The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Video allegedly shows educators’ kiss
Ex-BOE member: Charges ‘reckless, unprofessional, unforgivable’
CROWMELL — A clip of surveillance video used to call attention to inappropriate conduct between the town’s top two educators may show a single, three-second kiss in the lobby of the school administration offices.
The 30-second video was taken by the surveillance camera mounted in the office hallway. A date and time stamp indicates it was recorded Oct. 12 at 8:20 p.m. The Press obtained a copy of the DVD through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Board of Education.
The DVD and an accompanying anonymous letter were sent to Board of Education members, but not its chairman, Michael J. Camilleri, last week. After viewing the tape Tuesday, the board placed Superintendent John T. Maloney Jr. on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation being conducted by the board’s legal firm, Shipman & Goodwin.
Assistant Superintendent Krista Karch was similarly placed on paid leave by high school Principal and Interim Superintendent Fran DiFiore. School officials say they hope the investigation can be completed by the Christmas holiday.
The single-page complaint letter accuses Karch of “aggressive conduct and (an) unprofessional approach” to her job. Because the education department does not have a human resources department or director, that leaves “only one avenue” to bring forward complaints about Karch, the author said: by taking them to Maloney.
“The included DVD video will clearly provide evidence to why his judgment, professionalism and handling of these situations is biased, not objective and corrupt,” the letter writer charges.
But the video is ambiguous. In it, Karch leaves the administrative office first, stops and turns to face Maloney as he exits, pausing to lock the door. Maloney turns around and appears to kiss Karch. The two then walk out of the building, with Karch leading the way.
“We anticipated the video would show
nothing, and it does show nothing,” Karch’s attorney, Richard S. Sheeley, said Friday. “Quite frankly, we are perplexed by the whole thing.”
Maloney and Karch are both intent upon “shaking things up in the school system in an appropriate manner,” Sheeley said. “Change is sometimes a thing some people cannot accept.”
He said he believes the author of the letter “is a disgruntled person who is trying to make something out of nothing.”
He said Karch is cooperating with the investigation.
The fact someone was able to extract the video clip from the school surveillance system has provoked anger on the part of several individuals, including the president of the paraprofessionals’ union, a town councilor and former Board of Education member.
The latter, Gaia McDermott, had a letter she wrote to the board entered in the record during Tuesday night’s school board meeting. In it, McDermott lauds Maloney as someone who has been “an advocate for children all his life.” She was “dismayed by the actions of anyone who played a cowardly role instead of speaking directly about their concern.”
Maloney would have taken a meeting with anyone “to hear out their concerns,” she said. If a person was not satisfied with Maloney’s response, they could take his/her concern to Camilleri, McDermott said.
“A meeting with Mr. Camilleri would have been their last stop, because he would have handled concerns quickly,” she said.
If for any reason an employee felt he or she needed assistance with any issue regarding the administration, there are safeguards in place, she said.
“Bringing a suspicion of a believed wrongdoing to the entire town … and attempts to damage Mr. Maloney’s reputation, career and family are reckless, unprofessional and unforgivable,” McDermott said.