001the purpose of tonight's meeting is to share information and provide some additional expertise as we develop a deeper understanding of mr. Van Co horns behavior and try to ascertain definitively whether mr. van qohor harmed any children please know that the district is committed to being as open and transparent as possible we will share as much information as we can and provide as many resources as we are able as we work through this event tonight's agenda includes a presentation by dr. Barbara Rick ler as I noted in the letter I sent August 21st dr. Rick ler is a board certified child adolescent and adult psychiatrist she's a Clinical Instructor at the Yale Child Student Center and operates a private practice in a nearby community dr. Rick ler is widely regarded in the state and serves as
002a psychiatric consultant to a number of school districts also joining us this evening is our school resource officer rich Ross rich is a member of the Wilton Police Department with whom we have been in daily contact and we are working with them as we learn new information I'd also like to take just a moment to recognize our Board of Education chairman Bruce likely vice chair Christine Finkelstein secretary Laura chuan and members Laurie Rothstein Chris Straub and Glen Hemmerle at the table this evening is also Miss Ann Paul our assistant superintendent for special services this evening we'll begin with a presentation by dr. Rick ler when dr. Rick ler concludes I have a series of questions that have come in over the last number of days I will go through that list of questions and then
003we'll open up the floor to any additional questions our goal is to provide you with as much information as possible and to help you feel reassured about the safety procedures and protocols we have in place here in Wilton Public Schools there is a possibility that some parents may have questions that we can't answer if that is the case it won't be because we don't want to answer it'll be because we either don't know the answer or we are bound by confidentiality restrictions my hope is that we're able to address parents fears and concerns and provide a process for having any specific concerns addressed now before I invite dr. Rick Lee to the podium I'd like to share with you some new information that I learned this afternoon I received a phone call from the attorney
004Jason Sheffield who is representing mr. Van Co Horne he called me at the request of detective John Carrero the state police officer who's conducting the investigation into mr. Benko horns online behavior attorney Sheffield noted that he is deeply aware of the concerns of many of us have about the questions as to whether mr. Van Co Horne physically harmed any children he reported that mr. Van Co Horne volunteered to submit to a polygraph test and responded to questions about his interactions with children attorney Sheffield reported that the results of the polygraph supported his own belief that mr. van Gogh Horne did not inappropriately touch any children the information shared by attorney Sheffield supports what we know so far and that is that we have not yet learned any information that would lead us to believe mr.
005Van Co Horne was inappropriate with any children while an employee here at Wilton public schools as you may have read in the letters I sent to the community and you will hear again tonight we have put in place a process to investigate any specific concerns raised by parents at this time I'd like to invite to the podium dr. Barbara Rick ler when she concludes I'll return to review the questions that I've received welcome dr. Rick lair well thank you for honoring me with this invitation I've been doing consultation work for the Wilton Board of Education for over 20 years so I'm very familiar with the schools and the and the students and families that that are here and I've also often gotten over the years to know the staff and I've always been very impressed
006with their level of integrity during the past 96 hours or so since I found out that I was going to be here tonight I've been doing some more research and learning myself about this subject so I'm going to share with you some of the things that I've learned because there were certain terms that I heard when I was first told about this investigation that I knew nothing about so I'm going to try and share that information with you so I'm just going to start with a summary the incident at Miller Driscoll school in Wilton involves mr. Van Co Horne a preschool prepare a professional of seven years he's charged with possession and distribution of child pornography no offenses took place on school property and when school administrators found out about the investigation by law enforcement
007they handled it exceptionally putting him on administrative leave immediately there's no evidence that mr. von Coe Horne sexually or physically abused any children the scientific research shows that this is common this is common of child pornography users as less than 20% are thought to commit hands-on offences while in the heat of the moment parents may want additional measures to be taken none would have prevented this issue from happening unfortunately preventing or identifying individuals who have no criminal background and commit their crimes at home is an extremely difficult task the district has safeguards in place to ensure students safety Pierce's supervision among teachers which is already in place at Miller Driscoll seems to be the best preventive measure so just a few case details that I'll go over about the charges there is a charge of
008first degree possession of child pornography so let me tell you what that means first degree means 50 or more images or one or more images depicting infliction of serious physical injury now each possession charge is a felony and if convicted each requires some form of sexual offender registration sex offender probation and treatment and mandatory jail time with the popularity of internet movies and movie clips especially in the online pornography business the law actually considers a two-minute internet movie or video to be a compilation of hundreds of images now in terms of the the definitions and the age the by the federal standards child pornography refers to sexualized images of individuals under 18 now some states have lowered the bar to 16 but the federal standard and most of the people who are caught downloading child
009pornography are brought up on federal charges because there's a federal dragnet that I'll explain to you and this is one of the things that I learned about the standard is 18 under 18 now another thing that's important and I'll get into this in a few minutes is that there is a very very detailed as you review the literature there's a very detailed topography of people who download child pornographic images and this is often what researchers use to determine the seriousness of the offence and the likelihood that a person who downloaded child pornography also committed what we call any kind of contact offence now you one of the things that I learned in reviewing the material is that you have to be extremely careful as in any scientific field about interpreting statistics so I'll give you
010an example we might say that people might say is smoking marijuana a gateway to abusing heroin so that might be a question that a researcher might ask now the fact is that every person who is a heroin abuser almost invariably at some time in their life has smoked marijuana so in that case you might say there's a hundred percent association however if you look at it from the other direction which is that do marijuana users invariably become heroin users the answer to that is most definitely no a very very small percentage so something that can be a strong association in one direction may not be a very strong association in another and that's what you begin to see the more you learn about this literature so let me just go through a couple of points
011that people may have been asking over the first several days which was number one was my child a victim ie touched or photographed inappropriately and the response would be no according to dr. Smith's August 20th letter the authorities have informed us that there is no evidence that mr. Vaughn ko horn produced pornography himself and no Wilson children were photographed or harmed now with dr. Smith's statement about the lie-detector test it may add some further credibility beyond to that statement didn't anything happen on school property No according to dr. Smith's August 20th letter the charges stem from mr. Vaughn ko horns behavior at his residences and not while he was at work he added the district monitors network access and all employees internet usage that take place through our networks while at school question number three
