Teacher says he was victim of harassment campaign
14-year-veteran claims students posted false stories on website, district took no action
Exeter School District teachers marched on the school board January 14th to protest the administration’s handling of false accusations, harassment and terroristic threats against Eric McGuiney, a junior high school physical education instructor and 14-year district veteran.
More than 100 teachers — almost all dressed in Exeter blue polo shirts bearing the teachers union logo — packed the board room in an outpouring of support for McGuiney.
McGuiney took to the podium to recount his experience as victim of what he called a harassment campaign organized by students.
The attacks, McGuiney said, included a student labeling him complicit in a boys locker-room sexual assault. McGuiney said he learned of the incident in May after an Exeter Township police detective contacted him.
“In my time working at the junior high school, (the alleged victim) had never stepped foot into the boys locker room,” McGuiney said. “The student claimed I permitted a rape to occur. I was speechless, and furious, because I knew this to be absolutely not true.”
McGuiney said security footage from outside the locker room disproved the student’s accusation. The student then admitted during questioning by police that the claim was made up.
No administrative action was taken against the student, and McGuiney said the student “disappeared”
shortly after the incident.
“It is unacceptable for a student to make such an outrageous allegation and not be held accountable or punished for breaking the law,” McGuiney said. “Teachers and administrators need protective policy written to support
employees against false allegations by students.”
He said the harassment continued in November when he learned that a story depicting him as being shot by a male student after entering the girls locker room had been posted to a fake news site.
He said another false story surfaced the next day, under the headline “Eric McGuiney Shot and Killed.”
“It looked like legitimate news at first glance,” McGuiney said.
He said he reported the stories to principals who passed the information along to higher administrators. McGuiney noted that Michelle Klusewitz, union president, also emailed the incident details to the superintendent, Dr. Robert Phillips, two days after the second story was posted.
“Serious threats require immediate action by school
officials, yet in this situation that was not how things were handled,” McGuiney said.
He said Phillips met with him about the incidents 16 days after they were first reported.
“Sixteen days was too much delay to catch the culprits and conduct a prompt, proper investigation,” McGuiney said.
Eventually, police, who McGuiney had contacted shortly after the stories were posted, gave him the name of the fake news site’s owner, and the stories were taken offline.
“The removal of the stories was quite a relief, but in no way excuses the district’s poor management of the situation,” McGuiney said. “Nor does it ease my frustration that a guilty party was never identified or held accountable.”
McGuiney went on to question why a threat assessment was not performed against the student who was mentioned by name in both fake stories, and why parents
weren’t notified of a threat of violence against a teacher.
He also admonished a lack of outreach from highlevel administrators, and noted that the weeks of uncertainty following the incidents took a toll on his mental health.
The Exeter Township Education Association has filed a grievance accusing the district of not following policies that require immediate investigation of terroristic threats and harassment.
“All teachers have been trained to report suspicious or dangerous information,” McGuiney said. “If you see something or hear something, you say something. That is exactly what I did, and nothing was done. Nothing was taken seriously, there was no support provided, no prompt investigation. Why?”
McGuiney ended by urging the board to consider updating district policies to protect teachers against future threats.
“Teachers deserve that kind of protection,” he said.
“Our name is all we have in this profession. For 14 years as a teacher and coach, I have talked to students about showing empathy, being honest, making good decisions and the importance of being held accountable for your actions. When I needed them the most, these core values were not upheld by central administration. And that needs to change.”
In a response, Christine Wheelen, director of human resources, said an investigation into the incidents was conducted by the district IT department.
She said several students had accessed the fake news site at school. Those students were interviewed, but no proof was found that the false articles were posted by Exeter students, she said.
Wheelen also said that according to the district solicitor the site’s content likely qualified as free speech under the law, further inhibiting the possibility of disciplinary action by the district.
“Eric, I’m very sorry
that this happened to you,” Wheelen said. “But even if more posts were made, from a district standpoint, if we don’t have evidence that this was done from our network we really can’t go after children just because their name is mentioned in the blog. I followed the advice of our solicitor, and if I let anybody down, I’m very sorry.”
Klusewitz disputed the idea that what she called slander and harassment posted against McGuiney qualified as free speech.
“It’s the same scenario that the Supreme Court has actually said yelling fire in a movie theater is not freedom of speech,” Klusewitz said. “Harassment is not freedom of speech.”
Dr. David Hemberger, board president, said McGuiney’s ordeal posed questions he expects the administration to investigate.
“Was this viewed as a terroristic threat or not?” he said. “Was this viewed as unlawful harassment? And are there any other considerations related to policy that
we should apply?”
Hemberger and several other board members also offered apologies to McGuiney on behalf of the district.
“You don’t need to be an attorney to figure this out,” said board member Michael Jupina. “This is about having people’s backs. You stand up for people … and you stand by people in crisis. We wouldn’t be surrounded by a bunch of blue shirts this evening if that had happened.”
When contacted Wednesday, Exeter police spokesman Sgt. Sean Fullerton confirmed that police did an initial investigation and came to the same conclusion as the district: that the contents of the third-party website amounted to protected free speech.
Even though the posting was deemed to be a false allegation, it’s doubtful police can do anything about it, he said.
“We have no way to conclude who generated this article,” Fullerton said.