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January 29th, 2007, 2:38:59 PM
They don't mention the family by name, but if it's the family I think it is, my daughter's softball team (I helped coach) played against this lady's daughter's softball team (that she coached) last summer. Also, the teacher in question was a teacher at my daughter's school.
Family flees city's glare; Forced to leave after popular teacher's arrest
MARIA CALABRESE
Local News - Sunday, January 28, 2007 Updated @ 10:41:32 AM
His home was pelted with eggs. Students swore vengeance in the hallways.
These weren't the usual antics of school bullies targeting an awkward 14-year-old. These were enraged neighbours who admonished the teen and his family for blowing the whistle on a popular teacher caught committing a quiet crime in the secrecy of cyberspace.
"My son was threatened. He couldn't even walk down the street to walk our dogs," says his mother.
"Somebody threw a piece of antifreeze-soaked meat in my backyard in order to kill my dogs. That was probably the end of my patience on this."
She's an educator and her husband is a member of the United States air force. They were based at CFB North Bay until the family was run out of town by the backlash.
And she's angry that an elementary teacher used a school computer to prey on her severely learning disabled son, who was vulnerable to the attention and affection.
That teacher is expected to be sentenced Friday in a North Bay courtroom.
Derek Burke, 39, is out on bail and pleaded guilty last month to luring a child through the Internet while he was a teacher at W.J. Fricker Senior Public School.
As part of the plea agreement, he would not serve any jail time and a more serious charge of sexual exploitation has been withdrawn.
A court-imposed publication ban is in place to protect the victim's identity.
"We are American. I'm proud of that. We defended Canadian soil for two years. We were not ready to leave North Bay. We volunteered in the community. I taught softball for two years that we were there. I was very heavily involved in the community.
Doubleday Canada Limited
You don't hear about that," she says.
Her son likewise was a member of the Fricker Crusaders, a volunteer group of students under Burke's tutelage who cleaned up parts of the community.
Some students joined Burke for a cleanup June 10 at the landmark Terrace Lawn Cemetery.
Hours later, he was in police custody.
Within two months, the family - at the recommendation of the American commander at CFB North Bay - was transferred to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia where the teen's mother spoke to The Nugget in a recent phone interview.
While cleaning out files on their home computer, the teen's stepfather stumbled across countless messages to and from the teen's teacher using MSN Messenger - a popular online instant-messaging program.
"I've never really seen my husband that upset. The last time I saw him that upset was when I was diagnosed with cancer six years ago," his wife says.
The court proceedings were concerned with a series of messages from May 30 to June 8 that were obtained by The Nugget. Those messages are rife with sexual innuendo, trading fantasies and at one point making hypothetical plans on the Saturday that turned out to be the day of the arrest.
Burke repeatedly asks if the teen is home alone and ends a chat abruptly when one of his children enters the room.
Yet he also pays compliments, asks if other students are bothering the teen and praises his accomplishments.
Student: i showed my mother my essay mark and she wuz like kiss me all over my cheek..im like mom stop!
Burke: That's awesoem! she musta been pretty proud!!
"He's hearing all these wonderful things," his mother says. "He doesn't fit in socially anyway, but yet now you have this really popular teacher who's showing you all this attention."
The teen's biological father walked out because he was different, his mother says.
These days the teen, now 15, spends a lot of time at home.
"My new husband has had to work his butt off over the last 11 years to gain some sort of trust with him. They were just getting there and then this happened," she says.
"I don't know whether he's gay. I think he is. I don't know if he's come to terms with that yet. That's not my issue with this. My issue is I don't think that somebody who is almost 40 years old has the right to manipulate the mind of somebody who's mind is fragile."
Others in the community didn't see it that way.
"I've known Derek for almost 20 years and these accusations are absolutely fabricated without a doubt . . . He is genuinely a good person and I just wish there were more people like him in this world," says one comment to an online journal that saw heavy traffic in the days following the arrest.
The pendulum swung in the days following the plea.
"To the victim's mother: I cannot fathom your anguish. I have walked a pathway close to the one you are walking right now, and I cannot help but feel some of your pain," writes another.
