BERKELEY – Although Ocean County investigators said that there was no truth to online posts about alleged sexual contact between a teacher at Central Regional High School and a student, the superintendent is sending all information to the proper authorities.
The allegations were made by the Jersey Coast Emergency News Facebook page. They shared screenshots on February 13 of a conversation of a sexual nature purported to be between a student and a teacher. They posted an image that showed the teacher’s name. This newspaper will not repeat the teacher’s name because accusing someone of a crime is illegal.
The information posted changed several times, as Jersey Coast Emergency News received more information from what they said were additional sources. One posting said the incident allegedly took place in 2018. The photo of the private chat was later doctored to cross out the name of the accused teacher.
This prompted the district to put out a public statement: “The Central Regional School District is aware of recent social media posts speculating that a district teacher may have engaged in ‘sexual misconduct with students.’ Although the district cannot publicly comment on matters involving staff members due to confidentiality rights, we wanted to clarify that there have been no reports or information regarding alleged sexual misconduct by district staff with students, as speculated on social media. Accordingly, the speculation in the Facebook post is baseless gossip and false.”
Someone who runs Jersey Coast Emergency News said they went to the school district the morning of February 13. They delivered more information to the district.
Superintendent Dr. Michelle CarneyRay-Yoder told the media that she is doing her due diligence and passing all the new information on to the proper authorities.
She wrote “We are in receipt of your email. It contains images that we had not previously seen or that were provided. After reviewing the materials sent, we have provided them to both law enforcement and the Institutional Abuse Unit in accordance with state law and the district’s MOA (Memorandum of Agreement) with law enforcement. As this matter involves district personnel and possibly a law enforcement investigation, we cannot comment further at this time.”
JerseyShoreOnline.com reached out to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office about the allegations. Generally, law enforcement agencies don’t comment on investigations – or even if an investigation exists. However, they responded “We can confirm that there is no active investigation, nor are we aware of any allegation that a teacher at Central Regional High School was engaged in a sexual relationship with a student.”
The Jersey Coast Emergency News Facebook page, which has a monetized audience of 400,000 followers, was recently taken to task for sharing incorrect information about other police investigations. In one case, there was a small fire in a grocery store, and they reported it as an explosion. The authorities had to issue an update on their own social media pages dispelling the rumors.
