Further, the public will never know why he destroyed the file because
the Department of Education has declared that all of the details are
protected from being known by confidentiality requirements, the retreat
of all bureaucratic cowards who want to cover up what happened for
undisclosed reasons. Thus, a teacher who broke the law (by law such
files must be kept intact for five years), for some reason never to be
known by a public that entrusts their children to this teacher and other
such teachers every day, is punished with a punishment totally without
meaning or value.
Having delivered this travesty upon the public's right to know, just
listen to the palpable sanctimony of the administrative perpetrators.
Mark Andrews, superintendent of Essex schools, said he trusted the
wisdom of the Vermont Education Commissioner's decision to issue a
10-day license suspension and allow Koziol to continue teaching. "When
Robert Koziol came to see me, he told me what he had done and didn't
really have an explanation for me," Andrews said. "I didn't feel like it
was my position to probe too deeply since it was under investigation at
the Department of Ed."
Koziol worked for two years at St. Albans City School as a special
educator. His employment ended June 30 of this year, said Bob Rosane,
superintendent of schools in the Franklin Central Supervisory Union.
Rosane offered few details on the incident that led up to Koziol's
license suspension. "We followed through on our reporting, but other
than that it's really confidential," Rosane said. "We are pretty
vigilant about making sure that we're on top of these things. When they
come to light, we report, and that doesn't preclude any internal follow
up that I can't really talk about it," he said. "That's the supervisory
union's responsibility, is to be on top of these things. Parents who
wonder about the circumstances behind the sanction should take heart in
the fact that the school took action," Rosane said. He would not comment
on whether Koziol left St. Albans willingly or was terminated.
That last comment ought to really comfort parents who wonder what is
going on. It sure sounds like a clubby little cover-up to us. At best,
it is a dereliction of reporting duty on both superintendents' parts and
on the DOE. It sure is nice to have friends in high places.
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