative duties.” Monachino retired from his position as principal of Pius X High School last year. “As we navigate this situation, I will keep you informed of any developments that I am authorized to share. In the event of a prolonged absence, I will keep you informed of our school management arrangements.
Neither Martin nor McCaffery responded to a message seeking comment on the investigation.
“They wrote it off as an accident.”
Last summer, I wrote about the school’s expulsion of a student due to disagreements between the new pastor, McCaffery, and that child’s parents.
Patrick R. Miller, in-house counsel for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, said in an interview Friday that he couldn’t say much more than what McCaffery’s letter said, other than to reiterate that “the safety of children is the priority.”
“We welcome the investigation,” he said, and “must be confident that the state will do a good job.”
This is Martin’s third year living in St. John’s. Previously, she was principal of St. Gregory Barbarigo Catholic School in Maryville, Missouri.
The same parent who filed one of the complaints with the state told me that three other families — not the same three who reported Martin to CPS — had left the school this year because of similar problems.
Her son was first bullied in September, she said, when two other boys threw him against a bookshelf in a classroom where no teachers were present. He split his head and was bleeding, she said, but “they wrote it down as an accident” after one of the boys responsible reported it to the school nurse and said he didn’t know how it happened.
It was other students who saw that it was not an accident and told their parents who let the boy’s mother know what had really happened.
Her son, she said, had been threatened into silence about it and a series of other attacks since then, including once when he came home with a black and blue rib cage.
‘They beat me’ in St. John LaLande
“Susan knows all this. She said: “We can’t prove it. This is just hearsay. » On another occasion, the woman said, the same boys threatened to beat her son if he did not watch a video showing famous rapper Drake’s penis, which he then did.
The final straw, she said, was when her son told her, “I don’t want to go back to that building” and “I don’t like who I am anymore.” I do things I shouldn’t do and they beat me if I don’t. He had also searched for “funny” suicide memes in response to the situation, and of course it scared him.
Another student was repeatedly pushed into a locker, she said, and a third had the bathroom door kicked in.
“Nothing has been done” to address these issues, she said. “In my job I am a mandatory journalist myself, so if the Catholic Church doesn’t do anything about this…”
She didn’t finish her sentence, and now her son won’t finish the year at St. John’s.
“He’s relieved.” But she is sad and upset that it has come to this, as any parent would be. “We had a wonderful school.”
All I will add is that keeping children safe is not just about committing to caring for them or having the right policies on paper.
Bullies of any age are sneaky, otherwise they wouldn’t get away with their transgressions. But it’s not 1950 anymore, and no school official, collared or not, can afford to ignore how deadly bullying can be.
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