012even if nothing physical happened to my child how do I know that he wasn't thinking inappropriately about my child to that the responses we don't know whether he had thoughts about your child but we do know that his deviant behavior was enacted in his residence so there's no thought police but everything all the available evidence right now points to that happening in his private residence fourth question how do we know this won't happen again according to an interview with Good Morning Welton dr. Smith assured that given the structure of the building and the number of adults that are required to work with these pre schoolchildren I don't think there's lots of time for adults to be alone with kids there's a lot of peer supervision I do believe that there was some behavior of some
013good I do believe that if there was some behavior that was of concern it would have come to light and it would have been addressed how did mr. von cohort get hired in the first place excuse me according to that letter of org I guess 20th from dr. Smith mr. Van Co Horne underwent a thorough background check prior to gaining employment at the Wilton public schools in 2007 and there were no red flags or records of previous illegal behavior that surfaced question number six if Chiefs teachers are going to supervise or monitor each other what should they be looking for there are no clear-cut signs that someone uses child pornography however research should suggest that the risk to commit a hands-on sexual crime results from the interplay between deviant sexual interests antisocial tendencies and difficulty
014in the ability to control one's behavior so back to this idea that and and I hope it doesn't sound in any way like I'm trying to minimize someone downloading child pornography because that's an obvious problem and that's what got us here to this meeting in the first place but in in in terms of the research demonstrating what are the factors that move people into more contact offenses the the picture is much more complicated than that and there tend to be other factors that need to be present and the last question how do we move forward what do we need to do and I I think that as dr. Smith said in his the district is committed to the safety of Welton's children and mr. Benko horn will not be permitted to be around your children
015well that's obvious but we're also going to get into maybe talking about other things too to look for now I'm going to talk a little bit about potential proposed solutions that parents may have been thinking or talking about with each other over time one potential solution is stricter and for enhanced background checks for example lie-detector tests pre high and pre hiring mental health evaluations is that a reasonable consideration the and I'm going to tell you what the pros and cons are of each suggestion the pro of that is that the greater likelihood of identifying individuals who are at risk for deviant behavior but this is not a guarantee so you're increasing the effectiveness of the filter by doing pre hiring lie-detector tests and mental health evaluations so that could be a possible advantage however the
016disadvantage is that it is expensive its time-consuming and may actually deter qualified applicants often the applicant has to pay for these evaluations m''m ployment and ultimately the question is would this have prevented the present incident possibly okay another potential idea that someone might have is are more frequent background checks provided so by the way I'm taking some of these questions from ones that had been submitted to dr. Paul and dr. rap schinsky so the the positive of that intervention is that the district would be aware of any new offenses offenses related to the safety of students would be brought to the district's attention at the time of the investigation has happened in this case the disadvantage is that it's expensive would only identify individuals who had an official record of any illegal behavior during the
017time of their employment so the ultimate question again would this have prevented the present incident and the answer to that is no another thing video cameras throughout the school a positive record all incidents that could and that that the presence of those video video cameras could potentially act as a deterrent the negative this raises many issues of privacy especially in areas like the bathroom unlike a high school where cameras are used to monitor incidents between students or on a bus in a preschool they'd be used solely to monitor teachers which does not create a trusting work atmosphere would this have prevented the present incident no teachers have to pair up with pair up when dealing with students a positive is that increased peer monitoring and supervision could be a good thing a potential perpetrator would
018not be alone with a child excuse me the con is that it's a very inefficient use of staff it would not have prevented this current episode another thing that someone might bring up that had been raised with the question is should there be screening about gay teachers are there any pros to that absolutely not are there cons absolutely discrimination there's no relationship between being a pedophile and/or child pornography use and homosexuality would have had no bearing on this situation whatsoever another question no unnecessary touching in other words no hugs no lap sitting and no holding hands the pro of that is that it reduces physical contact with staff the con which is something I take very very seriously is that it reduces the nurturing aspect necessary for a successful preschool it inhibits teachers ability to
019help kids also pull up their pants in the bathroom and help them with their clothes when they need it but really creates a very very different kind of environment in a preschool which seems to be antithetical to the goals that are being promoted would that have in any way not having contact with that in any way have prevented mr. van Coleman's use of child pornography in his residence no now as far as child pornography use and pedophilia there are a lot of questions that were submitted about that according to a 2012 review by forensic psychiatrist Alberto Tamburini child pornography offensives have increased dramatically over the past ten years even as the rates of child sexual abuse have decreased significantly in the same period so porn has gone up child say context child sexual offenses have
020gone down this raises a very interesting research question which is is the widespread by the way child he unfortunately is an industry in our country that is worth billions of dollars the internet is not supervised no one owns the Internet anybody can can get on these networks and it also behooves us to think very carefully for those people who have middle schoolers and high schoolers or even younger children who are very adept at using the computer you would be shocked at how if you don't already know this how easy it is to get onto these networks and since 1995 when child pornography became widely available on the internet there's been an explosion of this industry well doctor temporary Nia acknowledged recent studies which have highlighted a relationship between pedophilia and possession of child pornography he
021also wrote that a large number of individuals expressed their sexual interest in children by collecting child pornography and never engage in contact offenses a German study a couple of years earlier concluded that consuming child pornography alone is not a risk factor for committing hands-on offences at least not for those subjects who have never committed a hands-on offense before however the research is not on this is not unequivocal in 2007 a New York Times investigation noticed that previous studies based on surveys of criminal records estimated that 30 to 40 percent of those arrested for possessing child pornography also had molested children so as you can see you know the the information is not unequivocal the thing that everybody agrees and agrees on is that collecting child pornography is not an automatic gateway to committing hands-on offenses
