By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org
    
PITTSBURGH – A private investigation into allegations that a Pittsburgh Public Schools police officer sexually abused students has revealed that the district has known about the problem for more than a decade.
 
“Internal district communication obtained by the Tribune-Review show district officials knew about at least one incident involving (Robert) Lellock and a male student in a North Side school in 1999,” Triblive.com reports.
 
Lellock, 43, was suspended with pay July 25 after a former male student came forward with allegations of sexual abuse. He’s worked for the district since 1990, and makes $51,180 per year. The district recently hired Corporate Security and Investigations, a private firm, to look into accusations he sexually assaulted students, the news site reports.
 
Pittsburgh police are also investigating, and the district attorney is trying to determine what school officials knew about Lellock’s past. The school police officer was suspended by the district for 20 days in 1999 as a result of an internal investigation which “showed Lellock pulled a student from class and wrestled with him in a closet,” according to Triblive.com.
 
School and court records show Lellock worked as a driver for a former superintendent between 2005 and 2010, and became the legal custodian to a child in 2008, which typically involves a background check.
 
The suspended school police officer has not been charged with a crime.
 
We’re in no position to determine whether Lellock is guilty or not. Hopefully with three ongoing investigations, authorities will discover the truth. But it’s disturbing that school officials knew of the potential danger of employing Lellock as a police officer after the first allegations surfaced, yet kept him on the payroll.
 
Judging by comments from Lellock’s union leaders, we’re sure they’re fighting to protect their member.
 
Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers president Nina Esposito-Visgitis told the news site the district wants to balance the safety of students with Lellock’s right to due process.  
 
“We know that child molestation charges are serious and must be handled urgently and thoroughly, and we want to assure every parent the district is doing its best to protect the students,” Esposito-Visgitis said.
 
Since when is the union president the spokesperson for the school district? Esposito-Visgitis likely wants to get on the district’s side of this scandal before it gets ugly. That’s how union bosses play both sides.
 
They assure the public that “we” (school board and union) are doing our best to protect students, while using every available legal loophole behind closed doors to shaft the district and get their member off the hook, or at least a sweet financial deal if he’s forced out.
 
It’s union doubletalk.
 
Because of union rules, the district cannot simply dismiss Lellock on its own terms. School officials are bound to a lengthy “due process” that clearly favors the employee over the school district and its students. It’s a system that allows dangerous employees to continue to work with children.
 
We think there is something seriously wrong with that.