A female high school teacher at Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore has been charged with sexual abuse of a minor student, the Baltimore Sun reports.
Lynette Nicole Trotta, 33, taught science at the Catholic high school until she was suspended following the allegations in this case. A librarian at the school has also been suspended as the school conducts an investigation into whether she knew about any behavior that should have been reported to authorities well before she came forward earlier this week.
The student is 17 years old, and police allege Ms Trotta had sex with him in her car and in her classroom at the school.
We reported earlier this year about a music teacher in Montgomery County, Md., who was accused of abusing children he taught. That story also involved school employees who probably should have reported the music teacher’s unusual behavior to authorities but didn’t.
In addition, we reported on a new law in Illinois, which will take effect on July 1, that requires school employees, including teachers and librarians, to receive training on their mandated reporting requirements under state law during their first year of employment at a school and every five years thereafter.
At Archbishop Curley, Sean Caine, a spokesman for the archdiocese, expressed concern that the employee didn’t come forward more quickly, because archdiocesan staff are trained to do exactly that. “We will be further investigating now that the police have given us the go ahead to do our own investigation,” the Sun quoted him as saying.
Excerpts from a statement by the Archdiocese of Baltimore
The Archdiocese of Baltimore has issued a statement about this incident and posted it on the website for Archbishop Curley High School. In addition to the information provided above, the following statements were made.
- Ms Trotta has been a science teacher at the high school since January 2007.
- The librarian mentioned in this story reported the allegations of sexual abuse to school officials on April 1.
- The school immediately notified the archdiocese, who then reported the allegations to the Baltimore Police Department and Child Protective Services of the Department of Social Services, as required by archdiocese policy and Maryland law.
- The archdiocese has solicited any information about this case from members of the school community.
- The note, apparently written by Mr Caine, was unfortunately cut off mid-sentence.