022the differences in the literature allude to what the percentage is of people who move in that direction and what are some of the adverse conditions in the background of those people which may suggest that that shift but again in this idea of carefully looking at statistics it's important to look at the population that has been studied most of the studies are based on prison populations so by by virtue of that the data is skewed in the direction of looking at the worst the worst offenders so that's certainly going to affect the numbers okay so now I'm just going to tell you a little bit about characteristics of child pornography users am i doing okay as far as time is concerned I don't want to take up too much time okay all right so some characteristics
023of child pornography users the one thing that the literature seems to agree on is that child pornography offenders are a heterogeneous group of individuals with different levels of risk for contact offenses as to whether or not online and contact defendant offenders are similar evidence exists on both sides of the debate in a 2011 study the characteristics of online sexual offenders essentially a meta-analysis was done Canadian researchers out outlined common traits among online offenders they found that compared with offline offenders one they were more likely to be Caucasian - they were likely to be younger and that may be because younger people tend to be more adept in the online world 3 they were less likely to have experience they were less likely to have experienced physical abuse the rates of childhood sexual abuse were not
024significantly different between the groups they had the online collectors had greater victim empathy the online collectors had greater sexual deviancy the online collectors had had fewer cognitive distortions and they had slightly less emotional identification with children compared to the general population both online and offline offenders reported greater risks of childhood physical and sexual abuse themselves additionally online offenders were more likely to be as I said Caucasian younger single and unemployed compared to the general population the authors concluded many of the observed differences can be explained by assuming that online offenders compared with the offline ones have greater self-control and more psychological barriers to acting on their deviant deviant interests doctor temporary knee who I quote quoted before in other works suggested that the risk to commit a hands-on sexual crime results from the interplay between
025deviant sexual interests antisocial tendencies and those difficulties to control behavior as for motivation behind collecting child pornography sometimes it's for sexual arousal whether as a substitute or as a stimulus for sexual offending too as a part of an interest in collecting three and and this one seems to come up in virtually every everything I read about online pornography users is that there's a tremendous social incentive to connect with other people who are doing the same thing there are these what are called peer-to-peer sharing networks and they've become almost like a social club and it's a way for a person who has these interests to connect with other people unfortunately it can be the connection with other people who are doing the same thing which may serve to validate the behaviors and make them seem to
026the individual not so unique or deviant sometimes they're also part of a larger pattern of behavior including other forms of Internet addiction now I'm just going to go through a little bit of the typology that I was referring to before one one type of pornography user is sidered a browser and the features of this are that they it's a response to spam sometimes they accidentally though often this is how it happens they accidentally hit on a suspicious site and the material is unknowingly saved the level of networking by the offender is nil the the use of security measures to try and cover up it tends to be nil because they're often unaware of the mistake they made they didn't intend to do that that's nil and the nature of of the offence is considered indirect
027then there are some people who collect for the desire for private fantasy that's a conscious creation of online text or digital images there's also what's called the trawler that's a person who actively seeks child pornography using a openly available browsers then there are non secure collectors I'm not going to go through all these details but you get get the idea onto higher levels of abuse that involve contact offenses and also distribution of pornography studying pedophilia and child pornography use is difficult for many reasons first unless they have been caught people are not forthcoming about their use or actions and those that have been caught are not a representative sample of the larger population so what I was saying before researchers often look at criminal records but what someone is charged or convicted of can often
028only be a part of what they have actually done secondly as noted by dr. temperance the incidents of child pornography offenses has increased as a result of the availability affordability and annan provided by the internet those are the three A's that almost every article talks about therefore research done done on child pornography users ten years ago when access was difficult or 20 years ago before 1995 and required greater determination may not be appropriate today when the access is so much greater so in conclusion I would say that ultimately the data on a link between child pornography youths and hands-on offenses are equivocal the forensic psychiatrist dr. temporary nee summarized the fest he said to date there's no evidence of a direct causal link between internet offending and the commission of contact offenses in fact pornography
029seems to play a role in sexual offences only in individuals who are predisposed to do so if the predisposition is present then pornography use may increase the risk otherwise pornography possession alone does not a fear appear to be a sufficient sufficient condition to originate sexual offending okay so maybe I'll stop there okay okay at this time I'll share with you the questions that have come through my office and once I work through these questions if folks here in the audience still have questions for for me related to what I share with you for dr. Rick ler that would be the time to pose those questions so we have a series of questions number one what are the Wilton public school policies in place to prevent those with criminal or other questionable records from gaining employment
030Connecticut requires that any person who is hired by a local or regional Board of Education submit to a state and national criminal history record check the process includes the checking of fingerprints by the State Police Bureau of identification and the FBI the results of the criminal history check both state and federal are reported to the district all employees also submit to an identification check against the DCF sex offender registry next question post employment what procedures are in place to ensure employees remain compliant with policies in essence are there post employment background checks criminal record monitoring drug testing etc the same matters that are reviewed prior to hiring as is the standard for most school districts there is no policy to conduct post hiring checks for non-certified staff there are currently no procedures in place for
031ongoing monitoring although all employees are required to proactively self-report if they are involved in any police related matters including motor vehicle issues the state's attorney must notify the district if a certified staff member is convicted of a crime involving child abuse or neglect DCF must also notified the district if an allegation of abuse or neglect against a certified staff member is substantiated typically if police become aware of an issue they may notify the district while the investigation is under way certified staff members are monitored by the Connecticut State Department of Education when they apply for recertification at the time of recertification DCF reports on whether individuals have any open reports on them if one is discovered the district is notified generally if that happens the employee is placed on administrative leave during the period of
