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A group of middle school boys are being lauded as heroes after it was revealed they had been documenting a teacher who was acting inappropriately with students.
Eight students from Davisville Middle School in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, tried to report what was happening with a teacher. This included ogling girls in their class, giving them nicknames, and asking them to dance for him.
When the students tried to report the situation, they weren’t taken seriously.
This is what led to what they called the “pedo database”.
\u201cWhen the group tried reporting the situation, ADULTS DIDN\u2019T TAKE THEM SERIOUSLY, one of them told the Globe. The teacher himself had even commented that he'd received complaints for decades without any action being taken against him, according to the Globe https://t.co/UURW60jKtw\u201d— Sasha K. Taylor (@Sasha K. Taylor) 1662982045
\u201cKids once again doing the job that their parents and authorities are too cowardly to do.\u201d— 4thIndustrialSavage (@4thIndustrialSavage) 1662991240
\u201cThis gives me hope for the younger generations. The boys could have ignored it, teased the girls about it, but they documented it all after the school ignored their report. Now it's part of an investigation. This is what men/boys should be doing.\u201d— bat yael (@bat yael) 1663076043
\u201c@EdLatimore This should happen more often\u201d— Ed Latimore (@Ed Latimore) 1663033360
\u201c@Gamer4life111 @ReviewsPossum Databased.\u201d— Possum Reviews (@Possum Reviews) 1662998563
The Boston Globe interviewed one of the boys, who is now a 15-year-old high school student. According to him, this had been going on for decades, with no action taken against the teacher.
The teacher’s actions with female students made things uncomfortable for everyone.
“Sometimes they'd laugh. Sometimes they just kind of just sit there awkwardly. Even the ones that said he was 'creepy' laughed because they were obviously not trying to tick him off or anything. So they're just fake laughing, awkwardly laughing.”
Seeing their classmates in an uncomfortable position with an authority figure didn’t sit right with the boys. In January 2021, they started to track the teacher's behavior.
According to their database, the teacher asked female students to do things like “stand up and dance” and asked one girl to take off her shoes and wiggle her toes without moving her pinkie toes. One time, he even suggested all the students show up in bathing suits to their virtual class the next day.
When the school year came to an end, the students recruited a group of incoming students and asked them to keep tabs on the teacher, as they went on to the next school year.
Finally, it all came to a head when a student’s family accused the teacher of stalking her and threatened to sue the school. The boys had their chance to come forward with everything they documented.
Considering everything that went on, it’s amazing it took this long.
\u201c1\ufe0f\u20e3How was he even an employee?\n2\ufe0f\u20e3How is he only "on leave" now?\nThe teacher should be fired.\nHe crossed boundaries & did inappropriate, unprofessional things. \n\u27a1\ufe0fWorse, he has a documented history of inappropriate conduct w minors.\ud83d\ude21 \nhttps://t.co/2G0sEpo3uV\u201d— Resolute Mama (@Resolute Mama) 1662982919
\u201c@sheepsleepdeep Crazy that even the parents of teen girl were ignored until they threatened to sue\u201d— Ed Latimore (@Ed Latimore) 1663033360
\u201c@TaraCampbellCom Disgusting af. I got livid reading this.\u201d— DeMisty D. Bellinger Wants a New SCOTUS (@DeMisty D. Bellinger Wants a New SCOTUS) 1663001736
\u201cHe wasn't trans, so the school administration didn't care. Cishet men are by far the biggest threat of pedophile abuse, but trans people and other LGBT folks get most of the hate. \n https://t.co/xoUBMwUZfE\u201d— Jones Murphy (@Jones Murphy) 1663005115
\u201c@manning_sven @SaltyCracker9 No one took the boys serious.? No surprise there. One would think the stigma that males can always take care of themselves would be dead in this age of the internet where information is at your fingertips and maybe a few searches away. Hint. Not just little girls who disappear.\u201d— Sven Manning (@Sven Manning) 1663034225
The pedo database is now in the hands of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the state Department of Education as criminal and internal investigations into the teacher take place.
The teacher at the center of the investigation remains on leave, but some students are saying it’d be best if he didn’t come back.
The 15-year-old said to the Globe:
“Everybody has talked about it, since sixth grade, how much they’ve hated his behavior and all of that. That’s also why I feel like even if their investigation finds nothing, putting him back in the school would be a disaster.”
And hopefully, if something like this happens again, someone will believe the children.