Baltimore County officials denied Tuesday that the Park School alerted them to a former student?s allegations a veteran teacher had sexually abused her decades earlier.
Neither police nor the county?s Department of Social Services has a record of being contacted about Stanley V. Ashman, a teacher at the elite private school until 1997 who has been charged with child abuse that allegedly occurred in the mid-1970s, officials said.
“We keep our records by the alleged victim?s name, and we don?t have a record of this particular case in connection with Park School,” said Maureen Robinson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services.
If the department had been contacted, she said, “We would have encouraged her to report it to police, and we would have told the police.”
Park officials maintain that school head David Jackson called and spoke directly with a county Social Services official, whom they declined to identify, and gave Ashman?s name and address when reporting the allegations.
School spokeswoman Hillary Jacobs said Jackson has notes to verify the phone call.
Jacobs also said no “official request” for a reference ever came from the Roeper School in Michigan, where Ashman taught social studies for six years until his arrest this summer on the abuse charge.
An attorney familiar with hiring issues said private schools have grown more concerned in recent years about teachers moving from state to state, leaving behind allegations of abuse that go undetected even in criminal background checks. Public and private schools in Maryland are required to run criminal background checks on prospective teachers, officials said.
But should allegations not have led to criminal charges, said Caryn Pass, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer, schools have to be more savvy ? checking Internet search engines, calling unlisted references and listening for clues from the previous employer.
“They?re doing criminal background checks where not only do they check their state, but every state where someone has been in the last seven years,” Pass said. “They?re doing really thorough reference checks ? why did the person leave? Would this person be allowed to come back?”
H. Mebane Turner, headmaster of The Boys? Latin School in Baltimore, said private schools can learn about prospective teachers even when their former employers won?t say much for fear of being sued.
“I would simply ask somebody, would they hire them again? And if I got any hesitation, it would tell me maybe I shouldn?t take a chance,” Turner said.
“You do the best you can in making a judgment.”