032the investigation are there special or additional pre or post employment checks or training for those that work with our most vulnerable children ie the children in our preschool presently the process is the same for all employees fingerprinting criminal and DCF background checks and careful reference checks reference checks are part of the standard process for hiring how was the pornography in possession of air vodka Horne discovered were there pictures of Wilton public school children were the pictures or film resident on Wilton public school media we learned on June 11 2014 that mr. von coke horn was under investigation when officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Connecticut state police arrived at Miller driscoll school to interview him we learned they had paid a visit to mr. Benko Horne's home earlier that day at which
033time they confiscated his personal computer according to Connecticut State Police Detective Carrero there is currently no evidence to suggest that any Wilton students were involved in mr. Benko Horne's activities with regard to the computer mr. von coke horn used at work we confiscated his computer on June 11th and have asked officials to determine if any illicit materials have been stored on it I should note that mr. Banco horn shared a computer with several of his colleagues and did not have sole access to a computer owned by the Wilton public schools when was the Board of Education informed of the circumstances surrounding erich von coe horns arrest the board was notified on 3rd of Thursday August 14th which was the day we were notified than an arrest was imminent some parents have asked why the district
034didn't notify parents in the community when it first learned that mr. von coke horn was under investigation the state police requested that the district keep the information confidential in an effort to protect the integrity of the investigation were there any indications prior to the arrest of inappropriate behavior by Erich von Korn was Erich von Korn given favorable performance reviews by Wilton public schools there were no obvious indications that mr. Van Co horn was involved in any illicit activity which is why the news has so stunned our preschool community mr. Van Co horn received favorable reviews for each of his seven years of employment he established friendships with many of our staff members several of whom have expressed feelings of guilt that they did not pick up on anything pick up that something was awry there
035was only one prior matter that involved mr. Van Co horn and it arose from a report a family made in January of 2013 based on a statement made by their child the report had to do with a toileting concern the concern was fully investigated by district staff and concluded that mr. Van Co horn was not involved in toileting of the child at the time the district also reported the matter to DCF the review conducted by DCF found that the concern did not rise to a level that would necessitate their own investigation nevertheless in light of mr. Van Co horns arrest we have contacted DCF again and also shared this information with the Wilton Police I know of no other concerns or questions that were posed prior to the announcement of mr. van Co horns arrest
036since his arrest I have been in contact with two families who have questioned whether some changes they observed in their children's behavior may be as a result of contact with mr. Van Co horn to answer these questions and questions like this that other families may pose we have established an intake process led by mr. Jim Martin who is here in the back Jim could just give a wave so people can put a face with your name Jim is one of our clinical social workers he will gather the information and then coordinate with the families and any other appropriate service provider to investigate further we understand the expertise needed to appropriately question small children and want to ensure that we coordinate with experts in the region who are able to do this should the need arise
037we will also continue to share any information that is learned with DCF and with the Wilton Police have there been other employees that have been investigated because of question will be questionable behavior periodically parents or others may make complaints against teachers para educators or other employees each complaint is in vest following a specific protocol which includes a scripted interview of all involved the accused the accuser and any potential witnesses if there are reasonable grounds to believe that abuse and neglect occurred a report is made to DCF upon completion of the process a determination is made and if appropriate disciplinary proceedings are initiated what policies and procedures are in place in the pre-k program to preserve the safety and dignity of our children and what are the preschools protocols for toileting this comes right from the
038preschool manual our goals regarding our toileting protocol are to keep children safe respect their dignity and take precautions to ensure that staff are appropriately supervised the protocols read as follows two staff members should be present in the bathroom when supervising groups of preschool children if only one staff member is available staff should stand at the doorway of the bathroom to supervise the group of preschool children if a preschool child needs adult assistance with toileting the staff providing the assistance needs to number one inform the classroom teacher that he or she is taking the preschool child to the bathroom number two leave the door of the bathroom partially open when assisting the preschool child in the bathroom number three when changing a child's diaper the bathroom door must be left partially open staff should be visible
039from the hallway but the child's privacy must be assured d-mail staff may not supervise female children in the bathroom no exceptions the administration and related service staff should periodically check bathrooms the second part of the question the preschool is located in highly trafficked section of the building preschool and Miller Driscoll staff custodians cafeteria workers and parents are often visible throughout the preschool area many students and staff from Miller Driscoll travel through the preschool on their way to the North cafeteria for lunch therapists often work one-on-one with children but there are windows in one way mirrors in these offices allowing for viewing in the therapy room from the hallway occupational physical and speech and language therapists may engage in physical strategies or prompts such as stretching oral motor exercises etc as part of a student's individual
040education plan parents are aware that these techniques are being utilized with the child and often either observe the therapist therapist administering the technique or receive training on how to administer them at home further staff and student schedules are on file in the preschool office and with each classroom teacher this allows the preschool administrator to know where everyone is expected to be random checks of bathrooms classrooms playground and therapy rooms are made for confirmation finally when the preschool administrator's away from the building another administrator assumes responsibility for the preschool next question in what classrooms had mr. Banco horn worked mr. Van Co Horne has worked most recently in both miss Downes and Miss nevels classrooms in previous years he was assigned to both miss Huff's and miss Blair's classrooms what does a notice to the Connecticut
041DCF entail the state of Connecticut requires anyone engaged in a profession that involves regular interaction with children to report to the Department of Children and Families any suspected child abuse neglect or any instances in which a child has been placed in imminent danger within our schools the list of mandated reporters includes teachers administrators cafeteria workers nurses paraprofessionals coaches and the list goes on the state requires that this report be made within 12 hours of becoming aware of a possible incident once the DCF has been notified an evaluation is made to determine if the case warrants an investigation that determination can be made within a matter of hours in extreme cases but all investigations must be completed within 30 days if the DCF concludes that there is a reasonable cause to believe a school employee has
