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SPRINGFIELD

NEWS-LEADER FILE PHOTO

An election worker lays out voting
THE CASE
stickers during a previous election
day. Springfield City Council is
considering whether to put a
renewal of the level property tax
on the November ballot.
“In every professi
on,
OF RONNIE
More details
emerge on
there are people w
slip through the cr
and they get hire
– Dennis Lewis
ho
acks
d.” WHITE Red flags,
warning
signs and
cracks in
former director
potential of school police
“That’s what dis
sometimes. They
tricts do the system
move
tax renewal problems aroun
of getting rid of
d instead
ALISSA ZHU them.”
– Sharri Harwic
DZHU@NEWS-LEADER.COM
former principa k,
l
The deadline draws near for
Springfield City Council if they
want to ask voters to pass a tax
renewal in November. Fall Fall Fall Fall Fall Spring
The city’s needs are critical, 1984 1986 1995 1998 2005 2010
officials have said. And while Hired by Starts at Starts at Starts at Starts Retires from
millions of dollars are avail- Springfield Parkview Carver Central at Pipkin Springfield
able from the already existing Public High Middle High Middle Public
level property tax, that money Schools School School School School Schools
currently can’t be used for new
projects.
If voters approve, potential 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
projects the city has cited in-
clude a police unit for investi-
gating human trafficking, new Spring Spring Spring Fall
fire stations for northwest 1993 2002 2007 2014
Springfield and daylighting there
Jordan Creek to allow for an ur- “I didn’t know Allegations Allegations and Fall Allegations
incidents surface surface 2008 surface
ban stream to run above
ground through a small part of
had been any Allegations that lead
im.”
downtown. before with h “There are Ron
surface to charges
There are still several deci- ick,
– Sharri Harw al
sions council members need to
former princi
p Whites everywhe
make before the Aug. 29 filing re .”
deadline for the November – Dennis Lewis
election. They include: Which former director
projects should be included? of school police
Should ongoing expenses such
as salaries be funded? How de-
tailed should the ballot lan-
guage be? Should the tax be set
to end after a number of years?
Is November the right date to
ask voters the big question?
Council’s Finance and Ad-
ministration Committee dis-
cussed those questions at a
Tuesday afternoon meeting
without coming to a consensus. CLAUDETTE RILEY CRILEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM
Councilman Richard Ollis AND GIACOMO BOLOGNA GBOLOGNA@NEWS-LEADER.COM FILED AND
was in favor of outlining the FORGOTTEN SE
onnie White spent 25 years as a Springfield teacher and RIES
See TAX, Page 6A

R coach. He moved, or was transferred, to five different

schools. And his personnel file collected complaints —
about sexual comments, touching and other inappropriate
activity — involving at least 10 underage girls.
Over the years, more than a dozen school employees were told
there was a problem, including teachers, counselors, principals,
school police officers and human resources officials.
Coming Tuesda
Complaint after
was dismissed. Th
and a confession.
Online: To see ot
and videos in this
y:
complaint
en a call,

her stories
series, go
online to News-L
But White stayed in the classroom. eader.
com/FiledAnd
It wasn’t until 2015, five years after he retired with full benefits,
Forgotten
that the public received a hint of what select school officials had
known for years: White had a problem keeping his hands to himself.
White was charged that year with committing sex crimes
against a young teen early in his career. The former student, now in
her 40s, told police White fondled her, engaged in oral sex and digi- INSIDE
tally penetrated her behind closed doors at her home and Parkview osecutor
Who to call: Pr
High School. s W hi te ca se ‘empowers
hope
He pleaded guilty to deviate sexual assault, a felony. He was s’ of se xual
other victim
I am an American branded a sex offender. assaul t, Pa ge 4A
We are One Nation At a hearing to determine jail time, a Greene County prosecutor
How we report
ed it: An
dropped a bombshell: The girl was not the first to complain about e News-Leader
Each week, this series will explaine r of th
White. Confidential school personnel records, obtained by the po- d the
introduce you to an exceptional lice, showed the former teacher was repeatedly accused of crossing investigation an
ob ta in ed ,
American who unites, rather records
than divides, our communities. See WHITE, Page 4A Page 4A
In this installment, read about
Stephanie Paredes, of Rochester, USA TODAY NETWORK ILLUSTRATION/GETTY IMAGES
New York, co-founder of the
Rochester Latino Theater
Company. Page 6E

