Stonington school board to consider investigation of how Chokas complaints were handled
Stonington — The Board of Education is scheduled to discuss and possibly take action Thursday night on beginning an independent investigation into how school officials handled complaints alleging former high school teacher Timothy Chokas had inappropriately touched numerous female students dating back to at least 2013.
Board member Alisa Morrison, who has called for an independent investigation since The Day revealed in June the circumstances surrounding Chokas’ January resignation, requested the item be placed on the agenda for the 7 p.m. meeting at the former Pawcatuck Middle School.
The meeting comes five days after The Day published a story that revealed that during a Nov. 22 state Freedom of Information Commission hearing, high school Principal Mark Friese and Superintendent of Schools Van Riley testified under oath that they did not consider various complaints about inappropriate touching and comments lodged against Chokas in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019 as complaints. Instead, they considered them “reports,” “interactions with people” and “concerns” expressed by students and others.
Their categorizations meant that these complaints were not placed in Chokas’ personnel file and not released to The Day when it filed Freedom of Information requests for all complaints and disciplinary actions in his file on two occasions earlier this year.
Morrison, whose initial call for an independent investigation was not supported by her fellow board members, said Wednesday that she requested it be reconsidered because two board members, Jack Morehouse and newly elected Heidi Simmons, have now said they support an investigation.
“We owe it to our community to look into this,” she said.
Morrison added that she does not have confidence that if a student makes a complaint today against a staff member that it would be handled properly because the same school officials would handle the complaint and there does not appear to be a procedure to do so.
“This goes beyond policy. We have to give kids the confidence that if they come forward with a complaint, they will be taken seriously. I don’t think they have that now,” she said.
She added one solution may be to have some sort of ombudsman handle a complaint.
Morrison said she would like to learn how the other four members — Chairwoman Alexa Garvey, Craig Esposito, Candace Anderson and Farouk Rajab — now feel about an investigation. In addition, she said she would like to start the process of gathering information about what would be involved in launching an investigation such as the process, time to conduct one, cost and who the board would hire, in case the board decides to proceed.
In the past, board members have said they wanted to wait to see the outcome of a review of the school system’s policies and procedures regarding the handling of the Chokas matter by state Child Advocate Sarah Eagan. Eagan, who began her review this summer after becoming aware of The Day’s reporting on the issue, recently interviewed Riley, Friese and school officials. Her report is not yet complete.
An independent investigation would differ from Eagan's review in several crucial ways. It would seek out and interview students, teachers, coaches and administrators to determine if they filed complaints and how the complaints were handled, which is something Eagan's office is not doing. An independent probe also would review school system records, including personnel and other files, where complaints of misconduct and discipline are kept. In contrast, OCA is reviewing the school's policies and procedures and talking to school officials to see if those were followed, and developing a set of recommendations.
Morrison said the OCA recommendations will be very helpful in developing a policy.
At the beginning of November, Morehouse submitted three questions to Riley, saying he believes “the answers to these questions will help shed light on the seriousness of this issue.” He wanted to know when Riley first received student complaints, how many he received and whom he notified, and requested a response by Thursday’s meeting. The questions are on Thursday's agenda, but Riley and Friese already have testified they never received any complaints, despite documents that show complaints were made, and testimony at the Nov. 22 FOI hearing by former high school student Olivia Bayer, who said she and other students made complaints about misconduct by Chokas to Friese and high school Director of Guidance Margo Crowley in 2017.
Numerous girls have told The Day they were repeatedly touched by Chokas and saw him touching others dating back to 2004. The complaints include that Chokas allegedly placed his legs on girls’ laps, touched their backs, thighs and stomachs, patted their buttocks, massaged their shoulders, leaned up against them and tickled them. They also allege he asked about their boyfriends, invited them to have breakfast in his classroom, struck girls in the buttocks with a cane he was using and asked them to call him “Uncle Chokas.” The alleged touching took place in his classroom and an adjacent photo darkroom and during golf and soccer practice.
After a January 2019 student complaint, Chokas was allowed to resign with his full salary of $81,396 and benefits through the end of the school year. The school system also agreed not to fire him or disclose any information concerning his employment to anyone, except as required by law.
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