IN - Elwood school superintendent paid for student’s medical treatment with her insurance, 2019

[Medstudies]

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Charges
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01 01/15/2019 35-43-5-4.5(a)(1)/F6: Insurance Fraud knowing AND with intent to defraud makes, utters, presents a c
02 01/15/2019 35-43-5-3.5(a)/F6: Identity Deception obtain, possess, transfer or use identifying information of an
03 01/15/2019 35-44.1-1-1(1)/F6: Official Misconduct def., a public servant, knowingly or intentionally commits an
04 01/15/2019 35-43-5-7.2(a)(1)/MA:Insurance Fraud Files a child's health ins. claim, including an electronic clai

03/25/2019
Pretrial Conference
Session:
03/25/2019 9:00 AM, Judicial Officer: Clem, Thomas L
11/25/2019
Final PreTrial Conference
Session:
11/25/2019 1:00 PM, Judicial Officer: Clem, Thomas L
12/17/2019
Jury Trial
Session:
12/17/2019 9:00 AM...

 

[mickey2942]

There could be more charges, if the parents decide to get into it..

Medical care for a minor without parental consent. That is huge.

 

[IceIce9]

She has resigned but my phone will not let me paste the link......

The best and only logical outcome. And I still think there is more to the story than had been revealed. MOO.

 

[Medstudies]

Check out the home I found in Elwood

She’s got a nice home, and had a nice career, just thrown away.

Echoing agreement, there is more to the story- MOO, more than platonic concern.

 

[mickey2942]

Imagine if a male superintendent had taken a female student (15 yo) to a medical appointment using his daughter's ID.

There would have been no questions about termination in a heartbeat.

Isn't there a policy about taking children in personal cars? I had a district van, and parent permission slips.

This woman really needs some treatment.

 

[IceIce9]

Check out the home I found in Elwood

She’s got a nice home, and had a nice career, just thrown away.

Echoing agreement, there is more to the story- MOO, more than platonic concern.

In Indiana the salary of superintendents is made public, and averages between $120K and $150K. I don’t know how that compares to other states.

 

[Medstudies]

I think I live in the county just to your west.
I don’t know this person but know people from Brownsburg who do. @IceIce9

 

[Medstudies]

Elwood names Brownsburg principal as new superintendent

https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-smitherman-3993b1148/


https://www.google.com/amp/s/heavy.com/news/2019/01/casey-smitherman/amp/

http://elwood.k12.in.us/images/SuperintendentContract.pdf

 

[IceIce9]

Interesting- Casey Smitherman’s husband is on the board of directors and serves on the finance committee of Covering Kids and Families of Indiana.

Home - Covering Kids and Families

“Our vision: All Hoosiers have accessible healthcare coverage.

Our mission: We promote and facilitate healthcare coverage by building coalitions that enroll, educate and support Hoosiers and by advocating for strong and inclusive public policies. “

Smitherman said she consulted her husband before committing insurance fraud but he never advised her to commit the crime. I would hope not, because he is the Indiana president of CareSource.


Smitherman: Husband did not encourage insurance fraud

 

[Gumbeaux]

Imagine if a male superintendent had taken a female student (15 yo) to a medical appointment using his daughter's ID.

There would have been no questions about termination in a heartbeat.

Isn't there a policy about taking children in personal cars? I had a district van, and parent permission slips.

This woman really needs some treatment.

Exactly! I am tired of female educators getting a slap on the wrist. This woman crossed many boundaries, and the student’s family said there was no need. She clearly had a need to be intimately involved in his caretaking (at best) — haircuts, food, often buying clothes.

 

[IceIce9]

Exactly! I am tired of female educators getting a slap on the wrist. This woman crossed many boundaries, and the student’s family said there was no need. She clearly had a need to be intimately involved in his caretaking (at best) — haircuts, food, often buying clothes.

Here is what the boy’s guardian said. Doesn’t sound like he would have refused medical care for the boy.


The boy’s guardian and uncle told an Indianapolis TV News reporter that, “more than likely I could have taken care of it — I mean, I’m not totally broke, but we have to scrape a little bit now and then.” He says the school should have notified him instead.

 

[mickey2942]

Exactly! I am tired of female educators getting a slap on the wrist. This woman crossed many boundaries, and the student’s family said there was no need. She clearly had a need to be intimately involved in his caretaking (at best) — haircuts, food, often buying clothes.

There is definitely a problem when any district personnel take any child in their personal car. I know how many teachers have driven kids home, and say all of these "justifications", but it is a slippery slope of inappropriate boundaries.

I saw a movie on tv, about this teacher, the Ron Clark story,
The Ron Clark Story - Wikipedia
The "wonderful" teacher went to kids homes, when their parents were not home, took kids home with him, on and on....seriously?

I taught school for 20 years, and as a Special Education teacher was probably more involved with students than most teachers, but I never did anything inappropriate, or without parent permission slips. That is the difference.

Sure, a lot of my students lived crap lives, that was their Karma, my job was not to save the world.

 

[IceIce9]

I am surprised by the amount of support that Casey Smitherman has received after national media picked up this story.

I have seen several very misleading headlines, one was, “Superintendent Saved Student’s Life Forced to Resign”

Someone even started an online campaign to raise money for her legal expenses.

The support she is receiving is national, I have not heard one positive comment in local media from any parent or school employee.

 

[ScottKaltbier]

Even if, as people suggest, she had paid for the medical treatment, that would also be illegal.
As an executive, she made some very stupid decisions all around.
I agree with the opinion that there seems to be more to the story than is being published.
If you are concerned about this kids health and an emergency exists there is way more better options.
Like some saying poor her she was just trying to do good and projecting sympathy she had on the childs wellbeing is without context.
All she had to do was report her concerns to child protective services.
I side with the idea that she had no reasons to be that involved with that much personal healthcare of a child that was not hers.
In addition she lost her job.. career.. seriously risking her own familys needs and her actual responsibilitys for what?
I mean I imagine this resulted in her own sons health insurance and healthcare now gone.
I'm not going to risk my kids insurance at all.
Seems just very stupid that an educated person would come to those conclusions as a way to solve this problem.

 

[IceIce9]

She had taken the boy to two clinics. The first clinic refused to see him without a parent or guardian’s consent.

At the second clinic she lied and said the boy was her son. They took her word for it and treated him.

The first clinic, who refused to see him, is owned by the company I work for. I’m a clinical trainer and I travel to our clinic locations all over the country to conduct training sessions. I use this incident as an example in my training sessions to stress the importance of checking an ID on every patient.

Our clinic did the right thing by refusing to treat him without permission of the guardian.

 

[mickey2942]

She had taken the boy to two clinics. The first clinic refused to see him without a parent or guardian’s consent.

At the second clinic she lied and said the boy was her son. They took her word for it and treated him.

The first clinic, who refused to see him, is owned by the company I work for. I’m a clinical trainer and I travel to our clinic locations all over the country to conduct training sessions. I use this incident as an example in my training sessions to stress the importance of checking an ID on every patient.

Our clinic did the right thing by refusing to treat him without permission of the guardian.

Kudos! I think that training is very important. People like this manipulate others, into breaking rules.

Drill into folks, follow the policy. Any questions, go to a supervisor. Never go against the policies that are written to help you from getting manipulated by criminals.