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4A July 30, 2017
Prosecutor hopes case ‘empowers other victims’
No statute of limitations for serious felonies in Missouri
CLAUDETTE RILEY
CRILEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM
AND GIACOMO BOLOGNA
GBOLOGNA@NEWS-LEADER.COM
It is not too late to come for-
ward.
That is a message Greene
County Prosecutor Dan Patter-
son hopes will resonate with
victims of sexual assault who
learn of the Ronnie White case.
Patterson’s office success-
fully obtained a guilty plea from
the former Springfield teacher
and coach. Last year, White ad-
mitted to engaging in deviate
sexual assault of a teen, a for-
mer student, in the early 1990s.
“This is an unusual case in
the way it came about, where
How we
reported
GIACOMO BOLOGNA
GBOLOGNA@NEWS-LEADER.COM
AND CLAUDETTE RILEY
CRILEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM
When a retired Spring-
field teacher was convict-
ed in 2016 of sexually abus-
ing a Parkview High
School student, the News-
Leader investigated and
found the teacher, Ronnie
White, was moved from
school to school as student
complaints were doubted,
ignored and forgotten.
Parents, students and
even some principals were
never made aware that
White was accused of
touching or sexually ha-
rassing at least 10 girls dur-
ing a career that spanned
more than two decades.
The school district
hasn’t told them — and
wouldn’t if they asked.
Under Missouri law,
complaints against teach-
ers are not considered pub-
lic records if they are han-
dled by a school district.
Springfield Public Schools
refused to release any of
the complaints against
White or acknowledge
their existence.
However, a prosecutor
mentioned the complaints
at White’s 2016 sentencing
hearing, saying White was
“essentially being protect-
ed by his employers.” Six
months after the sentenc-
ing hearing, the case was
closed, and the News-Lead-
er filed a Sunshine Law re-
quest to obtain the docu-
ments cited by the prose-
cutor.
Those documents show
the school district repeat-
edly dismissed accusa-
tions from students; one
girl was forced to take a
polygraph test. At one
point, administrators
“strongly” advised White
to stop touching students
— advice he wouldn’t fol-
low.
The News-Leader also
requested and obtained a
transcript of White’s phone
calls with the woman he
abused in the early 1990s —
phone calls that would be-
come the foundation of the
criminal case against the
former educator.
Records obtained show
White was one of the high-
est paid teachers when he
retired in 2010 and that he
was apparently never dis-
ciplined for touching or ha-
rassing a student.
During the monthslong
investigation, the News-
Leader reviewed police re-
ports, school memos and
internal investigations,
and interviewed teachers,
school administrators, ex-
perts and local law en-
forcement.
White declined to com-
ment for this series.
He was sentenced to
seven years in prison,
though he only spent a few
months behind bars for
sexually abusing the 14-
year-old girl.
In December, after 120
days in a sexual offender
assessment unit, White
was released on probation.
you have the allegations from
20 years ago,” he said. “You
have a victim who over time and
based on her training and expe-
rience, becoming a profession-
al, decided it was time for her to
come forward and talk about
what happened to her.”
Patterson said while “de-
layed disclosure” is quite com-
mon, the outcome of this case —
the criminal charge and the
guilty plea — will encourage
others to speak up.
“When people come forward
like that, it also empowers other
victims,” he said.
Under Missouri law, there is
no statute of limitations for the
most serious felony crimes, in-
cluding forcible rape, attempt-
Ronnie White garnered attention as a winning coach at Parkview High. He was reassigned from Parkview after allegations of sexual harassment.
White
Continued from Page 1A
the line with female students.
Although the details were
not shared in court, the News-
Leader was able to obtain the
files through an open records
request. The compiled docu-
ments reference troublesome
interactions White allegedly
had with at least 10 middle and
high school girls while em-
ployed by Springfield Public
Schools.
Allegations from the early
1990s to the late 2000s included
behavior experts have de-
scribed as textbook “groom-
ing” of potential victims and, in
some cases, involved inappro-
priate touching and sexually
suggestive language.
“You had all these incidents
of various degrees of inappro-
priate behavior that appear to
all have been viewed in isola-
tion from one another,” said
Greene County Prosecutor Dan
Patterson, whose office suc-
cessfully prosecuted the case.
He said if the incidents had
been viewed together, it might
have “caused a different reac-
tion.”
Altogether, the records pro-
vide a rare glimpse into how
the district handled investiga-
tions of a sexual nature and
highlight cracks in the system
that allowed White — and pos-
sibly other abusers — to re-
main in the classroom despite a
string of allegations.
The documents also raise
alarming questions:
» Is anybody keeping track
of school employees who are
accused of crossing the line,
even if they are not disciplined,
to see if patterns emerge?
» Why were investigations
handled mostly “in house” with
little or no involvement from
law enforcement agencies?
» If a teacher, previously ac-
cused of wrongdoing, moves
from one school to the next,
who has the right to know?
School officials will say lit-
tle, despite repeated requests
by the News-Leader, refusing
THE CASE OF
RONNIE WHITE
ed forcible rape and forcible so-
domy.
Prosecutions for other un-
lawful sex acts involving indi-
viduals under age 18 must start
within 20 years of the victim
turning age 18.
Springfield police spokes-
woman Lisa Cox said calling
“911 is definitely our first choice
for reporting.” She said if vic-
tims call 417-864-1810, they will
be transferred to 911 dispatch so
an officer can be sent to their lo-
cation.
Victims also can file reports
at police headquarters, 321 E.
Chestnut Expressway, from 7
a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a
week or at the south district sta-
tion, 2620 W. Battlefield Road,
Ronnie White during his coaching years in Springfield Public Schools.
to comment on White’s case or
make public the documents re-
lated to the complaints.
Details in the school records
obtained by police prompted
prosecutor Nathan Chapman to
allege, at White’s sentencing,
that he was “essentially being
protected by his employers.”
He noted school investigators
repeatedly found that White
did nothing wrong.
More than once, school offi-
cials questioned the credibility
of the girls who came forward.
At least one girl was asked to
take a lie detector test. There is
no record White was asked to
do the same.
Another girl’s allegations
were dismissed, in part, be-
cause administrators were told
by her guardian that she had
been the victim of a previous
rape and overreacted to all men
as a result.
School records give no indi-
cation that White was repri-
manded, beyond a sternly
worded letter telling him to
stop touching girls so they
wouldn’t misinterpret his
“friendly gestures.”
The records also show alle-
SUNDAY NEWS-LEADER § News-Leader.com
from 8 a.m. to 4
p.m. weekdays.
Cox said the
Uniform Crime
Reporting Pro-
gram, managed
by the FBI, de-
Dan Patterson fines rape as
penetration, no
matter how slight, of the vagina
or anus with any body part or
object.
In 2016, there were 280 rapes
reported in Springfield. In the
first five months of 2017, from
January through May, 87 rapes
were reported.
For those outside city limits,
the Greene County Sheriff’s Of-
fice is at 1010 N. Boonville Ave.
and can be reached at 417-868-
4040.
Both law enforcement agen-
cies routinely work with other
SUBMITTED BY JAYNE WHITE
gations of inappropriate behav-
ior by White were not a secret.
Over the years, they were re-
ported to more than a dozen
school employees, including
teachers, counselors, princi-
pals, school police and human
resources officials.
As part of the recent investi-
gation, a former Parkview
coach told police he knew
White had a “relationship” with
a student. He admitted walking
in on the two, in a dark room,
grabbing at their pants. He said
he reported the incident to a
counselor.
The counselor didn’t recall
the report; neither did the prin-
cipal. If any investigation was
conducted, nothing came of it.
Other complaints, once re-
ported and investigated, all but
disappeared into a vacuum.
White moved from one
school to the next. His record
apparently did not follow.
Principals in schools where
White worked toward the end
of his career told the News-
Leader he was “placed” there,
but they were not told why.
They said they were not told of
any prior allegations.
entities, including:
» The Victim Center, 819 N.
Boonville Ave., 417-863-7273
» Child Advocacy Center,
1033 E. Walnut St., 417-831-2327
» Harmony House, 3404 E.
Ridgeview St., 417-837-7700
While law enforcement will
likely get involved, a young vic-
tim has the option of reporting
the incident to a “mandated re-
porter.” In Missouri, the list of
mandated reporters includes
physicians, nurses, social work-
ers, day care staff, teachers,
ministers, law enforcement of-
ficials and others responsible
for the care of children.
The Children’s Division
Child Abuse and Neglect Hot-
line is a toll-free line answered
24 hours a day, seven days a
week, all year. The number is 1-
800-392-3738.
ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER
SUBMITTED PHOTO
A photo of Jayne and Ronnie
White in the photocopied
sentencing report provided by
attorney Dee Wampler.
If principals didn’t know,
parents and students didn’t
know either.
“He was put there by the dis-
trict office,” said former Pip-
kin Middle School Principal
Sharri Harwick. “Every now
and then, I would get someone
sent to me.”
Harwick and others said
they were never given a heads-
up about White’s history.
“I didn’t know there had
been any incidents before with
him,” she said. “If I had known
there had been, I would have
watched him like a hawk.”
One principal said he was
told about previous issues only
after allegations surfaced in
his building. At Pipkin, the final
school where White worked,
Harwick said she was never
told, even after allegations
were lodged there, as well.
No one seemed to be looking
at the big picture. If a pattern
was suspected, no one sounded
the alarm.
The disconnect may have
been due, in part, to a tug of war
over how in-house personnel
investigations were conducted
in recent decades. Early in
White’s career, they were han-
dled by school police. Later,
oversight was given to human
resources.
School officials say the cur-
rent setup is more of a hybrid,
with mandatory involvement
by outside agencies.
Continued on Next Page
SUNDAY NEWS-LEADER § News-Leader.com
THE CASE OF
RONNIE WHITE
Timeline of a career, and the
complaints it almost concealed
Ronnie Wayne White was born in 1947 and taught in public
schools for nearly four decades, including 25 years in Springfield
Public Schools. Here is a look at his life and career based on in-
formation prepared by his defense attorney as well as school,
police and court records:
Early life
» 1965 — Graduates from Bloomfield High School, 220 miles east
of Springfield
» 1969 — Earns bachelor’s degree from Southwest Baptist Univer-
sity; obtains lifetime teaching certificate in health, physical educa-
tion and speech and theater for grades 7-12 (since revoked)
» 1970-72 — Serves in U.S. Army, completing basic training at Fort
Leonard Wood; is stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado
» 1972-73 — Teaches physical education and health, Iberia High
School
» 1973-78 — Serves as physical education and health teacher, head
baseball coach and assistant men’s basketball coach, Southwest
Baptist University
» 1975 — Earns master’s degree from University of Missouri
» 1978-84 — Coaches Little League baseball and Mighty Mites
football, Stillwater Parks and Recreation, Oklahoma
» 1979-80 — Teaches middle school Sunday school class, University
Heights Baptist Church
1980s
» 1984-86 — Teaches physical education and health, serves as
assistant baseball coach, assistant men’s basketball coach, Hillcrest
High
» 1984-88 — Coaches Little League baseball and Mighty Mites
football, Springfield-Greene County Park Board
» 1986-95 — Teaches physical education and drivers education,
serves as head men’s basketball coach, Parkview High
» 1987 — Awarded Certificate of Appreciation from Parkview
Class of 1987 for “constant care and loving concern for our fu-
tures”
» 1988 — Obtains lifetime teaching certificate in driver education
(since revoked)
» 1989 — Directs high school Sunday school program, First Baptist
Church
1990s
» Early 1990s — Sexually assaults a Parkview student, who reports
it to police in 2014; she says the assaults took place when she was
“14 or 15,” and later tells police a coach walked in during one
incident
» 1993 — Allegations of sexual harassment surface at Parkview; as
a result, the director of school police who conducts the investiga-
tion decides to maintain “an open file should further reports of
this nature occur”
» 1995-96 — Supervises In-School Suspension, Carver Middle
(leaves in December 1996)
» 1996-97 — Teaches physical education, Pleasant View Middle
(starts in December 1996)
» 1996-97 — Serves as head boys’ basketball coach, Republic High
School
» 1997-98 — Teaches physical education and speech at Carver
Middle
» 1998-2005 — Teaches health, driver education at Central High
2000s
» Spring 2002 — Allegations surface at Central
» May 2002 — HR director and Central principal send a letter
“strongly advising” White to “have an absolute ‘hands off’ ap-
proach with students”
» 2005-10 — Supervises In-School Suspension, Pipkin Middle School
» 2007-08 — Serves as guardian on Ozarks Honor Flights
» 2007 — Allegations surface at Pipkin, prompting a hotline call to
the state’s Children’s Division
» 2008 — Another allegation is made at Pipkin
2010s
» 2010 — Retires from Pipkin; according to the Missouri Depart-
ment of Elementary and Secondary Education, White’s career
includes a total of 38 years in public education, including 25 in
Springfield
» May 2011 — Volunteers on a search and cleanup crew, Joplin
tornado
» June 2011, 2012 — Serves as activity director, Drury University
Camp for Latina Girls
» 2012 — Serves as basketball official, Missouri State High School
Activities Association
» 2013 — Inducted into Southwest Baptist University Hall of Fame
» February 2013 — Springfield school board adopts new policy
regarding reporting and investigating child abuse and neglect
» October 2014 — A former Parkview student contacts Spring-
field Police Department with allegations of sexual assault from the
early 1990s
» February 2015 — The former student contacts White, by phone,
and they discuss the alleged sexual assaults; White is not aware the
calls are recorded
» March 30, 2015 — Greene County Judge Calvin Holden signs
investigative subpoena requesting “any and all” information
regarding White from the Springfield district, including personnel
records, dates of employment, schools where he taught and
coached, disciplinary records, recordings pertaining to termination,
removal, transfer or separation from schools, complaints and in-
vestigations
» Aug. 3, 2015 — Springfield Police Department presents its
felony case report to the Greene County Prosecutor’s Office
» Aug. 7, 2015 — White is charged with three counts of deviate
sexual assault and a warrant is issued for his arrest; initial bond set
at $10,000
» May 17, 2016 — White enters a guilty plea on the charge of
deviate sexual assault
» April 26, 2016 — White’s wife, Linda Jayne White, files for
divorce; over the summer, she reconsiders and issues a notice of
intent to dismiss the divorce request and then later files for legal
separation
» Aug. 10, 2016 — Divorce granted; court documents indicate the
former couple are still living together
» Aug. 22, 2016 — At the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Nathan
Chapman references multiple reports of inappropriate behavior
with students in White’s personnel file; White is sentenced to seven
years in the Missouri Department of Corrections but is granted a
suspended imposition of sentence and placed in a 120-day Sexual
Offender Assessment Unit program
» Aug. 23, 2016 — White starts serving “shock” incarceration in
the Sexual Offender Assessment Unit program
» Sept. 20, 2016 — Springfield school board updates policy re-
garding reporting and investigating child abuse claims to make
clear mandated reporters hotline “all suspected incidents of stu-
dent-on-student abuse as well as abuse perpetrated by someone
with care, custody and control of the child”
» Dec. 12, 2016 — White is released from jail
» Dec. 29, 2016 — White begins five-year probation under Mis-
souri Board of Probation and Parole
July 30, 2017 5A
White
Continued from Previous Page
NOW IS THE
TIME
In the early 1990s, following the first
complaint in White’s school record, the top
school police official in charge of investigat-
ing complaints put in writing that he would
keep an “open file” on White in case there
were other allegations.
But when later allegations surfaced,
SAVE
there was no indication others were aware
this file existed. Nothing was added to it
over the years.
White’s school records compiled by po-
lice show complaints of inappropriate
touching or talking surfaced at three
schools.
One girl said White rubbed her leg near
her private area. There were allegations he
ON THE LARGEST
patted and grabbed girls on the bottom and
rubbed a female student on the back, under
her shirt. He made comments about stu-
SELECTION OF
dents’ breasts and rear ends, students said.
He was accused of rubbing up against a stu-
dent, spreading a girl’s legs apart and pull-
NEW CHEVYS!
ing a student onto his lap by her hips and
bouncing her up and down.
While White was not removed from the
classroom, his career trajectory is telling.
He started out in a coveted role, as a gym
OVER 200 NEW
teacher and head basketball coach at the
high school level. CHEVY SILVERADOS
He garnered public attention as a win-
ning coach at Parkview. In 1989, his team
made it to the state quarterfinal and won the AVAILABLE
Ozark Conference championship; the team
was runner-up three other years. In 1991, his
team took second place in the Bass Pro Tour-
nament of Champions.
After leaving Parkview, he moved
2017 CHEVY
around, mostly between middle schools, and
was repeatedly assigned to supervise stu-
dents during in-school suspension.
SILVERADO 1500
That job had less responsibility and less
prestige, but it gave him greater access to
students who were vulnerable — most were
CREW CAB
already in trouble and less likely to be be- 4WD LT
lieved.
Everett Isaacs, former principal of Cen-
tral High, recently acknowledged there
were ongoing concerns with White’s behav-
ior but said they weren’t enough to build a
case for termination.
“We had things that were noticed, that
came up, and we tried to address but there
was just one complaint,” he said. “It was be-
haviors and talking and being somewhere
you didn’t need to be.”
Asked if he requested White be moved
out of his building, Isaacs said he wouldn’t
answer the question. “I will say we didn’t
have anything he was certified to teach. We
didn’t have a place for him.”
White’s salary climbed over the years, no
matter what jobs he performed. He retired
at $58,419, making him one of the higher-
paid teachers in the district at the time.
His former wife — with whom he still
lives — is now a professor emeritus of edu-
cation at Drury University. In the mid-1990s,
DISCOUNTS
she was a critical part of an innovative part-
nership between Drury, Yale University and
center-city schools.
In that role, she worked with Pipkin and
Central, where White was employed the fi-
AS MUCH AS
$
12,500
nal decade or so of his career.
Springfield school officials were tight-
lipped about White following his arrest, ini-
tially refusing to even acknowledge the
complaints that a judge forced the district to
turn over to police.
Citing privacy laws, they have refused to
discuss the details of White’s personnel file,
OVER 500 NEW
including how the investigations were han-
dled at the time. They have pointed out that
many, if not all, the school officials in charge
at the time are gone and that numerous pol-
icy changes have been made over the years.
“The conduct for which Ron White was
CHEVY CARS,
convicted occurred between 1991 and 1993.
The district’s practices that were in place in
1991-1993 have changed,” said Lisa Turner,
TRUCKS, SUVS,
chief human resources officer. “The district
continues to review and revise its proce-
dures on an annual basis and insure (sic)
AND CROSSOVERS
that it maintains policies which meet or ex-
ceed the requirements of federal and state
law.”
NOW AVAILABLE!
The last allegation listed in White’s per-
sonnel file was in 2008, just nine years ago.
School officials have been more forth-
coming about how allegations are currently
handled. They say administrators now work
with outside law enforcement agencies, re-
move employees from buildings during in-
vestigations, and get rid of employees if al-
legations are substantiated.
Along with updated district policies,
state laws regarding the mandated report-
ing of suspected inappropriate behavior
have been strengthened since the first alle-
gations surfaced more than 30 years ago.
That said, there is still no mechanism in
place to alert principals if a teacher with one
or more complaints of a sexual nature ap-
plies for a job in a new school.
The details, locked away in a confidential
part of a personnel file, are only accessible
by the district’s personnel investigator.
Patterson, the prosecutor, said his office
did not hesitate to file charges, despite the
passage of time, after the former student
came forward. Her allegations, never re-
ported to school officials while she was en- 3655 S. Campbell
rolled, were the most egregious that have
come to light.
He said the other complaints, while less
Springfield, MO 65807
serious, ought to have raised red flags.
“It’s important that (White) be held ac- 417-887-5800
countable,” Patterson said. “It’s important
for that victim to have justice for her and,
frankly, sort of representatively, for the oth-
800-725-5800
SL-0000422855
er young women who were at least groomed
or attempted to be groomed.”
www.reliablechevy.com
 Tuesday | August 1, 2017 | news-leader.com | PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
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Walkoff
single lifts
Orioles Girls accused
over Royals
Page
ONE Ronnie White of
wrongdoing for years

