Niagara Views

Wilson coaches allowed to return to classroom

   The Wilson School Board has approved the return to the classroom for two teacher-coaches suspended last year at the start of an alleged hazing case.

   By a 6-0 vote, the board allowed William M. Atlas and Thomas J. Baia to return to their teaching posts during a meeting in the Wilson Middle/High School auditorium.

   Atlas and Baia had faced child endangerment charges stemming from an alleged incident aboard a baseball team bus on April 17, 2008. The charges were dropped by the Niagara County district attorney’s office on July 6.

   Update 11:22 p.m.: Listen to what a Wilson school librarian had to say after tonight's meeting.

   Update: Read the full story about what happened by clicking here.

   -Aaron Besecker

County's top prosecutor mum on Wilson case

   News Niagara Reporter Thomas J. Prohaska went to Niagara County District Attorney Michael Violante's office on Friday to ask about the Wilson case.

   A secretary kept Prohaska from speaking with Violante. “He can’t see you because it’s a sealed case," our reporter was told.

   Read more about what happened Friday here.

Result of players' case covered by ESPN.com

   ESPN.com has published a story late this afternoon with today's news on the two Wilson baseball players' case.

   Click here to read our continuing coverage on buffalonews.com.

   Here's a link to today's Inside the News blog post on the Wilson case.

   --Aaron Besecker

  

Case of Wilson coaches goes national

   ESPN has put a blurb on its Web site about the coaches in the Wilson case seeing their charges dropped.

   The item also has links to the network's previous video and written stories on the case.  

  --Aaron Besecker

Case against Wilson coaches fizzles out

   More than 14 months after they were arrested, the charges against two Wilson high school baseball coaches were dropped this morning.

   News Niagara Reporter Thomas J. Prohaska broke the story on buffalonews.com. Read the latest version here.

   Also check out a story published June 22 that detailed how the case against the coaches had changed over time.

   --Aaron Besecker

Can a case be made in Wilson beyond a reasonable doubt?

   A big problem with the Wilson hazing case is that the court papers are sealed, so the public discussion falls into the realm of what "everybody knows." And what everybody knows about the case just might be wrong.

As a story in The News today explains, the sexual assault charges against three varsity baseball players from an April 17, 2008, incident are far in the past. They were dropped by the Niagara County District Attorney's office because of proof problems, as our story details. However, the oldest of the three defendants already has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of child endangerment.

The other two players, who so far have not received the plea offer they were holding out for, are scheduled to go to trial Saturday. Don't look for the truth to come out there, at least not in public; the courtroom will be closed, and so rumor will again be the order of the day.

Our story shows that the claim by police that there were similar incidents in previous years just isn't true. There was some rough stuff, with one of the kids now facing charges on the receiving end a few years ago. But it wasn't sexual. And a defense attorney speculates that might be the reason for the internal State Police investigation.

But there is a possibility the truth will come out. The coaches are due for a public trial by jury July 6. Of course, that might have a spin room like a presidential debate, because the coaches have hired a PR firm run by a guy who calls himself "the reputation doctor." And since the Wilson taxpayers, thanks to the teachers' union contract, are paying for the coaches to defend themselves, there's at least a possibility they're indirectly paying for Dr. PR, too.

And there's always Terrence M. Connors, the prominent Buffalo lawyer who says he still plans to file a damage suit against the school district on behalf of one of the junior varsity players who said he was assaulted. Connors says his client stands by his original story and ought to get an award for stopping bullying on the baseball team.

If that case goes to trial, maybe, at long last, people will have to testify in public and under oath about what really happened on the bus ride from Niagara Falls to Wilson April 17, 2008.

   As for our newspaper, we have reported the changes in the case as they have unfolded, slowly, through a series of court adjournments and reschedulings. As the case moves into a critical phase, we thought it a good idea to catch up readers who may have missed some things.

   -- Thomas J. Prohaska

Wilson school district voters to decide fate of school resource officer

   Voters in the Wilson Central School District will decide on May 19 whether to keep a school resource officer at Wilson High School or eliminate the position.

   Read the story here.

   District leaders say they're taking no sides on the issue, but if they'd wanted to keep the position they could have included it in the rest of the district's $23.9 million budget proposal for 2009-10 that will be voted on the same day.

   Instead, because they've heard varying opinions from district residents, they will let the majority of those who come to vote make the decision.

   School Superintendent Michael S. Wendt told The Buffalo News he didn't want to prejudice the vote, but he had not seen any compelling data regarding an officer's effect on the school.

  An officer has been stationed at the high school -- first state troopers and, more recently, a rotating group of sheriff's deputies -- at the urging of some parents, after three members of the varsity baseball team were charged with forcibly touching three junior varsity players, and after two recent graduates who were going through a breakup died last July in a murder-suicide.

   Things have been quiet this school year until about two weeks ago, when, the school resource officer reported, a 16-year-old student passed out morphine to fellow classmates who'd asked for the pills. An investigation continues and the girl has been suspended for the school year, Sheriff James C. Voutour said.

   Should Wilson voters decide a school resource officer is no longer needed, they would join Royalton-Hartland as the only public high school in Niagara County without a police presence on school grounds.

   Thomas C. Beatty, administrative captain for the Niagara County Sheriff's Office, said schools across the country face new problems, including increased drug use, more aggressive bullying and nontraditional gangs. School resource officers provide an added measure of security and education, he and other said.

   "[Officers] provide insight and experiences not only in law enforcement, but in all aspects of criminal justice," Barker school Superintendent Roger J. Klatt said. "Ours has been a major part of our instructional program, and, in turn, I think that kind of education fosters a kind of a climate that is understanding of issues and concerns with our youth."

   -- News Niagara Editor Scott Scanlon

Many questions remain in Wilson High School morphine investigation

   We found out Friday morning that a Wilson High School student brought what's suspected to be 52 morphine pills to school this week.

   We know she gave some of the pills to classmates, but there's still some mystery surrounding the situation.

   School officials and the Niagara County sheriff were willing to provide some information. But here's what we — and the public, including parents of Wilson school district students — still don't know:

   — How many students received the pills?

   — How many took them?

   — How many may have gotten sick?

   — How were school officials alerted to the situation?

   — And, most important to parents of all high school students, how common is it for students to share contraband prescription drugs?

   — Aaron Besecker

Suspected morphine case under investigation at Wilson High School

   Reporter Aaron Besecker is following a story about a student who brought suspected morphine pills to Wilson High School this week.

   Click here to read his latest report.

Wilson's coaching vacancies tough to fill

   Officials in the Wilson School District say they've had a hard time finding individuals willing to coach the varsity and junior varsity baseball teams this spring.

   The only two people that have thrown their names in the hat are two volunteer coaches who were on the bus when an incident of alleged sexual abuse happened in April.

   School officials haven't yet filled the positions -- vacant because the two head coaches who were also on the bus at the time are awaiting trial on child endangerment charges.

   The Board of Education's Jan. 13 agenda included the potential hiring of John M. Thilk, 47, and Gerard "Jerry" J. Kadryna, 60. But any action was put on hold following the outcry of several parents.

   The district posted the jobs again, and the application period ends today.

   "We're striving to do the best we can with coaches to keep the baseball season going this year," School Board President Timothy F. Kropp said. "If you don't get qualified coaches, you don't have a season."

   School officials said the hirings could be finalized when the board meets on Feb. 10. Spring baseball practice is scheduled to begin March 2, and the season starts April 3.

   If the district can't find any other applicants, should Thilk and Kadryna be hired?

   -- Aaron Besecker