A small Michigan town is being torn apart by a fight over whether to fire a school board member and six teachers, all of whom supported a fellow teacher who admitted to repeatedly having sexual relations with a 14-year-old boy in the summer of 2006. While the teachers might lose their jobs, John and Lori Janczewski, whose son was the teacher’s victim and who have led the charge against the teachers, almost lost their lives when an unknown person deliberately set fire to their house. Given the regular threats against them, they don’t think this will be the last time something very, very bad happens.
The genesis of the unrest in Rose City, Michigan, was in 2006, when Neal Erickson, who taught science and computers to 7th and 8th graders at Rose City Middle School, engaged in a summer-long sexual relationship with the Janzewski’s then-14-year-old son. In addition to repeated meetings, Erickson sent the boy text messages containing pornography and messages about the boy’s sexuality and sexual relations.
Although the Janczewki’s noticed a change in their son’s behavior, they didn’t find out what caused it until he had gone off to college. At that point, someone anonymously mailed an obscene picture of the boy to the school board and superintendent. After being arrested, Erickson, who is now 38, pleaded guilty to a single count of criminal sexual conduct, and was eventually sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison.
Ordinarily, that would have been the end of the matter but in Rose City things took a turn for the worse. Erickson was well-liked at Rose City Middle School — so much so that six teachers and a school board member sat with his family in court. In addition, the six teachers wrote letters to the judge supporting him and asking for a lesser sentence.
John and Lori Janczewki stand by their fire-bombed home
Teacher Harriet Coe wrote one of the letters. In it, she apparently stated that “Neal has plead [sic] guilty for his one criminal offense but he is not a predator. This was an isolated incidence [sic]. He understands the severity of his action and is sincere in his desire to make amends….” Ignoring a teacher’s appalling illiteracy, how someone can call a long summer of pedophile rape an “isolated incidence” is incomprehensible.
(Read More: Teacher Caught Having Sex With Student 25 Times, After Mother Finds Shocking Photos On Son’s Phone.)
It was certainly incomprehensible to the Janczewski’s and to the other parents in the community. The Circuit Court Judge, Michael Baumgartner, was just as disturbed by the teachers’ actions. At the sentencing, he explicitly stated that he could not believe that the teachers were supporting Erickson, since there was no question about his guilt. “I’m appalled and ashamed that the community could rally around, in this case, you,” he said. “What you did was a jab in the eye with a sharp stick to every parent who trusts a teacher.”
Parents in the small community agree with Judge Baumgartner. Most have been joining with the Janczewskis, to demand that the teachers be fired and the board member get dismissed.
The school board will be voting tonight about whether to fire the teachers for supporting a pedophile. The board feels it’s between a rock and a hard place. If it doesn’t fire the teachers, families have threatened to pull their children out of the district, which will cost the district money. However, because the board isn’t sure that the letter-writing, standing alone, is a firing offense, if it does fire the teachers, it will almost certainly be sued, which is something it can’t afford.
Neal Erickson, admitted pedophile
Meanwhile, the Janczewski’s are fighting their own battle. Since they began to demand that the teachers be fired and the board member dismissed, not only was their house almost burned down, but they’ve also been receiving a barrage of threats.
The fire was a terrifying experience. Speaking to Glenn Beck, Janczewski described what happened. ““At one thirty in the morning on a Saturday, I was awoken to a bomb sound going off,” an obviously emotion Janczewski said. “I went to the window to find my garage was on fire and engulfed in flames, my camper and the side of my house…If I wouldn’t have woken up, we could’ve all died.”
The notes and letters don’t raise such immediate fears, but they are still very concerning. The Janczewski’s house has been spray-painted with the letters YWP and ITY, which stand for “You Will Pay” and “I Told You.”
The school board will be voting Tuesday night about what steps to take with regard to the teachers who wrote letters on behalf of a confessed pedophile and the board member who sat with Erickson’s family. (As to that, the board member said he was present there, not for Erickson himself, but for Erickson’s family, which was shocked and saddened by Erickson’s conduct.)
The school board will consider the matter on Tuesday night.
Since the board’s main concerns appear to be financial (see video, above), and since it’s caught between a rock and a hard place with each action containing a financial risk, we suggest that it stop considering things financially and start considering them morally. As an impassioned Janczewski said to Glenn Beck, “Since when do we put a price on a child? Since when? It is wrong. How many teachers are going to turn a blind eye? These teachers cannot be trusted, they cannot be trusted.”
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