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1D

CHANGED
HIGHLAND SPRINGS
“I did somethin’ go
– Ronnie White
ofy.”
, to victim
EVERYTHING
Sheriff “I had
“I was a straight A student and I had
everything going for me, and
ause this happened to me.”
yet I felt like my life was worthless bec
releases a weak
moment
– Student victimized by Ronnie Wh
ite
“There isn’t sufficient
identities and I
guess I
information to proceed
with; however, I will
“Thank God we di
of dead couldn’t
control
intercourse or an
dn’t have
y kind of sex,
maintain an open file
should further reports
couple myself.”
– Ronnie
you know, that’s…
only graced thing
that’s the
about it.”
of this nature occur.”
– Ronnie White – Dennis Lewis,
Robert O’Block and White, , to victim school police
Tiffany Fleming to victim investigator, in 1993
found Sunday night “Her accusation was that
I had rubbed against her
THOMAS GOUNLEY touched her improperly… … and had
I could not believe what I
TGOUNLEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM
and, of course denied the was hearing
accusation.”
The Greene County Sher- – Ronnie White, in 2002
iff’s Office released the identi- letter to Everett Isaacs,
Central HS principal
ties Monday morning of two
people found dead inside a
Highland Springs home. “Mr. Isaacs and I are strongly advising you to have you
Sheriff Jim Arnott said Rob- an absolute ‘hands-off’ approach with students.” “I guess would
ing?”
ert O’Block, 66, and his girl-
– Joan Cargnel, Director of Human Resource call it like a fl
friend, Tiffany Fleming, 27, s, ite,
were found in a 2002 letter to White – Ronnie Wh
dead Sunday to victim
night inside a
home in the
3800 block of
East Kingswood
Drive, in the
Highland
Robert Springs gated
O'Block subdivision.
Both had
gunshot wounds, Arnott said. STORIES BY GIACOMO BOLOGNA GBOLOGNA@NEWS-LEADER.COM
AND CLAUDETTE RILEY CRILEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM
The 4,800-square-foot home FILED AND ERIES
where the bodies were found FORGOTTEN S

was O’Block’s residence, Ar-
nott said. Fleming lived in Ro-
gersville, he said.
Asked by reporters if it was
a murder-suicide, Arnott said
that is a possibility, but it is too
early in the investigation to
make that determination. He
said there was no sign of forced
entry to the home, and that his
See DEATHS, Page 5A
Nuclear labs
shipping danger
Toxic chemicals like
plutonium improperly
labeled, mailed across US
See story, Page 1B
T
he conversation is making the retired Springfield teacher
Last Sunday: m.
“feel awkward.” acks in the syste
Red flags and cr
“Why are you discussing things like this on the phone?”
ay:
Ronnie White asks. Coming Thursd
w eigh in on polygraphs
His discomfort — reflected in a transcript of the phone Experts
ed at ors.
and sexual pr
call recorded by police — is to be expected. The woman on the
other stories
other end of the line is a former student, asking about things that Online: To see
th is series, go
happened behind closed doors more than 20 years ago. and videos in
to Ne w s- Leader.
online
“Thank God we didn’t have intercourse or any kind of sex, you nd
com/FiledA
know,” Ronnie White says. “That’s the only graced thing about it.” Forgotten
The transcript shows that throughout the phone calls — two of
them, lasting more than half an hour — the woman doesn’t give up.
She presses White, dredging up decades-old memories of sexu-
al abuse. Does he remember putting his genitals on her shoulder?
The touching? The kissing? Does he remember going to the “back
room” with her when she was 14 or 15?
“I guess I couldn’t control myself,” White tells her.
WHO KNEW WHAT,
White’s confessions, contained in those black and white tran-
scripts, eventually land the former educator in jail. But the calls
AND WHEN?
were not the only evidence police collected against him. One girl confided in a high school
When investigators started digging, they found White had been counselor. Another complained to a
accused of sexually harassing or inappropriately touching at least principal. A third handed a note to a
nine other female students from 1993 to 2008. social studies teacher.
Referenced during White’s 2016 sentencing, the complaints — From the early 1990s to the
sealed away in personnel files kept by the school district — were mid-2000s, at least a dozen Spring-
not made public until now. field school employees — and others
— were told, in various ways, that
Obtained by the News-Leader through an open records re- teacher Ronnie White was allegedly
quest, the documents show that, around the same time he was sex- touching and sexually harassing
ually abusing the victim who later called him, White was allegedly
making several offensive, sexual statements to a different stu-
female students.
The Springfield school personnel
dent. file for White, a former teacher and
coach, showed that others in the loop
See WHITE, Page 4A included school police officers, hu-
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4A Tuesday, August 1, 2017 NEWS-LEADER § News-Leader.com

