The Concord School Board will review how it handles public complaints about school personnel and how the district works with police after a Concord High School teacher was charged with sexually assaulting a student.
Superintendent Terri Forsten said Monday night the board has decided to take a look at 19 policies along with the district’s student and staff handbooks to develop more specific standards and communication practices after the arrest of Primo “Howie” Leung. The decision was made after several non-meetings and non-public sessions with legal counsel, Forsten said. The board may look at more policies in the future.
Members of the public who attended the meeting encouraged the district to err on the side of caution when it comes to investigating possible instances of potential child sexual assault.
“Often people are reluctant (to report) because they think they don’t have all the facts,” said Paula Czech Lesmerises, a Concord resident who identified herself as a child sexual assault survivor and an advocate for child protection.
But Lesmerises said it should have been obvious that Leung was acting inappropriately, saying a child predator and their victim will often be seen alone together during grooming stages. She went on to say that the law protects anyone who submits a report of possible misconduct “in good faith.”
“If something doesn’t seem right, let the experts figure it out,” she said. “Err on the side of the child.”
Tina Smith, who also identified herself as a sexual assault survivor, said she was “furious” when she read about how Leung’s investigation was handled. But she said she felt better after learning the board would review its policies.
“Listening and hearing and moving forward – that’s what we do as survivors,” she said.
The policies the school district will review include standards on staff ethics, sexual harassment and abuse, and how to report instances of suspected abuse, Forsten said. Some of the policies are school-district created, like the “relations with police authorities” and “communications of concerns to school officials” and others are recommended by the New Hampshire School Board Association.
School board president Jennifer Patterson said the actions are consistent with what she characterized as a “great conversation prompted by a terrible situation,” referring to Leung’s arrest.
The challenge going forward will be to make sure “everyone in the district lives and breathes those policies so they become part of our culture,” she said.
Leung, 36, is accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a Concord middle school student in the city and at a summer program in Massachusetts following police investigations in both states.
Leung remained at Concord High for 3½ months after the school district first received a report on Dec. 10 that Leung had “engaged in inappropriate conduct” with an 18-year-old female student, who is not the victim Leung is accused of sexually assaulting as a middle school student.
School officials reported their investigation to the Department of Education but not Concord police, who learned of the incident through the DOE. Leung was arrested on April 3.
A formal agreement, signed by Forsten and police Chief Brad Osgood, requires school officials to report all forms of sexual assault to law enforcement.
Instead, officials determined that Leung should be placed on an “improvement plan” which included education about professional boundaries, said Mike Macri, president of the Concord Education Association, during a recent interview.
Sometime after that decision, Leung’s was removed as the advisor for the school’s Save Our Cold Kids (SOCKs) Club, Macri said.
Union representatives for the high school, as well as the CEA’s UniServe director Jason Faria, oversaw the investigation along with a high school administrator, Macri said.
Macri declined to say which administrator oversaw the investigation, deferring to Forsten. CHS’s representatives include Charles Swift, Karen Slick and Bill Crowley, according to the CEA website.
But aside from referring Leung to legal counsel, the union did not have a say in what kind of discipline a teacher might receive if warranted after an investigation.
Macri said Leung was planning to fight the school district’s decision to place him on an improvement plan when he was arrested. Union leadership was briefly concerned that Leung’s family might lose health benefits if Leung was placed on unpaid administrative leave, but did not become involved when it became clear that would not happen, he said.