http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22372183/
"It's all a mistake," John "Jack" Stelmack said to reporters outside the jail.
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During the court hearing Stelmack's wife, Kathleen, spoke about his educational and professional achievements, Assistant State Attorney Brad Copley objected that the material was irrelevant to his questions.
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The school district had been investigating Stelmack since last Friday, after faculty members complained about Stelmack's level of affection shown toward some students. He has been suspended with pay since that investigation began.
More details about Stelmack's previous work history in New York emerged today.
Stelmack's resignation as principal of Ellicott Elementary in suburban Buffalo, N.Y., was accepted on Feb. 28, 2006, according to 2006 meeting minutes from the Orchard Park Central School District Board of Education.
The resignation was to take effect on June 30 of that year. No reason is given in the minutes for Stelmack's resignation.
The decision came one day after the announcement that a bus driver at his school was arrested on charges of possession of child *advertiser censored* obtained over the Internet, according to the minutes.
It is not clear in the minutes if Stelmack's resignation was related to the bus driver's arrest.
The 2006 Buffalo case involved bus driver Terryl Noyes, whom U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accused of downloading sexually explicit images of children believed to be 10 to 12 years old. Noyes was an employee of the bus company that provided service to Buffalo area schools.
According to federal agents, Noyes admitted he would trade with others the images that came from Russian and U.S. Internet sites. He was sentenced in March to more than five years in federal prison, according to news reports.
A criminal background check conducted by the Polk school district on Stelmack revealed only a 1986 arrest for drunken driving. The charge later was reduced to reckless driving.
Ron Ciranna, head of the school district's human resources, said the district hired Stelmack without receiving his full personnel records from New York.
It was a mistake that violated school district policy, which is to review all such records prior to hiring a principal, Ciranna said. (MORE AT LINK)
Unbelievable. Fire the idiots that hired him without checking him out completely and put those poor children at risk.