THE CASE OF
RONNIE WHITE
White
Continued from Page 1A

He allegedly asked a girl in

1993, “Why don’t we get out of
here and fog up my windows?”
Records also say he implied
he gave the girl a good grade be-
cause he liked her legs and
thought about unbuttoning her
dress.
School officials made that
girl take a polygraph — a re-
quest that would later become
illegal under a 2007 Missouri
law. The polygraph administra-
tor told school officials the girl
was lying.
That girl would later tell in-
vestigators she once observed a
different student sitting on
White’s lap while White spread
her legs apart in an inappropri-
ate manner.
School records show a fourth
Parkview student said White
told her she “had a nice rear
end” and said “look at that body
move.” She said she felt uncom-
fortable when White put his
hand under her shirt and
rubbed her back.
White was never punished
and left Parkview in 1995. He
spent a year at Carver Middle
School, then briefly worked at
Pleasant View Middle School NATHAN PAPES/NEWS-LEADER
before returning to Carver. Ronnie White worked for Springfield Public Schools from 1984 to 2010.
In 1999, White got another
shot at coaching varsity basket-
ball and went to Central High
School. It was there, three years
later, that he would face his
most serious accusation.
Concerns were shared,
doubted and dismissed
It began with a note.
One girl told another girl
about being touched inappro-
priately. That girl wrote it
down. She gave it to a teacher,
who passed it on to an assistant
principal who passed it on to the
principal.
The next day there was a
meeting in the principal’s of-
fice, according to court docu-
ments, during which three ad- SUBMITTED BY JAYNE WHITE
ministrators met with the girl Ronnie White
who wrote the note.
Assistant Principal Greg
Darnaby wrote down his recol- his fingers and put his penis in
lection of that meeting in a me- ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER her mouth.
mo that was obtained by the Carver Middle School, where Ronnie White worked in the mid-1990s. Once on a snow day, White
News-Leader. came over to her house, she
According to Darnaby, the said, took her into the bathroom
administrators asked the girl turn for touching her. deliver four pizzas to his house Within two years, he was ac- and attempted to have sex with
why she wrote the note. The girl “popped her head reportedly ordered by a young cused of inappropriately touch- her. He left when he couldn’t get
The girl had enrolled at Cen- up” and denied that, Darnaby girl. ing four different students. Ac- an erection.
tral two months before and said wrote. Two witnesses backed up cording to a 2007 complaint, he Years later, White discussed
a new friend came up to her at The interview was over, Dar- parts of what White said — one grabbed a girl, held her by the that abuse with her on the taped
lunch, visibly upset. naby wrote, and he told the girl’s saying White didn’t inappropri- hips and put her on his lap. He phone call.
She asked what was wrong. mother that he had dealt with ately touch anyone in the cafe- allegedly patted another girl’s In the transcript, he refers to
According to Darnaby, the girl the girl before — and she hadn’t teria, and another saying White butt. He grabbed a third girl’s the abuse as a “fling,” and says
said her new friend told her that always been truthful. didn’t rub up against anyone in rear end, documents say, and things like “I just reacted that
“A teacher had been touching her When caught in a lie, the girl the gym. rubbed his leg against a fourth day to you” and “I did somethin’
... She did not like it but that she would embellish more, rather After Isaacs received girl, near her groin. goofy.”
would let it go on because (redact- than come clean, Darnaby said. White’s letter and spoke with The allegations surfaced af- White tells her she was a
ed) got ‘A’s’ in his class without He described the girl, after the administrators, he wrote a let- ter one of the girl’s mothers “perfect gal.”
having to do any work.” interview, as smiling broadly, ter to the director of human re- made a hotline call to the state’s She tells him the sexual
That teacher, Ronnie White, “almost laughing.” sources for the school district. Children’s Division. A Spring- abuse derailed her life.
had also been writing notes for Darnaby then followed up Isaacs said he spoke with the le- field police officer and a Chil- “I was a straight A student
her friend to get her out of class with the girl who wrote the note gal guardian of the girl who was dren’s Division worker investi- and I had everything going for
to see him, the girl said. that spurred the school’s inves- allegedly touched by White. gated the allegations. me,” she says, “and yet I felt like
The friend, who was visibly tigation. She told Darnaby new The guardian told him the According to a report filed my life was worthless because
upset as she explained this, details: that White “got hard” girl had a troubled past. by the officer, White denied the this happened to me.”
spilled her drink as they were when he rubbed up against her The girl had been “raped allegations and there was no They talk more, the tran-
finishing up lunch, the girl said, friend and asked her friend to three times in the last three corroborating evidence to sup- script shows, then White con-
and White came over to help and take off her pants for him. years,” Isaacs wrote, and in one port them. cludes the conversation, saying
touched her friend’s rear end. Darnaby told the girl not to instance was kidnapped and The mother had made 33 pri- “Good luck with it, baby.”
Pressed by administrators, tell anyone. raped repeatedly by her sister’s or calls to the Children’s Divi- Based largely on these phone
the girl said she wasn’t sure if it Springfield police were not boyfriend. Before that, the girl sion, the officer noted. call recordings, White was
was intentional or accidental. contacted. had allegedly been raped by her “It is believed that she made charged with deviate sexual as-
Later that day, Darnaby, a The next day, the alleged vic- mother’s boyfriend. the latest hotline against White sault in 2015. He pleaded guilty
school police officer and other tim wrote a statement. Why did Isaacs include this after becoming disgruntled and was sentenced in 2016.
administrators met with the “Ron was rubbing his body in a letter about White’s alleged with the Pipkin School offi- At the sentencing hearing,
friend and her mother. on me,” she wrote. “He told me misconduct? cials,” he wrote. the prosecuting attorney, Na-
Darnaby laid out the basics not to tell anyone what he was According to Isaacs, the The next year, a school police than Chapman, asked the judge
of the allegations to the people doing, because he could get into girl’s guardian told him that be- officer investigated a claim that to imagine White had commit-
in the room, then asked the girl trouble.” ing raped caused the girl to White sexually harassed anoth- ted deviate sexual assault today
to elaborate. Within a week, White wrote a overreact to all men, especially er girl, grabbing her by the leg — not more than two decades
The girl said White had been letter to Central’s principal, Ev- men in their 30s and 40s. and pulling her close to him prior.
“rubbing” on her, “touching my erett Isaacs. It was titled: “Ac- The guardian said the girl while he assisted with her class- “I can guarantee 100 percent,
butt and everything.” cusations of misconduct.” “misinterprets any physical work. White denied any wrong- if you ask citizens of this county
Despite repeated question- “I could not believe what I contact she has with male teach- doing and said he put his hands ... ‘Hey, what should happen to a
ing, the girl wouldn’t say much was hearing and, of course de- ers,” Isaacs wrote. on her shoulder and knee in a coach or a teacher who puts his
else. nied the accusation,” White said Isaacs signed the letter, at different incident. penis in the mouth of a 14-year-
According to Darnaby, “She about his initial meeting with the bottom of which was a sen- old?’ they are not going to say,
never looked at me while an- administrators. tence in italics: “ Together we After two decades, ‘Oh, well, did it happen a long
swering a question, but put her White told a different story can make a difference.“ a confession time ago? Is he otherwise a pret-
head down and mumbled her than his accuser. In a 2017 interview with the White retired two years lat- ty respectful guy? All right. I
answers.” It was the girl who came up News-Leader, Isaacs acknowl- er, in 2010, as one of the highest guess give him probation,’”
The girl said two days be- and “stood very close” to him in- edged there were ongoing con- paid teachers in Springfield Chapman said. “No way. There
fore, White brought his health side the gym, White wrote, and cerns with White’s behavior but Public Schools. is no way.”
class into the gym where he then she asked him for money. said they weren’t enough to None of the accusations White’s attorney, Dee Wam-
stood behind her, rubbing her At one point, White said, he build a case for termination. against him appear to have re- pler, called White “honest and
shoulders, then rubbing his reached up and squeezed her However, he did co-sign a let- sulted in any formal disciplin- forthcoming” and asked for
front side against her back. neck muscles and “told her ev- ter written by the district’s di- ary measures. “shock” time in the Greene
She said she went to his of- erything is alright and to settle rector of human resources, The allegations would have County Jail.
fice at one point. They were out- down.” Joan Cargnel, that warned remained closed records if one Judge Calvin Holden sen-
side the room, she said, but White also denied touching White to avoid physical contact victim had not come forward to tenced White to seven years in
White got her behind the door the girl’s butt at lunchtime. with students. police, prompting criminal prison.
and rubbed his front side “At no time did I touch any- “Mr. Isaacs and I are strong- charges. Then Holden suspended the
against her front side. body on the rear,” he wrote. ly advising you to have an abso- In 2015, she told police that sentence.
The girl said she tried to push A week and a half later, lute ‘hands-off’ approach with White was her gym teacher in White spent 120 days behind
away and told him to stop it. White wrote an updated letter to students,” Cargnel wrote. the early 1990s. Over the course bars in a sexual offender as-
“(Name redacted) had her Isaacs, the principal. White does not appear to of two years, when she was sessment unit and has since
head down, almost between her According to White, a girl have followed that advice. about 14 to 15 years old, White been released on probation.
legs,” Darnaby wrote. called his home at 10:02 p.m. on In 2005, White moved on to coerced her about once a week When Holden asked White if
Darnaby asked her if she told a Friday night, called his wife a his final assignment in Spring- into letting him perform sexual he had anything to say, White
them everything, and men- “few choice names” and then field schools, as the in-school acts on her. said eight words: “I’m very
tioned the good grades White hung up. Half an hour after that, suspension teacher for Pipkin On several occasions, she apologetic about what has taken
was allegedly giving her in re- White wrote, Pizza Hut tried to Middle School. said, White penetrated her with place.”
NEWS-LEADER § News-Leader.com
Trail
Continued from Page 1A
man resources officials, assis-
tant principals and at least one
assistant superintendent.
Numerous school employees
told the News-Leader that if
they had known about other al-
legations against White, they
may have reacted differently
when they were told about what
they thought were isolated inci-
dents.
Most of the complaints in-
volved sexually suggestive
comments or touching that
made students uncomfortable.
But at least one employee alleg-
edly witnessed White engaged
in sexual contact with a Park-
view High student whose accu-
sations eventually led to White’s
prosecution.
That employee, Robert
Crawford, was White’s assistant
coach for nine years in the late
1980s and early
1990s.
The former
student, now in
her 40s, told po-
lice Crawford
walked into the
room as White
Robert performed oral
Crawford sex on her at the
high school, ac-
cording to investigative reports
obtained by the News-Leader.
Police contacted Crawford
during their recent investiga-
tion. He initially said he did not
remember anything inappro-
priate involving White, but was
more forthcoming as investiga-
tors became more specific in
their questioning.
Crawford told police one day
before practice he was looking
for White and went to an office
where the boys basketball
coach sometimes watched film.
According to police records,
Crawford said he opened the
door and saw the lights were
off, “tape” was playing, and
White and the girl were grab-
bing at each other’s pants.
Crawford said it looked like
someone was trying to quickly
get pants back on and Crawford
knew it “wasn’t right.”
He turned and left and White
followed him out soon after, the
documents say.
In a recorded phone call with
the former student — a corner-
stone of the investigation —
White recalled Crawford walk-
ing in on them.
“Up until then it was like
hush-hush ... nobody knew,”
White said in the call, which was
recorded by police.
According to White, Craw-
ford later told him: “Just let it
go, Ron” and “I didn’t see a
thing.”
On the recorded call, the for-
mer student said she trusted
and looked up to Crawford but
after that incident, he would not
talk to her.
“He never said a word ... like
it was my fault,” she said.
The News-Leader attempted
to contact Crawford by phone
and letter. A reporter went to an
address listed as Crawford’s
home, and a woman answered
the door. When the reporter
mentioned Ronnie White, the
woman said “We’re not interest-
ed,” and closed the door.
Crawford told police that at
the time of the incident, he
didn’t want to be “dragged in” to
something, so he wrote down
what he saw in a note and gave it
to a school counselor, Janet
Strange.
Strange told the News-Lead-
er she never received a note
from Crawford. She said if she
had, she would have passed it to
Michael Kohr, then the princi-
Deaths
Continued from Page 1A
office was not “searching for
any additional suspects.”
Arnott said his office re-
ceived multiple calls Sunday
evening regarding gunshots
being fired in the area. Callers
gave multiple addresses of the
disturbance, he said. Deputies
were dispatched shortly be-
fore 10 p.m., and ultimately ze-
roed in on O’Block’s home and
discovered the bodies.
Arnott said Monday that de-
tectives were interviewing a
witness who was with the cou-
ple earlier Sunday night. Any-
one else with information
Pipkin Middle School, where Ronnie White worked during the final years of his career.
pal of Parkview. She was a coun-
selor at Parkview from 1977 to
1996.
There is no sign in the per-
sonnel record that what Craw-
ford allegedly saw triggered an
investigation.
The counselor did recall ac-
companying a different girl to
take a polygraph test after that
girl accused White of sexually
harassing her in the early 1990s.
Details of that incident, and the
investigation that followed,
were included in
White’s person-
nel file.
Kohr, who
was principal at
the time, told the
News-Leader
that he was not
Michael Kohr aware of any
complaints
against White until about two
decades later when police ques-
tioned him about White and he
read about White’s case in the
newspaper.
“I was in complete shock
when I heard about it,” he said.
“How in the hell did that hap-
pen?”
Kohr recalled hiring and fir-
ing White, describing him as a
“friendly, happy person.” He
said White was fired because it
was “time to switch basketball
coaches.”
He said things would have
been different if he was made
aware there were allegations
against the longtime coach.
“The administration never
turned its head on such issues,”
Kohr said. “I would have taken
care of the issue.”
The 1993 investigation in
which a student was poly-
graphed was overseen by Den-
nis Lewis, then the director of
school police. Kohr said he’s
“perplexed” that
Lewis never in-
formed him
about allegations
against White.
Kohr said he
thought he would
have been told if
Dennis Lewis there were alle-
gations an em-
ployee at his school had been
touching a student inappropri-
ately.
“Maybe there’s some others I
was not made aware of,” he said.
Lewis spent 13 years with the
Springfield Police Department
before he was hired to lead the
school police force and was in
charge of the district’s person-
nel investigations for a decade.
“I went into them totally
open-eyed,” he said. “I let the
facts take me where they took
me.”
He recalled the 1993 allega-
tions against White and noted
the investigation resulted in a
rare finding of “unsubstantiat-
ed.” He said when there was
clear and compelling evidence,
one way or the other, the finding
about the case is asked to call
the sheriff’s office at 417-868-
4040.
The Sheriff’s Office said
deputies responded to
O’Block’s home several times
for “domestic disturbances,
alarm calls and Order of Pro-
tection violations.” None of
those incidents involved Flem-
ing.
O’Block founded Manage-
ment Executives Inc. in 2004,
according to his personal web-
site. He has led that company
and related organizations, in-
cluding the Center for Nation-
al Threat Assessment, all of
certification processes for
professionals in fields such as
homeland security, forensics,
psychotherapy, and integra-
tive medicine.
THE CASE OF
RONNIE WHITE
was either “substantiated” or
“unfounded.”
Lewis described an unsub-
stantiated finding “as more he
said, she said.” He said there
were only “a handful” of those
during his career.
In a report following the in-
vestigation, Lewis said there
“wasn’t sufficient information
to proceed” and noted he
planned to “maintain an open
file should further reports of
this nature occur.”
“Anytime we had something
unsubstantiated, it stayed pret-
ty much open,” he said.
Lewis said anonymous alle-
gations were the toughest to in-
vestigate and, over his long ca-
reer, he helped catch teachers
who clearly crossed the line and
clear others who were falsely
accused.
“It wasn’t uncommon that
they make it up,” he said of stu-
dents. “They generally had an
ax to grind with the teacher.”
In the early 2000s, when
Lewis was still in charge of
school police, allegations
against White resurfaced, this
time at Central. His officers
were involved in the investiga-
tion and the allegations were
deemed unfounded.
The “open file” and previous
allegations were not referenced
in the paperwork. Asked why,
Lewis said he doesn’t remember
being part of that investigation
even though his signature is on
at least one witness statement.
“I sleep with a clean con-
science. I can’t speak for any-
one else who dealt with him but
people know me. If I’d have
found anything that was suppor-
tive of those allegations, it
would have been in my reports,”
he said. “My investigations
were always complete.”
But Lewis said he wasn’t al-
ways in charge. The former po-
lice officer, who worked for the
district from 1990 to 2006, said
for the first decade personnel
investigations were his pur-
view. But shortly after Jack
Ernst was named superinten-
dent, the oversight was moved
to the district’s human re-
sources department.
Lewis said staffers confis-
cated all of his files and moved
them to the Kraft Administra-
tive Center.
Lewis said he was occasion-
ally called on to help with inter-
views and knew the role he
played but not what other parts
of the investigation were turn-
ing up. “I had my files but I
wouldn’t have their files. I
wouldn’t know what they did.”
The principals at the final
three schools where White
worked, prior to retiring in
2010, said they were not told
about prior allegations.
After Parkview, White
moved to Carver Middle School.
White wrote in his resume that
he taught journalism and phys-
The sheriff's office says it is conducting a death investigation at this
home in the Highland Springs subdivision.
NEWS-LEADER FILE PHOTO
ical education there but that’s
not what former principal Kel-
vin Pamperien recalled.
Pamperien said that when he
started at Carver in mid-1996,
White was supervising the in-
school suspen-
sion, or ISS, pro-
gram. “I don’t re-
member hiring
Ron White. What I
remember is he
was already as-
signed at Carver.”
Kelvin Asked if Pam-
Pamperien perien was made
aware of prior al-
legations against White, he said
“no.” Asked if that was informa-
tion he would have wanted to
have as a principal, he said “yes.”
Pamperien, who worked with
White for one year, did not re-
call any problems with White.
“What I remember is he was my
ISS teacher.”
In 1998, two years after leav-
ing Parkview, White was hired
as the boys basketball coach at
Central High.
Edsel Matthews, the athletic
director at the time, described
White as a “proven winner and
tremendous competitor.”
Everett Isaacs, who was
named the Central principal in
1998, didn’t recall playing a role
in hiring White.
“I was just told
he was going to
Central.”
Isaacs said he
was never told
there was an
“open file” on
Everett Isaacs White and was
not initially in-
formed of prior allegations.
“I knew nothing when he
came to Central,” he said.
“When we had our issue come
up, we were unaware.”
In the early 2000s, a Central
student alleged White “rubbed
up against” her in gym class
and, on a separate occasion,
rubbed his body against hers,
touched her butt with his hand
and told her not to tell anyone
what he was doing because he
could “get into trouble.”
White admitted “bumping”
into the girl but nothing else. In
a response to the allegation, he
claimed the girl asked him for
money and was upset because
he wouldn’t change her class
schedule.
Isaacs notified Joan Cargnel,
director of human resources, in
writing that the girl who came
forward may have “embel-
lished” the allegations. He not-
ed she was the victim of an al-
leged rape and that her attacker
was awaiting trial at the time.
He said family members told
him that the girl “overreacts to
all men, especially older men.”
In a recent interview with
the News-Leader, Isaacs said
the girl’s “troubled” back-
ground made the investigation
more difficult.
THOMAS GOUNLEY/NEWS-LEADER
Tuesday, August 1, 2017 5A
But he said he learned during
the inquiry of a previous allega-
tion against White, which
prompted him, along with Carg-
nel, to write a letter “strongly
advising” White to have “an ab-
solute ‘hands-off’ approach to
students” to guard against any
future incidents.
“I wanted it in writing that he
was not to have any physical
contact with students,” Isaacs
said. “We were not going to
mess around. We were going to
deal with it straight up.”
Isaacs said he kept a close
watch on White after the allega-
tion and, even though only one
girl came forward, there were
ongoing concerns about White’s
behavior.
“We had things that were no-
ticed that came up and we tried
to address but just one com-
plaint” he said.
He said during the investiga-
tion, he required White to spend
his planning period sitting in the
main office.
Isaacs said he used all the re-
sources available to him at the
time, but there was not enough
evidence to fire White. “You can
see from that that I was really
trying to cover the bases and
get district folks involved.”
He added: “When it comes to
something like that, when it
comes to kids, you can’t be too
careful.”
White left Central in 2005,
moving to nearby Pipkin.
Sharri Harwick was princi-
pal when White moved to Pip-
kin. Tim Zeigler, who was an as-
sistant principal under Har-
wick, was principal when White
retired. Neither
recalled playing
a role in his hir-
ing.
“I knew he
was placed there
but I didn’t know
why,” Zeigler
Sharri said.
Harwick Reached by
phone at her
home near Kansas City, Har-
wick, the former Pipkin princi-
pal, said she didn’t recall hiring
White either.
“I couldn’t remember look-
ing at his file. I didn’t,” she said.
“I was called by phone, because
I had an opening, and they said
they had a teacher they needed
a place for. There was no indica-
tion I was being used and no ex-
planation.”
Harwick said White super-
vised students serving in-
school suspension. “He was put
there by the district office. Ev-
ery now and then, I would get
someone sent to me.”
She said no one gave her a
heads-up about allegations at
Parkview and Central, even af-
ter students complained about
White at Pipkin.
“You don’t always get told.
You have to do the best you can
with the information you have,”
said Harwick, who now lives in
the Kansas City area. “I’d shoot
straight but not everybody will
do that.”
In 2008, a girl serving ISS al-
leged White sexually harassed
her by grabbing her leg to pull
her toward him and then moved
close to her, touching his leg
against her leg.
After the investigation con-
cluded the incident did not rise
to a criminal level, Harwick
cautioned White to stay a re-
spectful distance and told the
student to come to her if any
other incidents made her feel
uncomfortable.
Harwick said if she had
known about the other allega-
tions, it would have “colored
how I look at what they said.”
She also would have kept an
eye on him. “What I would have
done is talk to him and tell him
to watch it.”
BRIEF
Cityreach Church of
Springfield hosts free
Narcan training
Cityreach Church of Spring-
field will host a free Narcan train-
ing session on Aug. 9, from 6:30-8
p.m., at 1477 N. Broadway Ave.
The training will cover risk
factors for an overdose and pre-
vention tips such as how to identi-
fy the OD, rescue response and
Narcan kits will be available. The
training is provided through a
partnership with CityReach, the
Missouri Recovery Network and
Better Life in Recovery. The class
will be taught by David Stoecker.
Call 417-631-9082 for more in-
formation or visit
www.cityreachnetwork.org
 Thursday | August 3, 2017 | news-leader.com | PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
The News-Leader is celebrating its 150th anniversary. See historic pages and a historic masthead every Saturday.