042harmed a child or put a child at risk the employing superintendent is immediately notified the superintendent must immediately suspend the employee and notify the Board of Education what counseling services will be provided by Wilton public schools to families of pre-k children to manage the anxiety or pain of this event parents are encouraged to contact our clinical social worker mr. Jim Martin who just gave you away of a moment ago who's available to discuss any specific concerns a parent may have in addition dr. Rick ler who is with us this evening will also be in school during tomorrow's meet the teacher day dr. Rick ler will be on site from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. tomorrow for any confidential discussions you might wish to have what actions should parents take should they believe their children may have
043been mistreated a parent should not hesitate to contact either preschool director Fred rabbit schinsky assistant superintendent for special services and Paul principal Cheryl Jensen Garner or any member of our social services or counseling staff all of these individuals are trained to handle allegations of this nature and will treat a parent's concerns seriously and thoroughly also a parent should never worry about confidentiality our staff understands the need to protect our family's right to confidentiality I wish to emphasize that if a parent has any issue or suspicions that something is not right it's always better to pick up the phone and share your concerns than to find out later that your suspicions were correct is there a standing protocol for informing Wilton public schools should parents have concerns about the environment at the preschool our hope is
044that parents understand to contact either preschool director Fred repitch insky assistant superintendent and Paul principal Cheryl Jensen Garner or any member of our social services counseling staff however please be assured that steps will be taken to ensure that a written document is disseminated that details a precise course of action should any questions or questionable activity arise which authorities have been involved in the current situation and what are their roles our initial point of contact was with the Department of Homeland Security and the Connecticut State Police who on June 11th made us aware that mr. Van Co Horne was under investigation at that point we contacted the Wilton Police so that school resource officer rich Ross and Chief Michael Lombardo would be aware and appropriately involved we also reported the matter to the Connecticut Department of
045Children and Families the investigation continues to be managed by federal and state officials beyond the investigation of mr. van Co Horne we have enlisted the services of mental health professionals to help with our staff and parent community who have been saddened and shocked by these developments dr. Rick leur is with us this evening and will be in the building tomorrow morning to speak confidentially with any parent or staff member we were also making available our clinical social worker mr. Jim Martin as a resource this employee was here for seven years what is being done to make sure he didn't harm children and Wilton at any point in that time period at no time during mr. Vaughn Co horns tenure in Wilton did we have reason to suspect that he was engaged in any illegal or
046inappropriate behavior he had no disciplinary actions in his personnel file and no reports from staff members claiming to have witnessed inappropriate behavior during the course of their investigation the Connecticut state police seized his home computer and found nothing to indicate that any Wilton students were harmed if any parent comes forward to ask questions about the possibility that he behaved inappropriately with the parents child it will be investigated thoroughly we are in daily contact with the Wilton Police Department who will be charged with all those investigations at this point parent and staff input is our primary means of determining whether or not any of our students were directly harmed we have encouraged anyone who believes that they may have information about improper behavior to contact either Fred and Paul Jim Martin and dr. Rick lair will
047also be here tomorrow what are the board and administration going to do to make sure this isn't happening elsewhere in the district right now and that it won't happen again we have initiated a review of all policies and procedures to ensure that no breakdowns and protocol occurred as I mentioned earlier every what an employee undergoes a rigorous background check in which we search for any criminal records as well as reports filed with Connecticut DCF once an individual is hired there are federal and state mandates that require direct supervision in addition district policies are in place with regard to circumstances in which a paraprofessional may be in an unaccompanied situation with a student we are confident that adequate policies and procedures are in place we are now in the process of ensuring that all staff members
048adhere to these requirements that said please keep in mind that mr. vivanco horns alleged activities took place away from school and while we have strict internet usage protocols for all in district computers we ultimately cannot control what an individual does during their non-working hours mr. Vonn co horne developed many close relationships with staff members who were shocked to learn that their friend was apparently engaged in this behavior as much as we can create a safe environment within our buildings we cannot control what goes on outside our walls I should like to add that we will be working with dr. Robert Sinskey and trying to better understand how staff members are deployed throughout the day and take any further steps to ensure that there's adequate peer supervision while students are in the building a number of
049parents have wondered about the content of the photos that mr. Banco horn was allegedly viewing according to special agent Alison hemella of the department of homeland security the images were a mix of both boys and girls with an age range of five to thirteen how did the State Police know that no Wilton children were involved based on what was collected they have found no evidence to suggest mr. van Co horn was producing images detective Carrera noted that as part of his investigations into these matters he sees many of the same images over and over again in our conversation he reported that he did not recall seeing any images he hadn't seen in the past detective Carrera also noted that all of the images they recover are sent to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children
050who keep a database of identified children once the center reviews all of the images they will send a report back to the State Police detailing whether any of those images were new on a related note as I mentioned at the start the attorney representing mr. van Co horn called me to share that mr. van Co horn volunteered to submit to a polygraph test according to his attorney the results of that polygraph supported the belief that he did not physically harm any children how long was the investigation going on prior to June 11th according to state police detective John Carrero mr. Benko horn became known to them in April 2014 what tipped investigators off to look at mr. van Co horn in the first place again according to detective John Carrera it was his participation on
051a peer-to-peer file network was his cell phone confiscated by the police the search warrant focused on his house his cellphone was not in the house the day that the police searched I spoke with detective Carrera today and as of right now mr. Van Co horn cell phone was not confiscated at the moment those are the questions we've received those are the answers we have if you have any further questions currently I would invite you to come to the microphone and we'll do our best to respond I want to know sir I think the Prescott show you are so young so they cannot do much to protect themselves so I still encourage to use video cameras in the classrooms I know it may harm the morale of the staff like teacher but they are just so