". . . The only thing I will give him (Burke) credit for is admitting to it."
http://www.nugget.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=379225&catname=Local%20News&classif=News%20-%20Local
Family flees city's glare; Forced to leave after popular teacher's arrest
MARIA CALABRESE
Local News - Sunday, January 28, 2007 Updated @ 10:41:32 AM
His home was pelted with eggs. Students swore vengeance in the hallways.
These weren't the usual antics of school bullies targeting an awkward 14-year-old. These were enraged neighbours who admonished the teen and his family for blowing the whistle on a popular teacher caught committing a quiet crime in the secrecy of cyberspace.
"My son was threatened. He couldn't even walk down the street to walk our dogs," says his mother.
"Somebody threw a piece of antifreeze-soaked meat in my backyard in order to kill my dogs. That was probably the end of my patience on this."
She's an educator and her husband is a member of the United States air force. They were based at CFB North Bay until the family was run out of town by the backlash.
And she's angry that an elementary teacher used a school computer to prey on her severely learning disabled son, who was vulnerable to the attention and affection.
That teacher is expected to be sentenced Friday in a North Bay courtroom.
Derek Burke, 39, is out on bail and pleaded guilty last month to luring a child through the Internet while he was a teacher at W.J. Fricker Senior Public School.
As part of the plea agreement, he would not serve any jail time and a more serious charge of sexual exploitation has been withdrawn.
A court-imposed publication ban is in place to protect the victim's identity.
"We are American. I'm proud of that. We defended Canadian soil for two years. We were not ready to leave North Bay. We volunteered in the community. I taught softball for two years that we were there. I was very heavily involved in the community.
Doubleday Canada Limited
You don't hear about that," she says.
Her son likewise was a member of the Fricker Crusaders, a volunteer group of students under Burke's tutelage who cleaned up parts of the community.
Some students joined Burke for a cleanup June 10 at the landmark Terrace Lawn Cemetery.
Hours later, he was in police custody.
Within two months, the family - at the recommendation of the American commander at CFB North Bay - was transferred to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia where the teen's mother spoke to The Nugget in a recent phone interview.
While cleaning out files on their home computer, the teen's stepfather stumbled across countless messages to and from the teen's teacher using MSN Messenger - a popular online instant-messaging program.
"I've never really seen my husband that upset. The last time I saw him that upset was when I was diagnosed with cancer six years ago," his wife says.
The court proceedings were concerned with a series of messages from May 30 to June 8 that were obtained by The Nugget. Those messages are rife with sexual innuendo, trading fantasies and at one point making hypothetical plans on the Saturday that turned out to be the day of the arrest.
Burke repeatedly asks if the teen is home alone and ends a chat abruptly when one of his children enters the room.
Yet he also pays compliments, asks if other students are bothering the teen and praises his accomplishments.
Student: i showed my mother my essay mark and she wuz like kiss me all over my cheek..im like mom stop!
Burke: That's awesoem! she musta been pretty proud!!
"He's hearing all these wonderful things," his mother says. "He doesn't fit in socially anyway, but yet now you have this really popular teacher who's showing you all this attention."
The teen's biological father walked out because he was different, his mother says.
These days the teen, now 15, spends a lot of time at home.
"My new husband has had to work his butt off over the last 11 years to gain some sort of trust with him. They were just getting there and then this happened," she says.
"I don't know whether he's gay. I think he is. I don't know if he's come to terms with that yet. That's not my issue with this. My issue is I don't think that somebody who is almost 40 years old has the right to manipulate the mind of somebody who's mind is fragile."
Others in the community didn't see it that way.
"I've known Derek for almost 20 years and these accusations are absolutely fabricated without a doubt . . . He is genuinely a good person and I just wish there were more people like him in this world," says one comment to an online journal that saw heavy traffic in the days following the arrest.
The pendulum swung in the days following the plea.
"To the victim's mother: I cannot fathom your anguish. I have walked a pathway close to the one you are walking right now, and I cannot help but feel some of your pain," writes another.
". . . The only thing I will give him (Burke) credit for is admitting to it."
http://www.nugget.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=379225&catname=Local%20News&classif=News%20-%20Local