‘It was a
pretty cool
sight’
Springfield pilot’s
POLYGRAPH
eclipse flight: ‘The sky
turns this dark purplish
blue’ | Page 1C Springfield
MACHINES
schools used
the machines
on students
USED FOR
and teachers

ters,
DECADES
“Sexual moles
rs are
sexual predato
t skilled
about the mos
n
criminal you ca
ey ’re kind
imagine ... Th
eons.”
of like chamel
ls,
CONGRESS – Leslie Nicho
pe rt
child safety ex

AG TAKES
STEP TO
CHALLENGE
MCCASKILL
Josh Hawley will
form exploratory
committee
SUMMER BALLENTINE
ASSOCIATED PRESS

JEFFERSON CITY - Mis-

souri Attorney General Josh
Hawley will take the first step
toward challenging incumbent
Sen. Claire McCaskill later this
week, his spokesman said on
Wednesday, potentially setting
up a marquee 2018 race be-
tween a savvy
Democratic vet-
eran and a polit-
ical newcomer
touted as a ris- STORIES BY GIACOMO BOLOGNA GBOLOGNA@NEWS-LEADER.COM
ing star in the AND CLAUDETTE RILEY CRILEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM FILED AND
Republican par- FORGOTTEN SERI
ES

ty.
Josh Hawley Spokesman
Scott Paradise
said Hawley, 37, will launch an
exploratory committee this
week as part of his “process to
consider becoming a candi-
date.” An exploratory commit-
tee will allow Hawley to start
raising money without official-
ly entering the race.
McCaskill and Missouri
Democrats wasted little time
criticizing Hawley, who was
elected to his current post in
2016. The Missouri Democratic
Party late last month launched
a digital ad suggesting he’s us-
ing his election to attorney gen-
eral as a stepping stone to high-
er office, and on Wednesday
sent out a copy of a tweet he
sent during his campaign last
year that slammed the state
capital as being “full of insid-
ers just climbing the political
ladder.”
“Josh Hawley must want to
set some kind of record — just
a few months after promising
Missourians he wouldn’t be a
ladder-climbing politician, he
decides he’d rather run for the
next office than do the job he
was elected to do,” McCaskill
campaign manager David Kir-
by said in a statement.
Before becoming attorney
general, Hawley worked as an
associate professor at the Uni-
versity of Missouri School of
Law and was part of a team of
about 15 lawyers in a U.S. Su-
preme Court case in which
Hobby Lobby and other busi-
nesses challenged a federal
W
hen teachers were accused of fondling or sexual harass- Last Sunday:
ing students, Springfield school officials at times used Red flags and cra
cks in the system.
an unusual, and troubling, tool to investigate — they had Tuesday:
them take a polygraph test. Ronnie White’s co
But it wasn't just teachers who were being hooked up nfession,
and what others kn
to the machine. ew.
The district used it on students, too. Coming Sunday
:
A News-Leader investigation found Springfield Public Schools What stops this fro
m
regularly used polygraph exams in the late 1980s, the 1990s and happening again
?
possibly into the early 2000s — often to investigate accusations that
a teacher was engaged in inappropriate activity with a student.
Often misleadingly referred to as "lie detector tests," poly-
graphs are a staple of television crime shows. But two polygraph other stories
experts told the News-Leader they had never before heard of a Online: To see
is series, go
school district using the machine. They also said testing kids and and videos in th
to Ne w s-Leader.
victims is likely to yield inaccurate results. online
Fo rgotten
Since 2007, Missouri law has prohibited law enforcement and com/FiledAnd
government officials from asking or requiring victims of sexual
offenses to submit to polygraph tests before proceeding with an INSIDE
mily part of
investigation. White’s own fa
ral damage’,
It's not immediately clear how many school officials knew of ‘collate
the practice. Page 4A
A school spokeswoman said she believed the district had aban-
doned polygraph testing more than 20 years ago. But the former
director of school security, Dennis Lewis, told the News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK ILLUSTRATION/
See WHITE, Page 4A GETTY IMAGES
PREDATORS FOLLOW PATTERNS, EXPERT SAYS
An expert in child safety said based expert in developing child people often have trouble under-
people may find it surprising that a protection programs. standing how a respected teacher
former Springfield teacher — and “It’s very hard for the average and coach — like White — could
now convicted sex criminal — adult to get their head around the sexually abuse a student.
taught for 25 years despite numer- fact that there’s a segment of soci- That’s the first problem, Nich-
ous accusations of touching and ety that likes to have sex with chil- ols said. The second is that people
sexual harassment. dren,” said Nichols, who served don’t want to learn the “patterns of
But cases like Ronnie White’s for more than two decades as the exploiting children.”
are common, in part because youth safety and facility expert He said often there is no
they’re hard for others to imagine, for Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
said Leslie Nichols, an Atlanta- He told the News-Leader that See PREDATORS, Page 5A

