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May 07, 2005

Teacher accused of sexual abuse

Convicted killer worked at city private school

A teacher at a small East Baltimore private school, whose administrators say they knew he was a convicted murderer when they hired him, has been charged with sexually abusing three teenage students.

Charles Carroll, 28, who taught at Community Initiatives Academy in East Baltimore, was arrested Thursday night, court documents state. He was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl and sexually abusing another 13-year-old and a 17-year-old, the documents state.

What parents and students were never told was that Carroll was convicted in 1995 of second-degree murder stemming from a fight. He was released from the custody of the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services in 2001. He was hired at the school about a year later and is under the supervision of parole and probation officers.

"Sometimes people like that ... they don't get a chance," said Principal Christina V. Phillips Holtsclaw. "I felt [the murder] had nothing to do with children, and I hired him."

She said she didn't tell parents about Carroll's conviction when she hired him because she "didn't think that would help." Assistant Principal Carolyn Coleman-Seawell said yesterday that Carroll's "winning personality" impressed them.

A father of one of the alleged victims told The Sun last night that he had no idea Carroll was a convicted felon.

"I'd like to kill him," said the man, whom The Sun is not naming to protect the identity of his child. The Sun does not name purported victims of sexual crimes.

The three students remain at the school.

Carroll's defense attorney, Warren A. Brown, said people should not rush to judgment about his client. He recalled the sexual abuse allegations made last year against a Baltimore County principal - charges that were dropped early this year.

He said he does not believe his client is capable of committing crimes against children.

"In my very, very, very brief conversations with the family, these charges would be totally out of character for him," Brown said.

Police were called to the school in the 1400 block of E. Biddle St. on April 18, court documents state. The assistant principal said that the girls had reported the allegations to her and that she had talked to Carroll but wanted to talk to him one more time before notifying authorities. She said a parent of one of the alleged victims called police.

The city State's Attorney's Office said yesterday that state law requires public and private school teachers, and any citizen, to promptly report sex crimes they have reason to believe occurred.

Community Initiatives Academy is a 100-student school that accepts students from day care through 12th grade. It was founded in 1981 as part of the East Baltimore Deliverance Center but incorporated on its own in 1987. Three years ago, it moved into a former city elementary school, said Coleman-Seawell, the assistant principal.

The school emphasizes individualized, ungraded work, and teachers such as Carroll are called "student supervisors" overseeing the pupils in their classrooms. They each have teachers' aides.

Under state law, private schools are required to do a background check of all their employees but are not required to give the results to state education officials, according to William Reinhard, spokesman for the Maryland Department of Education.

There are no state laws that regulate who can teach in a private school. Public schools, on the other hand, must be certified and are forbidden from hiring any teacher who has been convicted of a violent crime.

1995 conviction

Carroll was convicted in 1995 of a killing in April 1994 near his former home in the Pen Lucy neighborhood. According to court documents, he got into a fight and walked away. But when Casey Lee Walker, 23, approached him again, Carroll shot him.

Posted by Nealus at May 7, 2005 07:07 PM

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