052young so they cannot do anything to protect themselves if something could go wrong mmm also from my understanding of the case listen almost nothing wrong with the with administrator of his squad or his colleagues so I think you guys just cheer up you get the good job overall yeah thank you yeah that's my point great thank you very much for your feedback sir yeah hi I'm wondering how to reconcile a couple of things you said which seemed to me to be at least potentially inconsistent and my question is you said I think a couple of times as well as in the written statement that you deployed that you have no reason to believe that there has been there was any inappropriate contact between this guy and Wilton students but I thought you also said there
053was an event in January of 2013 where there was a complaint made of inappropriate contact or conduct or something can you just tell us how you reconcile those two things which seem inherently to be inconsistent sure the report from the incident in January of 2013 found that mr. Van Co Horne was not involved he wasn't in the bathroom and did not toilet the child that's the information we have so far okay and just as a quick follow-up to the question thank you for indulging me what was the nature of the complaint without revealing obviously anything that might compromise privacy because that should not be done obviously it was a toileting concern you're at a point where I'm walking the line of confidentiality and it would be concerned about the way that adults assist a child
054being toileted mr. Benko Horne did not toilet the child that was the finding of the investigation was it a complaint that he did inappropriately toilet shall it wasn't a complaint it was a question based on a statement that the child made and sir I really can't go any further than that I would like to add though you know through an abundance of caution we're looking at all of these things so we have gone back to DCF to feed all that information to them we've also passed that information forward to the Wilton excuse me to the Wilton Police Department to take another look just to be as safe and sound insurer as we can be about that information contained in the investigation report do the authorities have any idea of a time frame of when this
055online behavior occurred I don't have that information I will followup with unless written I didn't have a chance to speak did you speak to Detective Carrera I have not been able to speak with him about that but again our agency did not investigate it so I do not have that information I'll call this office tomorrow and follow up with that question so we're looking for the timeframe that the behavior occurred okay hi if they're currently a restraining order again him coming to the school and our picture made public I know the bus drivers don't know what he looks like but we the district has not disseminated any pictures to the best of my knowledge he may not come to Wilton public schools is there an official thing other than I don't know if there's an
056official restraining order but that's another question I'll feed back to the detective and verify sir I have two questions just to follow up on a her question is that I thought the picture been issued each other people in the school at least that they know that he's not allowed on the premises or anything like that like is he allowed on the premises he's not allowed on the premises we have not distributed his photo is that going to be happening the I will discuss this with our staff and if it's an appropriate step I'll certainly take it okay and the second question I'm a bit concerned about the cell phone the fact that a cell phone wasn't taken or yes confiscated is there a policy in the school that's what teachers can and cannot do with
057their cell phones can they bring them you have to keep them particular location they're allowed to bring them to the bathrooms things like that we don't have clear-cut policies at the moment that dictate what staff can do with their cell phones but as part of our review we will certainly be addressing that thank you you bet hey good evening um thanks for hosting the session can you can you at the very least classify whether or not the January 2013 complaint was a sexual or non-sexual concern I can't okay I all I can say is it involved the toileting of a child and that the investigation found that mr. Banco horn did not toilet the child okay did your did your peer-to-peer supervision or your peer supervision program with mr. Khan Vaughn Coe or did you
058did you supervise him any differently after I guess this initial red flag surface and in January 2013 I don't have the answer to that question I'm gonna say I believe not because the investigation revealed that mr. Benko horn wasn't really that wasn't in the bathroom of the child okay I didn't didn't toilet the child okay and last question for me you know I guess for better for worse this staff understands which children have more problems communicating and less problems communicating and it can it can make them very easy prey unfortunately I guess it seems like amid that and and given that these these children won't be able to give any kind of a credible testimony either to their parents or to police officers or to teachers if there is something inappropriate going on I would
059I would strongly encourage to maybe create an environment where there is no one-on-one you know teachers in a bathroom with students or in a isolated environment for more than you know 20 seconds or something just because if these kids can't you know advocate for themselves or stand up for themselves or even testify there's no there's nobody that knows what really happened except for that that faculty member right there just strongly encouraged that I appreciate that you back I have two questions one when you mentioned cellphone it brought to mind is there a policy in the district regarding staff and their smartphones because it seems to me that's a huge vulnerability as a means of exposing children and immediately posting it and so I'm curious if there's any policy right the policies we have we have
060a responsible use policy that really governs internet-based technology and what teachers and students might do the other policy the practice that we have in place is if any parent requests that a child not be photographed we honor that it's just the notion of somebody having a cell phone in their pocket as they're escorting a child to the bathroom seems a little more assertive and I think that's something that well I know for a fact that's something we're really going to take a hard look at okay thank you question 2 is regarding the the qualifications that the district looks at when hiring somebody for as another gentleman said a very vulnerable population given that oftentimes they are nonverbal mr. Benko harness education he had no formal education relating to his job he had certificates and bartending
061and broadcasting not really relevant he had two years of preschool experience elsewhere but that's really not something I remember seven years ago looking at this when he was assigned to work with my child looking at his resume and thinking I don't really see how this person and this is unrelated to the present day how this person is qualified to be a special IDI para maybe a recess guy yes but a special ed parent with a very vulnerable population so what is the criteria for hiring great I'm going to refer that question to miss Paul since the paraprofessionals they're part of her staff and you mind taking a look at a number of factors when we interview our paraprofessional staff we look at someone who obviously has a demonstrated interest in working with children we look
062at someone who has a work history with reliability who's shown good interpersonal skills and a willingness to learn some of our paraprofessionals certainly need additional training and working with children with special needs and so the willingness to learn and pursue their education in that way or the quote we look a lot for the qualitative features in hiring someone okay I guess to me obviously hindsight is always 20/20 but when you look at somebody who has no educational background and really very little experience in that area it maybe might send up a red flag as to their motives for such a job that's just what comes to my mind thank you thank you I have a question I believe maybe dr. Rick ler would be able to answer this you gave us a lot of research