See SENATE, Page 5A

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4A Thursday, August 3, 2017
White’s own family part of ‘collateral damage’
Spouse says ‘I didn’t know anything until the news knew’
CLAUDETTE RILEY
CRILEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM
AND GIACOMO BOLOGNA
GBOLOGNA@NEWS-LEADER.COM
After Ronnie White was
charged with sexually assault-
ing a teenage student, some of
the most passionate court argu-
ments concerned how the for-
mer Springfield teacher and
coach should be punished.
Much of the discussion con-
cerned other victims.
At a sentencing hearing in
2016, prosecutor Nathan Chap-
man noted that White had been
accused over the years of touch-
ing and making sexual com-
ments to at least nine other
girls.
White’s defense attorney,
Dee Wampler, was dismissive
of those reports, saying they
had no relevance to the case. In-
stead, he pointed to others dam-
aged by White’s actions.
“The collateral damage here
in his own family has been so
permanent,” Wampler said, not-
ing that White’s wife — whose
own career in education had
been far more prominent than
her husband’s — had filed for
and been granted a divorce.
Jayne White, professor
emeritus of education at Drury
White
Continued from Page 1A
that “lie detector” tests were al-
ready being used as a fact-find-
ing tool in personnel investiga-
tions when he was hired, in De-
cember 1990.
Lewis, who retired in late
2006, said the practice con-
tinued the decade he was in
charge of look-
ing into com-
plaints involving
teachers and
staff. He said in
the early 2000s,
when human re-
sources took
Dennis Lewis over the investi-
gations, a staffer
from that department would oc-
casionally call asking for the
number of the polygraph exam-
iner.
“We used a polygraph on a
fairly regular basis,” he told the
News-Leader. “When I was do-
ing the investigations, I would
do them very regularly — not
every week, but three to four
times a year.”
Court records obtained by
the News-Leader describe a
1993 polygraph test of a female
student at Parkview High
School who reported a teacher,
Ronnie White, was sexually ha-
rassing her.
The student had her blood
pressure, pulse rate and sweat
glands hooked up to the ma-
chine.
The girl said White told her,
"Why don't we get out of here
and fog up my windows?" and
that he gave her a good grade
because of her legs and the
thought of unbuttoning her
dress.
Lewis, the district’s security
director, said the district did not
use the exam on “anonymous
complaints.” He said in investi-
gations in which a high school
student came forward, the ex-
am would typically be offered
to both the student and the em-
ployee.
“We’d always polygraph the
same questions,” he said.
He said there were rare situ-
ations the exams were used on
middle school students but nev-
er elementary.
Lewis said the exam was vol-
untary but he’d encourage em-
ployees who were “maintaining
their innocence” to take it.
“If they refused to take a
polygraph, they almost always
followed it with ‘But, I think it’s
time to resign,’” he said.
There is no indication in the
criminal and personnel files
obtained by the News-Leader
that White ever submitted to a
test.
It's unclear who at Spring-
field Public Schools was aware
of the polygraph tests. Michael
Kohr, principal when the girl
who accused White was poly-
graphed in 1993, said he was un-
aware that any Parkview stu-
University, end-
ed the marriage
shortly after her
husband pleaded
guilty to deviate
sexual assault of
a former student
Jayne White at Parkview
High School.
They continue to live under
the same roof, sharing in the
care of an adult child with
health problems.
In interviews with the News-
Leader, Jayne White said she
was unaware her then-husband
sexually abused the Parkview
student in the early 1990s or that
other female students accused
him of inappropriate comments
and touching.
“I didn’t know anything until
the news knew,” she told the
News-Leader in one of many
conversations in recent months.
“I didn’t know anything.”
She has never been accused
of any wrongdoing.
In Springfield and else-
where, Jayne White spent more
than four decades working di-
rectly with children or training
the teachers who educate them.
After a stint at the K-12 level,
she worked at Oklahoma State
University and Southwest Bap-
tist University before she was
John Harvill owned and operated a polygraph test company, through which he administered several tests for Springfield Public Schools in the ’80s and
’90s, mostly on teachers in connection with sexual misconduct cases. He posed for a portrait at his residence in Springfield on March 14.
dent had ever un-
dergone a poly-
graph test.
Kohr said it
was his under-
standing that any
time there was
Michael Kohr an investigation
of a Parkview
teacher, Lewis would tell him
about it.
"He never said anything to
me about a polygraph test,"
Kohr said.
Charles R. Honts, a profes-
sor at Boise State University
and polygraph expert, said he
has never heard of a polygraph
machine being used by a school
district.
Honts said it's concerning
that potential victims of sexual
abuse could have been given
polygraph tests.
“You shouldn’t test the vic-
tim unless there’s some compel-
ling reason to do so,” Honts said.
“It’s kind of a last resort to test a
victim.”
Honts also said the accuracy
of polygraph tests can decline
when the person tested is 16 or
younger.
“(Age) 14, 15 is pushing it,"
Honts said. "There’s very little
research on kids that age.”
Raymond Nelson, a psycho-
therapist and former president
of the American Polygraph As-
sociation, echoed Honts.
While this wasn't clear in the
1980s, Nelson said these days
it's much clearer that polygraph
tests shouldn't be administered
THE CASE OF
RONNIE WHITE
hired by Drury in 1984.
She rose to prominence at
the private, liberal arts campus
in Springfield. She started a
summer camp for Latina girls,
co-authored a book on math and
science education and was re-
garded as an expert on child is-
sues and school reform.
In 1996, she took sabbatical
leave from Drury to serve as a
visiting faculty fellow at Yale
University’s Child Study Cen-
ter. She used the knowledge
gained there to play a pivotal
role in developing a collabora-
tive partnership between Dru-
ry, Yale and several Springfield
center city schools — Berry,
Boyd, Central and Pipkin.
Ronnie White spent the final
decade or so of his career work-
ing across the street from his
wife, in schools where their
paths might cross. He was at
Central from 1998 to 2005 and at
Pipkin from 2005 to until his re-
tirement in 2010.
He worked at a total of six
schools in Springfield and
coached one year in Republic.
Asked why her husband moved
between multiple schools,
Jayne White said: “That’s just
what coaches do.”
In the summer of 2011 and
2012, Ronnie White served as
Documents in the Ronnie White case.
to victims.
Not only could it re-trauma-
tize a person, he said, but it's
very easy for a victim to have a
strong emotional reaction and
appear to be lying.
“Testing victims of sexual
abuse is not a good idea ... and
some people would say it’s not
an ethical thing to do,” Nelson
said. “It’s kind of like a formula
for a false positive.”
Lewis, the director of school
security, said a local polygraph
administrator named John Har-
vill was the only person he hired
to do tests for Springfield Pub-
lic Schools.
“He was damn good … I don’t
think John ever ran a polygraph
for me that wasn’t consistent
with what we were finding,”
SUBMITTED
Photo of Jayne and Ronnie White in
the photocopied sentencing report
provided by attorney Dee Wampler.
activity director at the Drury
University Camp for Latina
Girls she organized.
Jayne White told the News-
Leader that none of the adults —
including her then-husband —
were allowed to be alone with a
child at the camp. A spokesman
for the university concurred,
saying Ronnie White primarily
ran errands for the camp.
“He was just great with the
kids,” Jayne White said.
In a 2015 phone call between
Ronnie White and the former
student that was recorded by
police, the former coach admit-
ted to sexually abusing the
woman when she was a teen.
GUILLERMO HERNANDEZ MARTINEZ/NEWS-LEADER
ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER
Lewis said. “I always chose the
questions. John would always
say ‘What are the facts you need
to know here?’”
The News-Leader requested
any records of receipts from
the school district to Harvill's
business, but the custodian of
records said the district doesn't
keep receipts that far back.
Harvill, now in his 80s, spoke
with the News-Leader.
Harvill estimated that in the
1980s and 1990s he conducted 20
polygraph tests for the school
district, a tiny fraction of the
thousands of polygraphs he con-
ducted over his long career.
Most of the polygraph tests
he did were on teachers accused
of fondling students, he said,
though he did recall testing
NEWS-LEADER § News-Leader.com
During the call, the woman
mentioned being approached
by Jayne White around the
same time as the abuse.
On the call, the victim, now in
her 40s, said Jayne White asked
her: “What are you doing with
my husband?”
Jayne White denied saying
that.
“Again, I didn’t know her. I
couldn’t have had a conversa-
tion,” Jayne White said. “I
wouldn’t know her if she
stepped up to my front door.”
She said the criminal case
against her husband has been
devastating but she agreed to
help him, soliciting “good char-
acter” letters from friends and
former colleagues before his
sentencing.
One letter was from John
Moore, the former president of
Drury and Jayne White’s for-
mer boss. He wrote, among oth-
er things, that he hoped the
“court will consider his case fa-
vorably.” Attempts to reach
Moore directly and through
Drury were not successful.
“I have seen Ron interacting
with students, his wife and oth-
er adults and was impressed by
his gracious and supportive
manner,” Moore wrote. “I al-
ways found Ron to be persona-
ble and considered him to be an
honest, reliable person and a
good family man.”
some students.
He stressed that polygraph
tests take time to properly set
up, that he would never test
someone who didn't appear to
be a good candidate, and that he
wouldn't test anyone younger
than 14.
Harvill said he has difficulty
remembering the polygraphs
he did for Springfield Public
Schools. He said he didn’t re-
member the allegations against
Ronnie White in 1993.
Court records detail the test
administered to White's accus-
er.
Hooked up to the polygraph
machine, the girl affirmed the
statements she'd made when
questioned earlier.
Records show the polygraph
administrator determined the
girl was lying.
White was never disciplined
and continued to teach in
Springfield schools for 17 more
years, retiring in 2010. He
would be accused of touching or
sexually harassing at least nine
other girls during his career. In
2015, White pleaded guilty to
sexually assaulting a different
Parkview student.
During the recent criminal
investigation into that case, po-
lice contacted the former stu-
dent who had been adminis-
tered the polygraph. Now a
woman, she said she stood by
what she said about White's of-
fensive and sexually suggestive
remarks more than two decades
ago.
NEWS-LEADER § News-Leader.com
20-foot pet python found alive near
owner’s home 2 months after escape
ALISSA ZHU
DZHU@NEWS-LEADER.COM
About two months after it es-
caped from its cage, a 20-foot pet
Burmese python was found alive
about 100 feet away from its
owner’s house near Rogersville.
Owner Ben Trexel said he
was out grocery shopping Sun-
day night when he got a call
from his sister and brother-in-
law.
“At first I didn’t believe they
found him. I was in denial. I
thought he was already dead
after more than two months,”
Trexel said.
Trexel said his sister and
brother-in-law were walking
their dog down the street when
the dog started pulling on its
leash — hard.
The dog dragged the couple
toward a ditch by the side of
the road, Trexel said, and when
they looked closely into the tall
grass, they saw a brown and
tan tail — the same color as
Trexel’s missing python.
Trexel said after he heard
the news, he immediately
placed his grocery items back
on the shelf and rushed to meet
his sister and brother-in-law.
In his hurry Trexel said he
did not stop by his house for a
pillowcase to put over the
snake’s head.
So, he simply reached into
the tall grass and grabbed the
snake by its tail.
“I realized it was him, he
realized it was me and just put
him around my shoulders and
walked down the road. A part
of him dragged on the ground,”
Trexel said.
The python appears to be in
good physical condition, Trexel
said.
“Something nipped on his
tail a little bit,” Trexel said. “It
looks like he just shed. He looks
healthy — he put on some
weight.”
Trexel said none of his
neighbors have mentioned
anything — such as other pets
— that has gone missing.
“Everybody will be glad to
know that he’s still not out
there,” Trexel said. “I was pret-
Predators
Continued from Page 1A
mechanism, intervention tool
or person in place that would be
able to identify a pattern and
stop someone who’s abusing
children.
“There’s nobody keeping
track and connecting the dots,”
Nichols said. Adding to that,
“Sexual molesters, sexual pred-
ators are about the most skilled
criminal you can imagine ...
They’re kind of like chame-
leons.”
White, who pleaded guilty to
sexually abusing a teen girl, ap-
pears to have projected a far
more wholesome image.
Two people who knew White
at the time he was sexually
abusing the Parkview student
spoke to the News-Leader,
painting a much different pic-
ture of White than what is con-
tained in police documents.
Stephanie Mercier and
Cathy Rippee both knew White
when they were students at
Parkview and wrote letters on
White’s behalf for his sentenc-
ing hearing.
Both said they had positive
relationships with White and
never suspected he had sexual-
ly abused another student. They
also said they were not aware
there were other accusations
made against him.
Mercier was a cheerleader
and traveled with the basketball
team when White was the coach.
She also had White for her driv-
er’s education class and called
him a “great teacher.”
“We would drive and it just
be he and I,” she said. “I never
had a moment of feeling uncom-
fortable.”
Rippee said she was a teen-
ager when her mother died of
cancer and the Whites practi-
cally took her in. She was best
friends with their daughter and
called the Whites a “perfect
family.”
“I was at their house all the
Treasa Trexel poses with her son's Burmese python.
ty happy.”
Mike Crocker, zoo director
and resident snake expert at
the Dickerson Park Zoo, told
the News-Leader he’s not sur-
prised the python was found
near where it got loose.
“Some wild snakes, in areas
like Missouri, when they come
out of hibernation they’ll range
pretty far out, hunting for
food,” Crocker said. “That’s
different from a snake escap-
ing from somebody’s care.”
In his experience, Crocker
said, snakes that escape from
an owner or from a zoo don’t
usually go very far.
“Sometimes they never turn
Parkview High School, where teacher Ronnie White, who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a teen girl, worked.
time and never once, never once
did I see anything or feel that
Ron was doing anything inap-
propriately,” she said. “I was
like a daughter to them.”
Rippee said that at the time
White was sexually abusing the
Parkview student, she would
have been about the same age as
that girl.
“When all this came about I
was just flabbergasted,” Rippee
said.
Rippee said many of the
female students at Parkview
found White attractive.
“So many girls had crushes
on coach Ron White. He was
known to be very good-looking
by the high school girls,” She
said. “Ron white was a good-
looking man and the high school
girls would talk about it.”
Rippee also pointed out that
the Whites are “touchy-feely
people” and would hug a strang-
er.
She doesn’t want to discount
what the victim went through,
Rippee said, but she still has
Ben
Trexel
holds his
pet
Burmese
python.
up, but when they do, they’re
never a long ways away,”
Crocker said.
The python — named SS
Wraps — has been Trexel’s pet
for about nine years.
“SS” stands for Super
Snake, Trexel said. It also re-
fers to a double s-shaped de-
sign on the snake’s back.
“Wraps” because the snake is
very long.
Prior to Sunday, the last
time Trexel saw SS Wraps was
a Thursday evening in May, be-
fore heavy storms hit the
Ozarks. It was curled up in a
ball in the corner of its cage.
By the next day, the python
THE CASE OF
RONNIE WHITE
trouble believing it.
“I think that not only was Ron
dedicated to the school system,
but he went over and beyond
what he would and could do for
his students,” Rippee said. “He
was like a second dad to these
people. They had get-togethers,
they barbecued for these people
... I still support Ron. I still sup-
port the whole family.”
Nichols, the child safety ex-
pert, explained that child abus-
ers “plan their lives around” the
abuse and are often respected
members of the community.
That can make it easier to
groom potential victims. First,
the abuser draws a child in,
builds a relationship, and condi-
tions the child to be comfortable
to be touched, he said.
Perhaps the abuser finds
one-on-one time with the child
during which contact can be ini-
tiated, Nichols said, like teach-
ing them how to swing a base-
ball bat or how to properly hold
a clarinet.
The abuser continually re-
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
was gone.
Sometime in the night or
early morning, a tree branch
had fallen through the roof of
an enclosed porch, where Trex-
el keeps the cage, allowing the
python to escape.
Trexel organized search
parties. He canvassed the
neighborhood with a thermal
imaging camera. He set up
game cameras to monitor the
grounds at night.
The Christian County Sher-
iff’s Office chimed in about the
missing python on its Facebook
page in May, cautioning people
not to let their children venture
into high grass or densely
wooded areas alone.
Captain Jeff Lofton with the
Christian County Sheriff’s Of-
fice previously told the News-
Leader that emergency dis-
patch had received several
phone calls from parents wor-
ried about the python.
Trexel told the News-Leader
Wednesday that he has ordered
steel and Plexiglas to fix and
reinforce the python’s cage.
“I want to make it more stur-
dy this time to make sure some-
thing like this doesn’t happen
again,” Trexel said.
ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER
duces the child’s resistance to
being touched, building toward
sexual abuse, he said.
According to Nichols, the ul-
timate goal is to convince the
child to never rat on the molest-
er — either to protect the mo-
lester or because the molester
is blackmailing the child.
Greene County Prosecutor
Dan Patterson said sex offend-
ers “put themselves in a posi-
tion to have access to the vic-
tims they desire.” He said they
also typically exhibit traits that
make them appear trustworthy.
“Sex offenders are preda-
tory and often put themselves in
situations where they’ll have
contact with their victims,” he
said. “And if you’re a mean per-
son, it’s going to be hard to at-
tract victims.”
Several of White’s jobs in the
district, which included super-
vising in-school suspensions
and teaching driver’s ed, would
have put him in close contact
with potentially vulnerable stu-
dents.
Thursday, August 3, 2017 5A
JIM SALTER, AP
Attorney General Josh Hawley
speaks at a news conference in
St. Louis in June. The
37-year-old first-time
officeholder is considered a
rising star in the Republican
Party.
Senate
Continued from Page 1A
requirement to provide in-
surance coverage for con-
traceptives for employees.
Vice President Mike
Pence earlier in July called
Hawley about the race, and
former Missouri Sen. John
Danforth and prominent do-
nor David Humphreys are
among several high-profile
Republicans who in April re-
leased a public letter en-
couraging Hawley. Big Mis-
souri donor Sam Fox sent a
June letter that asked other
GOP donors not to give to
other candidates while Haw-
ley decided whether to run.
Republicans see Hawley
as a strong candidate
against McCaskill, 64, who is
among 10 Senate Democrats
running in states won by
President Donald Trump.
While McCaskill is vulnera-
ble, she’s also a skilled cam-
paigner and is positioning
herself as a moderate in a
state that has trended to-
ward the Republicans in re-
cent years.
Paradise in a statement
added that Hawley’s state
campaign committee “has
ceased expenditures and the
soliciting or accepting of do-
nations while he considers
becoming a federal candi-
date.” Hawley can’t use
money raised through that
state committee for a feder-
al race.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Ronnie White during his coaching
years in Springfield Public Schools
Some of the actions de-
scribed by Nichols mirror ac-
tions White took, according to
the woman White sexually
abused at Parkview. She said as
a 14 and 15-year-old girl she ini-
tially viewed White as a “men-
tor.”
The woman told investiga-
tors the abuse began when
White first began kissing her,
then moved onto fondling her.
Each time he progressed with
“worse acts,” she said, until he
was digitally penetrating her,
putting his penis in her mouth
and attempting to have sex with
her.
Nichols said some research-
ers have found that between 5.5
percent and 6 percent of Amer-
ican adults have a sexual inter-
est in children; it can take up to
100 or more incidents before a
person acting on those interests
is caught.
Entirely preventing those
people from becoming teachers
is not possible, Nichols said, but
reducing the likelihood of sexu-
al abuse is.
Youth organizations and
schools need to have rules on af-
ter-hours interactions, Nichols
said, and there must be a good
way for complaints to be heard,
followed up on and tracked.
“Abusers exploit un-
knowns,” he said.
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HOW WILL SPS

