By Tom Lee ‘14

In February, a Montgomery County music teacher was arrested on child pornography charges when a multi-state investigation led authorities to his Dundalk community home in Baltimore. Montgomery County school officials say Lawrence E. Joynes, 54, worked for MCPS in 11 schools, mostly in Silver Spring. He has also been charged with sexually abusing 14 of his elementary school students, and purportedly had a sexual relationship with a female student under the age of 15 when he taught at Eastern Middle School.

After a string of complaints from various parents and at least one teacher, school administrators placed only restrictions on Joynes instead of reporting him to the police or finding him in violation of MCPS policy.

The arrest of Joynes comes within months of a string of other incidents. A teacher at Meadow Hall Elementary in Rockville was accused of sexually abusing two students. Another teacher at Julius West Middle School, who is also the coach for boys’ basketball at Richard Montgomery, was arrested for having sex with a student at the high school.

In response to these incidents, MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr wrote to members of the county Board of Education about a new plan involving a confidential database with an alert system that would “improve the process for tracking and managing information regarding allegations of inappropriate interactions between [MCPS] employees and students.”

Still, MCPS officials have conceded that it has been a challenge to come up with formal guidelines. “I guess it depends on the severity of maybe what the action is: Was it something said? Was it someone touching someone … all the way up to the most severe of sexual involvement. That’s the dilemma; it is very difficult to lump everything into one category,” said Chief Operating Officer Larry Bowers in a September 14 Gazette article.

In an August 28 memo sent by the Board of Education, “reassignments” and “transfers” were two of seven types of disciplinary action for teachers that have violated

policy. The others are written reprimand, demotion, suspension, coursework and termination. Bowers did clarify that reassignments are rare and only used if the school’s principal “feels it is in the best interest of the school to not have that person there.”

Principal Bill Gregory said the memo didn’t significantly alter existing policies but rather emphasized the importance of taking the appropriate steps when there is a concern or complaint about a teacher’s behavior. “It was about the seriousness of conducting an investigation and detailed the procedures that needed to be followed by an administrator when incidents are brought up. [The memo] really does not mark any difference from before but is just a follow up and clarification of prior policy,” said Gregory.

He remarked that of the very few incidents regarding teachers at Sherwood, all have been due to poor decisions or misunderstanding. “We investigate everything and I hope that is one of the things that keeps this school safe and that people know that we adults in the building will always take what people say seriously.”