Teacher Guilty of Student Sex Assault- This One Hits Home
As I perused the Saturday newspapers, the headlines shot from the pages. The Citizen: “Area educator guilty of student sex assault” The Laconia Daily Sun: “Former Gilford Middle School teacher admits to sexually assaulting 14-year-old student in 2000” The Concord Monitor: “Ex-educator pleads guilty in sex assault. Gilford High student was 14 at time” The Union Leader: “Former Gilford teacher gets two years in sex assault of student” Sounds like the stuff of cable news channels- except it’s happening right here.
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The Daily Sun article, written by Michael Kitch, tells us
Mathew McGonagle, 36, of Contoocook, who recently resigned as assistant principal at Rundlett Middle school in Concord, pled guilty to one count of felonious sexual assault and two counts of misdemeanor sexual assault in Belknap Superior Court yesterday. The charges followed a lengthy investigation by the Belknap County Sheriff’s Office and Belknap County Attorney’s Office undertaken after a young woman reported that McGonagle sexually assaulted her during the 1999-2000 school year when she was a student at Gilford Middle School.
Remember- we’re talking about a 14 year-old! Most of the sexual encounters occurred on school property! As a father of two school age children, I can absolutely feel the rage that must be felt by this poor woman and her family. For a person in authority to violate the trust granted him due to his position as a teacher and, as reported, family friend, is especially egregious. The news reports tell of the confessed child molester’s repeated attempts at pursuing a relationship with the girl after she began to distance herself from her teacher/friend/attacker-even sender her written letters of his desires- which the prosecutors had in their possession.
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