AVOID ANOTHER
Weaving a
narrative RONNIE WHITE?
School officials believe steps have been
Lives of Nicaraguans,
Rainbow Network taken to safeguard against similar cases
efforts chronicled in
‘Over the Rainbow’
Page 1C

GREENE COUNTY JAIL

Consultant:
Failure to Maintain Boundaries
Inmate
population
growth not
sustainable
He warns there will
be a point when the
system maxes out
ALISSA ZHU
DZHU@NEWS-LEADER.COM

If the inmate population Absolute Prohibitions

keeps rising as it has in the
past, Greene County is expect-
ed to need a total of 2,008 jail
beds by 2037, up from the cur-
rent capacity of 601, a jail con-
sultant says.
“Literally unsustainable,” is
how consultant Bill Garnos de-
scribed the projected inmate
population growth to county
leaders. “You don’t have the
criminal justice system to sup-
port that type of inmate
growth.”
He warned there will be a tip-
ping point in the future when GIACOMO BOLOGNA GBOLOGNA@NEWS-LEADER.COM
the system maxes out — when AND CLAUDETTE RILEY CRILEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM FILED AND
the county cannot possibly hire FORGOTTEN SE
enough prosecutors, judges, RIES
lthough they still refuse to discuss the handling of allega-

A
public defenders and law en- Last Sunday:
tions against Ronnie White, Springfield school officials be-
forcement officers to keep up. Red flags and cra
lieve the steps they’ve taken will help safeguard against a cks in the system.
“The system would break similar case. Tuesday:
before we get to the numbers While no guarantees exist, officials said the changes put Ronnie White’s co
the math models are showing,” nfession,
in place in recent decades are aimed at closing the gaps and protect- and what others
said Garnos. knew.
ing students from being taken advantage of by teachers, coaches or Thursday:
Garnos told the News-Lead- other school employees.
er he hopes his findings will Experts weigh in
Two years ago, White was charged with deviate sexual assault of on
polygraphs and
an underage girl in the early 1990s. There is no indication the for-
See JAIL, Page 5A sexual predators.
mer student, now in her 40s, told authorities of the abuse at the time.
However, the prosecution of White, which ended with a guilty
plea, included a review of complaints in his school personnel file. It
showed female students had complained of inappropriate behavior
by White at three schools. The allegations were investigated, but in Online: To see
d
every situation, they were dismissed or deemed inconclusive. other stories an
eos in this series, go
Public entities connected to the case — including the prosecu- vid
Ne w s- Leader.
tor’s office, the school district and police — agree that if the com- online to
The News-Leader is pleased to Forgotten
plaints were made today, they would not be handled the same way. com/FiledAnd
announce that a new era in job
searching has arrived that’s per- So, what exactly has changed and do loopholes still exist?
District officials, who responded to News-Leader questions in INSIDE
sonalized just for you for every allegations
stage of your career. Our new writing after consulting with legal counsel, were adamant that State law keeps
her miscon duct
careers advancement portal fea- of teac
w,
tures the most advanced job See WHITE, Page 4A out of public vie
search technology and a compre- Page 4A
hensive collection of valuable and USA TODAY NETWORK ILLUSTRATION/GETTY IMAGES
timely career advice content. Visit
jobs.news-leader.com to start
building a brighter future.

I am an American Each week, this series will introduce you to an exceptional American. This week, read about Mari Aviles, who unites Indianapolis by planting trees. Page 5I

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SL-0000422883
4A August 6, 2017
Law keeps allegations of misconduct out of view
State restricts access to job-related records
CLAUDETTE RILEY
CRILEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM
Multiple allegations against former
teacher Ronnie White were cataloged in
his Springfield Public Schools personnel
file, plain to see — but only for the select
few district employees with access.
Even the principals at many of the
schools where White taught and coached
said they were never told of past com-
plaints against him.
And while the district has updated
many of its other policies regarding sex-
ual abuse investigations, it is highly un-
likely that will change.
Missouri, like most states, restricts
access to the job-related records of pub-
lic employees, including teachers.
Only select states, including Tennes-
see and Florida, allow public inspection
of personnel records, applications, disci-
plinary records, references and person-
nel investigations. However, other de-
tails, including Social Security numbers
and medical records, are not open to the
public.
In nearly all cases, governmental en-
tities are required to provide basic infor-
mation about employees including sala-
ry, job title and employ-
ment status. There are ex-
ceptions, but they are
rare.
Susan Goldammer,
senior director of em-
ployment and labor rela-
tions at the Missouri
Susan School Boards’ Associa-
Goldammer tion, said the state’s Sun-
shine Law allows records
pertaining to employment and evalua-
tions to remain confidential.
“You have what is called a liberty in-
terest in your reputation. It’s a type of
property right,” she said. “The govern-
ment cannot take that away from you
without due process.”
She said without giving an employee
due process, which typically includes a
notice and a hearing, a district could be
vulnerable to a lawsuit.
White
Continued from Page 1A
inappropriate behavior — such as en-
gaging in sexual contact with students —
has never been tolerated.
“The district’s historic and continuing
practice is that any employee who is de-
termined to have engaged in conduct of a
sexual nature with a student will be ter-
minated from employment.”
The district points out that much has
changed since the early 1990s, the time
period during which White later admit-
ted he was repeatedly sexually abusing
the teen. It was the only time allega-
tions against White, which came to
light a few years ago, resulted in crimi-
nal charges.
“The district’s practices that were in
place in 1991-1993 have changed,” dis-
trict officials said, in the written re-
sponse. “The district continues to review
and revise its procedures on an annual
basis and (ensure) that it maintains pol-
icies which meet or exceed the require-
ments of federal and state law.”
The district has not commented on the
allegations against White that were in-
cluded in his personnel file. They
spanned a wider range of time, starting
in the early 1990s and ending in the late
2000s. He retired from the district in
2010.
Internal improvements in the district
have been aided, over the years, by a
strengthening of the state’s mandated
reporter law and policies that empower
districts to share information and take
action if employees engage in inappro-
priate behavior.
Among the practices in place today
that were either missing or inconsistent
in the early 1990s:
» All new employees receive “man-
dated reporter” training during orienta-
tion. The law requires any individual re-
sponsible for the care of children to im-
mediately report suspected child abuse
or neglect.
» All existing employees who interact
with students must review the “mandat-
ed reporter” rules annually within the
first 30 days of the school year. This is
primarily done online.
» Employees accused of inappropri-
ate behavior with students are removed
from school property during the investi-
gation.
» In nearly every case, complaints of
a sexual nature are investigated by an
outside agency such as the Children’s Di-
vision or the Springfield Police Depart-
ment.
» The personnel files of employees
accused of engaging in conduct of a sex-
ual nature with students, substantiated
or not, are “flagged” for tracking.
A review of White’s personnel file
shows that one allegation, late in his ca-
“There are also these concerns about
defamation,” she said. “If a supervisor
writes up a teacher for doing something
and that is provided to a third party and
the teacher claims it is a lie or a false-
hood or the person writing it is negligent
or reckless when they wrote it up, that
person could be sued.”
Goldammer said the confidentiality
of personnel files is a useful tool.
“The theory is that we don’t tiptoe
around when it comes to staff, that we
feel confident when we are writing
things, putting things in their file, that
we are not worried about constantly get-
ting sued by the employee,” she said.
“We are as honest as we can be in those
particular documents.”
She added: “Supervisors change, so
when the next supervisor comes in, they
need to be able to look up that file and see
truthful statements. We don’t want su-
pervisors hesitating to put things in
those files. That is the whole point of
them.”
Asked who has access to the person-
nel file, Goldammer said the answer de-
pends on the size of the district. “The law
does not go into that level of detail.”
She said in smaller districts, all files
are typically housed in a central office,
and in larger districts, additional layers
typically exist.
“Sometimes there is a central office
file but then there is a building file,” she
said. “A lot of times, principals will keep
their own files as part of their evaluation
process and after the evaluation is com-
plete, it is sent to a central office for stor-
age.”
Goldammer said there is no “strict
rule” about who has access, but it is typi-
cally granted to immediate supervisors,
human resources departments, superin-
tendents and, in some cases, assistant su-
perintendents over the particular area.
“The board can request a copy, but it
needs to be the board as a whole and not
an individual board member,” she said.
“Individual board members cannot just
walk in and see somebody’s personnel
file.”
Documents in the Ronnie White case. Two years ago, White was charged with deviate sexual assault of an underage girl in the early 1990s. He
pleaded guilty.
reer, resulted in a hotline call. It is un-
clear if any other hotline calls were
made.
Last year, school board member Jill
Patterson — a former prosecutor recog-
nized as an expert on mandated report-
ing — said the district is among the many
local institutions that have improved
compliance with the law since the early
1990s.
“I am confident that reporting has be-
come a priority at SPS and that the re-
quired training requires employees to
err on the side of the child,” she said at
the time. “Reporting may have been in-
consistent in the 1990s and 2000s, but it
has become the norm.”
In recent years, school employees
have averaged 1,300 hotline calls a year
to the state Children’s Division regard-
ing suspected child abuse or neglect.
Asked how many complaints of a sex-
ual nature were logged against person-
nel, officials said there were two in each
of the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years.
The district did not respond to a question
regarding the outcome of those investi-
gations.
The district employs a law enforce-
ment officer who works out of the human
resources department and oversees the
internal portion of personnel investiga-
tions, which includes checking for any
violation of board policy.
THE CASE OF
RONNIE WHITE
“The theory is that
we
don’t tiptoe around
when
it comes to staff, th
at we
feel confident whe
n we
are writing things
, sources department,” said Lisa Turner,
putting things in
their
file, that we are no
t tion, the employee’s file is ‘flagged’ to in-
worried about
constantly getting
sued by the
e as honest
employee. We ar
ose
as we can be in th
ents.”
particular docum
mmer
— Susan Golda ployment
r direc to r of em
Senio
s at the
and labor relation
ho ol Bo ards’
Missouri Sc
Asso cia tio n
She said it’s not uncommon for parts
of a personnel file to be restricted, even
for the employee’s direct supervisor.
“There is usually a medical file and we
don’t want people making employment
decisions or being adversely influenced
by any kind of medical accommoda-
tions.”
Asked to list who has access to per-
sonnel files and where they are kept, the
Springfield district responded: “Person-
nel files are digital and only human re-
sources staff have access to the employ-
ee’s official personnel file.” Employees’
medical files are stored separately.
In Springfield, employees granted ac-
cess to personnel files will not necessar-
ily know if a teacher has been accused of
engaging in conduct of a sexual nature
with a student.
District officials said, in a written
statement, that allegations that are sub-
District officials said the “internal”
investigation, which is nothing new, is
separate and in addition to any investiga-
tion conducted by an outside agency. It is
typically done at the same time as, not
before, an external inquiry.
“The district cooperates fully with
any investigation which is conducted by
a law enforcement agency pursuant to a
report made by the district, or others,”
district officials said in the written re-
sponse. “The only time a district Investi-
gation occurs without the involvement
of an outside agency is if the state or lo-
cal law enforcement agency declines to
conduct an investigation
based on the information
provided in the com-
plaint.”
Greene County Prose-
cutor Dan Patterson said
hotline calls create a “re-
pository that can identify
Dan Patterson patterns and trends.”
“That’s another very
important reason for hotline calls to be
made,” he said. “While not every call will
result in a prosecution or an action by the
Children’s Division, being able to see
that pattern can be important when
there are future allegations made.”
During the past school year, as part of
an ongoing review of all district policy,
the board updated its policy regarding
SUNDAY NEWS-LEADER § News-Leader.com
stantiated will result in the termination
of the employee. In cases where allega-
tions were investigated in an “immedi-
ate and appropriate” way and were not
substantiated, the district makes a note
in the file.
“The information concerning the alle-
gation and investigation is maintained in
an investigation file in the human re-
the former chief director of human re-
sources, who resigned June 30. “In addi-
dicate that a confidential case file ex-
ists.”
In July, the board approved revisions
to a personnel file policy adopted in late
2014. The changes were part of an ongo-
ing review of district policies.
The policy states personnel records
will only be available to the “district em-
ployees or independent contractors who
are authorized to access the informa-
tion.”
Under the policy, the district will pro-
vide limited information about employ-
ees — name, position, salary and length
of service — in response to a public rec-
ord request.
Other details outlined in the policy in-
clude:
» Parents in schools that receive fed-
eral Title I funding can request informa-
tion regarding whether their children’s
teachers are certified to teach the grade
level and subject area and if the teacher
is under an emergency or provisional
certification status. This complies with a
federal law.
» An employee can request to inspect
his or her personnel file during work
hours except for any ratings, reports and
records obtained prior to employment
including confidential placement papers
and letters of reference.
» If an individual board member
wants to view any part of a personnel
file, including a job evaluation, he or she
must ask for the item to be placed on the
agenda for the next board meeting. If
granted, the record will be available for
all board members to view at the meet-
ing.
» Employment contracts are not con-
sidered confidential personnel records.
ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER
reporting and investigating child abuse
and neglect.
Among other things, the policy makes
it clear mandated reporters must make
the call right away and not wait in order
to investigate first or notify a supervisor.
“One of the difficult things about hot-
lining inside an institution is that if
you’re my co-worker and I know you and
you’re a nice guy or a nice woman, I trust
you and it’s very hard for me to believe
what has been alleged against you, and
that’s why we mandated it,” Dan Patter-
son said.
The prosecutor said by compelling
mandated reporters to make the call
right away, you take away much of the
second-guessing.
“If you have a reasonable suspicion of
child abuse, you don’t investigate it to de-
cide if it’s true or not and then report it,”
he said. “You report it immediately so
that it can be investigated (by someone
else).”
Susan Goldammer, an attorney with
the Missouri School Boards’ Association,
said many districts — including Spring-
field — have adopted or revised policies
regarding staff and student relations to
prohibit behavior that is blatantly
wrong, as well as behavior that can be de-
scribed as “grooming.”
Continued on Next Page
SUNDAY NEWS-LEADER § News-Leader.com August 6, 2017 5A