063tonight and I appreciate that dr. Rick ler maybe you could look into this how many convicted online child pornographic users have a work history that includes working as a caregiver in a preschool compared to the number of convicted child molesters I'm sure there are some research out there and you could provide us with that information could I ask you just to read that one more times I'd like I'm just trying to capture it so it's how many how many convicted online short child pornographic users have a work history that includes working as a caregiver in a preschool compared to the number of convicted child molesters that have also had a similar work history as a caregiver in a preschool that type of setting I'll certainly be happy to try and look into it I can
064tell you though over the past four days I have reviewed hundreds of articles I can't tell you how much I've looked at about this subject in addition to that I've consulted with a number of other people who are very familiar with this area one person is a doctor Leslie law Stein who is in West Hartford he very willingly gave of his time to consult with me so I could pick his brain about some of these subjects he has done numerous evaluations for courts on the issue of perpetrators he's written a number of books about sexual abuse clergy and I have to say in all of our discussions your question hasn't hasn't come up in addition to that a lot of the because I also it is due not only to dr. law Steen but a
065lot of the background research work because it was just way too much for one person to comb through there's just so much out there was done by my son who happens to be a great researcher in public health and he helped to put together the document that that I've been working from in our work together over the past few days and again that question hasn't come up so I'm certainly willing to look into it but I don't know if I'm going to be able to answer it for you okay I will tell you though that one other thing I did learn and this sort of is tangentially related to your question is that and and it's a bit off-topic from why we're here tonight but I think it touches on what you're saying about people
066having contact with children ninety percent of contact child sexual abuse happens within the familiar setting of the family so the actual number of offenses the school is like a family that's that's true but I'm just telling you what the statistical numbers I'm not debating right you know the figurative connection here but statistical I'm talking about the emotional connection that the children have with with the teachers and with the paraprofessionals and they trust them and a sacred bond of trust was broken okay this is a question for Miss Paul and dr. R with regards to communication how I didn't receive any information with regards to this I had to find out from a friend so I'm concerned that there this hasn't been widely communicated especially to parents who may have previously been within this school and
067are no longer within the school how extensive of the communication did you actually put out sure all the communication came from my office and we distributed it through our computer systems to every contact we had I can't tell you specifically if it went through Edline or power school we used the school messenger so whatever contacts were housed in there I believe school messenger drawers from power school but that's just current parents I think you know you'll have to forgive that's that that's the system we opted to use for this and so if I missed a group of people who certainly wasn't intentional I have been speaking with the local media and trying to put information out as best I'm able okay in terms of trying to figure out the the extensiveness of what has occurred
068if you haven't reached out to parents who have been there for the past seven years how do you know whether or not there have been other incidents that's a great question and you know until you just raised it I wasn't aware that there may have been some people in the community who had kids in the school but maybe not in a school any longer so I'll go back and I'll take a look at all those contacts when I get in tomorrow and see if there's another group that we need to push the information out to you okay with regards to the investigation several times it's been stated that there's no evidence that anything occurred within the school but it also sounds like the Wilton Police didn't investigate anything that the State Police and the Homeland
069Security were investigating what was done on a computer but there hasn't been any investigation as to the actual school that's correct that's factually accurate this investigation originated with Connecticut state police in the Department of Homeland Security the focus of their investigation was mr. van Co horns online activities when we published that out to the community as I mentioned before there are two families who have come forward with questions based on observing some changes that they've seen in their children so that information we have shared with the police and so they're working with those families we're working with those families and that's where the investigation that the police here in town will conduct as we learn that kind of information isn't that though this bit misleading though to say that there is no evidence I mean
070that's a very definitive statement that there's no evidence and while there may be no evidence if you haven't conducted an investigation how can you definitively state that no child was involved the State Police have reported that they have no evidence to suggest based on their investigation as I said before we are at this point we have not had any evidence to suggest or information to suggest that mr. Banco horn could have been inappropriate with kids and that's part of the reason we're here tonight is to engage with parents and if folks are concerned to ask them to come forward so we can begin that process I'm just trying to understand it sounds like there's two different investigations so one that would be with regards to his computer that day police right and then one that
071would be related to the school which has not commenced yet that we are gathering information and we are sharing that information with the police and we've asked the police to make contacts with families who are posing questions as I've just described right so that's why I'm concerned because if you have parents like myself and other parents who haven't been contacted that that to say there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever just seems very misleading fair enough and I'm concerned because I know that there's there's other issues with other employees who are apparently terminated for criminal activity and that that was sort of swept under the rug and not made public I can only address what I have in front of me if there's some information that you want to share I would ask that you can contact
072me directly Union Todd tecna's Paul Jim Martin if you like if you have information I'd be happy to share it and if you're concerned as you mentioned before about reaching out to other parents I'll go back tomorrow as I said and I'll look at whatever and for me whatever contact distribution list we have and try to push it out further if there are people that we missed thank you thank you dr. Smith I want to thank you and everybody that's here for your transparency with us tonight I know that this is difficult for all of us I do have a couple questions I wanted to ask you were very specific when you spoke earlier about attorney Sheffield's communication with you today about the polygraph and I believe what you said is that mr. Vaughn ko
073Horan clearly stated that he did not physically harm our children Wilton school children was there a question asked about whether he took photographs of any Wilton school children I don't have the list of questions that were asked and somebody else had raised that after I shared that I called attorney Sheffield back to ask that specific question I haven't been in touch with him but know that I hope to be in touch with him tomorrow and ask that specific question once I get that answer I will publish it okay I have a few follow-up questions related to it I perhaps naively assumed that part of the investigation include looking at look included looking at his cell phone and images that may have been onto his cell phone do you have any understanding of what steps will