Jail
Continued from Page 1A

“reinvigorate” the community to con-

tinue to find ways to manage the jail pop-
ulation.
Garnos was hired in April by the coun-
ty to analyze local inmate population
growth and future jail space needs.
Garnos presented the results of the
study Friday afternoon.
In five years, the jail will need 1,155
beds. In 10 years, 1,430 beds. Another 10
years after that, 2,008 beds.
Greene County’s overall population is
expected to grow steadily in the next
decades, likely putting more pressure on
its criminal justice system.
Garnos said the county jail has seen a
trend of more high-security inmates,
longer-stay inmates and inmates who
suffer from mental health or substance
abuse issues.
One key factor in slowing inmate pop-
ulation growth, Garnos said, will be tak-
ing a closer look at an “unusual and dra-
matic” spike in the average length of stay.
The average length of stay for in-
mates has gone up significantly, Garnos
said. In 2010 it was 12.7 days. Six years
later, the average was 20.4 days.
“We can see what’s happening, but I
can’t tell you exactly why,” Garnos said.
“We have to be very careful in projects
like this with pointing fingers.”
Overworked, underpaid public de-
fenders are one part of the judicial sys-
tem that Garnos said others in the com-
munity have said may be contributing to
longer stays in jail.
Greene County Commissioner Harold
Bengsch told the News-Leader that the
overcrowded jail and the associated costs
of housing inmates out-of-county are criti-
cal concerns that need to be addressed.
Bengsch said the jail will need to be
expanded, possibly with extra room re-
served for further construction in the fu-
ture.
At the same time, Bengsch said, com-
munity leaders must come together to
find solutions for mental health, sub-
stance abuse and addiction issues.
One component, Bengsch said, will be
a mental health assessment the health
department recently received grant
funding to do. The study will examine the
gap in mental health services in Spring-
field, he said.
Close to 65 percent of inmates in the
Greene County Jail have mental health
or substance abuse issues, Bengsch said.
If people can be treated instead of
locked up, “it will have a tremendous im-
pact on reducing the number of violators
that may need the services of our jail,”
Bengsch said.
This area of the Greene County Jail houses inmates in dormitory style bunks.
Greene County currently has the larg-
est jail among un-chartered counties in
Missouri, Garnos said. With about
289,000 residents, Greene County also
has the biggest population in that group.
The ratio of jail beds per 1,000 county
residents is 2.1, which is normal among
comparable counties in the state, Garnos
said.
The study also contained a snapshot
of the jail’s population demographics
from May 11. On that day, the Greene
County Sheriff’s Office was detaining
757 inmates.
Sex:
» 84 percent male
» 16 percent female
Age:
» 1 percent under 18
» 35 percent between 18 and 29
» 32 percent between 30 and 39
» 19 percent between 40 and 49
» 11 percent between 50 and 59
» 3 percent 60 or older
Race:
» 79 percent white
» 17 percent black
» 3 percent Hispanic
» 1 percent Native American or Asian
Charges:
» 85 percent were inmates being held
on state charges
» 15 percent were inmates being held
on federal charges
Length of stay:
» 21 percent had been in jail between
one and 14 days
ALISSA ZHU/NEWS-LEADER
Consultant Bill Garnos was hired by Greene
County to study inmate population trends. He
presented his findings Friday.
» 18 percent had been in jail between
14 and 30 days
» 17 percent had been in jail between
31 and 60 days
» 12 percent had been in jail between
61 and 90 days
» 31 percent had been in jail between
91 and 180 days
» 9 percent had been in jail between
181 and 364 days
» 15 percent had been in jail more
than a year
About 18 percent were being housed
at out-of-county jails. The sheriff’s of-
fice contracts with several other coun-
ties across the state for jail space.
The majority of inmates are housed
NEWS-LEADER FILE PHOTO
on state charges, awaiting trial, Garnos
said. A smaller portion — 15 percent —
are being held at the jail for U.S. Mar-
shals on federal charges.
The jail has not held any inmates ar-
rested on municipal charges since the
sheriff stopped taking them in April 2015
— sparking a lawsuit that was recently
dropped by the city, county and sheriff.
If an expected countywide sales tax
increase is passed by voters, the county
will use a portion of the revenue to ex-
pand the jail. If that happens, the sheriff
has agreed to start housing up to 48
municipal inmates a day free of charge
to the city.
Other factors Garnos said county offi-
cials should investigate include a declin-
ing number of inmates being booked and
released each month, the declining avail-
ability of jail beds in other counties’ jails
in the region, probation trends and a
growing volume of outstanding arrest
warrants.
Garnos is an independent consultant
who serves on the Gladstone, Missouri
City Council. According to the report,
Garnos has directed or assisted with jail
planning projects for more than 100 cit-
ies and counties in 27 states.
Greene County spokesperson Trysta
Herzog said the county’s contracted ar-
chitecture firm, nForm Architecture,
subcontracted Garnos for his work at a
rate of $85 an hour. To date, the county
has paid Garnos about $10,500, Herzog
said.

THE CASE OF
RONNIE WHITE
White
Continued from Page 4A

“It has helped districts, quite honest-

ly, identify some situations where
boundaries were broken, and thankfully
we’ve been able to get teachers out of the
classroom before they actually harmed
kids,” she said.
The policy was developed by MSBA
and then suggested to districts based on
“patterns” of inappropriate behavior
that typically precede sexual harass-
ment or sexual activity. She said it gives
districts a tool to identify “potential
problem” employees.
“Teachers really shouldn’t be, for ex-
ample, constantly texting the kids with-
out a darn good educational reason.”
She said other “red flags” include
teachers providing alcohol or tobacco,
giving rides in their personal vehicles,
giving expensive gifts, inviting students
over to their homes or spending time be-
hind closed doors without a legitimate
reason.
“These are the kinds of things people
are starting to bring to the attention of
the district,” she said. “... It then triggers
the district to do an investigation and
we’re happy to say several schools have NATHAN PAPES/NEWS-LEADER
caught situations where teachers were Pipkin Middle School is the last place where Ronnie White worked during his career with Springfield Public Schools.
certainly acting unprofessionally with
children.”
Goldammer said the policy, adopted they were not told of any prior allega- tion for the district as a whole to track 100 percent” of educators
by Springfield in 2012, gives districts a tions against the teacher. their employees and so if that didn’t hap- are good people who
tool to discipline or even terminate em- They all wished they had been told in pen, for whatever reason, that was prob- would never hurt a child.
ployees, including tenured teachers, advance. ably a mistake.” “They are in it for the
who engage in inappropriate behavior, Everett Isaacs, who was the Central She said the Amy Hestir Student Pro- right reasons,” he said.
even if sexual contact has not yet taken principal, said he understands the need tection Act requires a public district to “But, in every profession,
place. for confidentiality on personnel matters divulge if a school employee, seeking a there are people who slip
District officials said if a teacher is but believes student safe- job in another district, was terminated or Dennis Lewis through the cracks and
accused of engaging in sexual conduct ty is critical and key infor- resigned amid allegations of sexual mis- they get hired.”
with a student but the investigation is in- mation should be shared conduct. She described it as a “big Lewis, who runs a safety consulting
conclusive, the complaint is noted. between schools and prin- change” in expectations. firm based in Springfield, said he tells
“The information concerning the alle- cipals. “The state statute actually requires the districts he works with that the “No. 1
gation and investigation is maintained in “When it comes to districts to share that information,” she and No. 2 places for predators to look for
an investigation file in the human re- something like that, when said. victims is the internet and schools.”
sources department,” district officials it comes to kids, you can’t Goldammer said sexual conduct is not He said while significant improve-
said, in writing. “In addition, the employ- Everett Isaacs be too careful,” he said. defined, but MSBA and most districts in- ments have been made in addressing and
ee’s personnel file is ‘flagged’ to indicate Goldammer said dis- terpret it to include sexual harassment. investigating personnel complaints over
that a confidential case file exists.” tricts have a legal obligation to share in- She said if a district fails to disclose the the years, districts must remain vigilant.
Asked who has access to personnel formation about allegations of a sexual information and the employee harms a He said while rare, no district is immune
files, the district said “only human re- nature. child in the next district, it could open the from teachers who cross the line.
sources staff.” “The district as a whole is liable for all door for a lawsuit. “There are Ron Whites everywhere.
The principals at Central High School of the parts, so the district can’t claim it Dennis Lewis, who was in charge of There are Ron Whites all over the coun-
and Pipkin Middle School, the final didn’t know because the left hand didn’t school police from 1990 to 2006 — cover- try,” he said. “Don’t quote me saying it’s
places White worked during his 25-year know what the right hand was doing,” ing most of the years White worked for rampant, but there are staff members
career with the Springfield district, said she said. “... Legally, there is an obliga- the district — said he believes “close to who do it and they get away with it.”