074be taken to review content that's on his cell phone or may have been on his cell phone I don't have any information to speak to that question could you ask that question and see if you can get any information I certainly will two last questions and these are relatively quick I'm aware of the fact that there are more than 50 images are you able to quantify for us how many images there were I don't have the exact number just that there were more than 50 okay you can't tell me if it's like a thousand or a million I truly don't know okay and we're there any photographs that didn't include faces I don't the characterizations of the photographs that I have are just what I explained to you according to the special agent hemella she
075said that there was a mix of genders and she gave me the age range between maybe five and thirteen okay I said this to some folks earlier today I've spoken with Jim and I've spoken with dr. Fred and some other people and I will say that I feel like your nightmare is probably worse than the reality in some ways and so the more information that can be made available to parents of kids at the preschool or folks that were at the preschool previously would be greatly appreciated and again thank you all for all of your efforts I truly appreciate it thank you for the feedback hi hi I just want to say as well thank you for being here tonight I am a little disappointed that there's no representation is from someone who seems to
076be actually conducting the investigation because I really did come tonight not to make you feel defensive about the preschool but to get more information I can understand how it happened that this man was hired that he cleared his background checks that aside from something I don't know in 2013 there were no red flags but now I really want to know what happened and my son it's not the most communicative child's and when he started he wasn't really verbal so trying to get information from him is very hard so I would really like to hear from a detective okay what kind of what what it is that they that they've been asking him I'd like to hear more information as far as what kind of questions are going to be asking on mr. Coe horns colleagues
077that they may have witnessed in retrospect hindsight maybe that was kind of weird I'd like to know how much and how often he had the possibility of being alone with any children specifically my child and I need some help with guiding questions to ask my son I can ask him like did you like mr. Eric but he's you know he says yes I loved him you know he my son loves almost everyone so I need information about how to go about this and I need more information from the police okay I feel like as a parent of this you know my son was so young and fallible we have a right to more information than the public at large so I can understand that you know in June they didn't want to tell us about
078him because they didn't want to harm the investigation but at this point I we I need more okay all right I will do my best to follow up on your questions hi I read an article in the Wilton papers which probably a lot of people did and I thought there was to two parts of the arrest or there was something about two charges two charges and that wasn't discussed the second charge which was promoting right that's the the legal expression of the charge that charge is related to either sharing or trading pictures online my understanding from detective Carrero is through this peer-to-peer network that mr. BALCO Horne was allegedly participating in that he was viewing and then perhaps trading or sharing oh that's the promoting part correct and then also this could be wrong but
079my husband had seen he had gotten alert on his Facebook or something about there was some drugs or something at first or was that just a mistake or that didn't come from like the investigation started out in that direction or something I could be wrong about that but he said that's how he first found out about it that's news to me though breaking news right yeah the information that I had from the detectives that the investigation is really specific to mr. Vaughn Co horns online activities okay thanks hello forgive me I'm like a terrible public speaker just you had touched on it just a little bit about the investigation and how everything kind of played out you had said that things first came to light for the detectives in April correct so with that being
080said aren't you rip-roaring mad that they didn't inform the Wilton school system that this man is in a position that he's in caring for our children you know I have a child with special needs in the preschool and she was in his class at that time so I've also had two other children go through as typical children and one of them was in all of his classes and it was nice time so I have a lot of concern obviously when we spoke earlier about the number of images that terrifies me just because you know the detectives say no Wilton at this time they don't believe any of them was you know affected by it but at the same time without having a picture of all of our children so that they can compare it's hard
081as a parent to say how can you say it you know sure that completely understood so I don't know I just I felt like I needed to get that out and definitely when it came to the investigation of how it played out that really just concerned me that they allowed him to stay in that position okay I'm gonna I think you know what I'm hearing is certainly there's a desire for more information directly from detective Carrera so I'll reach out to him tomorrow and I can't make any commitment tonight but perhaps it would be helpful to have him come and speak to preschool parents and just talk through some of the elements of the investigation that you have questions about okay thank you very much please okay thank you also tell you something about what
082I learned about the photos because a parent might say for example if mr. von Co Horne took a picture of my child from the neck down how how would anybody know that that is not them as opposed to any other image perhaps that's what people are wondering about what I learned in researching this is apparently there is an incredible police FBI Homeland Security dragnet to catch users of child pornography who go beyond that accidental hit or download something without realizing necessarily what what they have and photos the FBI puts up known photos that have been in circulation these photos I'm told are encrypted so as a result it has a GPS on it and that's how they can identify as dr. Smith was saying before that's how they've been able to identify and compare one
083supposedly that we're on mr. Vaughn Co horns computer compared to ones that are known the experience that I've had in my practice and has been true of a number of child psychiatrists is that teenagers who have dabbled in downloading child pornography for whatever reason and you know we have to remember that federally that is considered images under 18 many of them have been arrested and that's so it's relatively easy to get caught now that's not to say that there aren't going to be some people who slip through the cracks but as was explained to me that's the methodology my son had been in the preschool seven years ago had worked with Eric and I thought if I heard more information about the nature of the photographs I'd feel better but that has worked so much
084I take a great deal of comfort though in knowing how the preschool is run and I think that program is flat-out one of the best programs we have in the district and I've seen miss dawn work with the kids the way it's structured how they work together I'm heartbroken for Fred and the whole staff and the fact that you're getting this attention because the program is amazing and what it has done for my child has been amazing and I I guess I want to keep staying with the thought this is all stuff that happened at home it all happened at home and that's what we know at this point so Fred thanks for going through everything you're going if there are no further questions I'd like to thank you all for coming this evening as
085you have more specific questions please continue to reach out as we learn more information we will do the same and continue to publish it and we look forward to seeing you all under much more positive circumstances in the future thank you you