Few Parents Worried Over School Sex Arrests

By Kristina Schnack Kotlus

Woodbridge, Va. — After two employees at a high school in Woodbridge last week were charged with having sex with students, the county’s school system is working to assure parents their children are safe.

A 27-year-old female English teacher, Tina Amato, and a 27-year-old male part-time track coach, Eric Lewis, are charged with having sex with two different Prince William County high school students.

Lewis, of Quantico, had sex with a student at Potomac Senior High School in 2008, while he was a substitute teacher there, police said.

Amato, of Stafford County, is charged with having sex with a 16-year-old student over the course of a year, and has worked at the school as an English teacher for the past three years.

Several phone calls from parents have been received by the staff at Gar-Field, but few have been from parents who are concerned about the arrests.

“The response has been quite limited. Mostly parents concerned about whether makeup work was received or wanting to know who the new teacher would be, in Ms. Amato’s case,” said Gar-Field Senior High School Principal William Bixby.

Bixby met with each of Amato’s classes to allow students to ask questions about the arrest, and in letters sent home to parents has encouraged a discussion about what happened here.

Between 2006 and 2009, Lewis worked as a substitute teacher at four high schools and five middle schools, including Forest Park, Gar-Field, Freedom and Potomac high schools, and Lake Ridge, Godwin, Beville, Woodbridge and Fred Lynn middle schools.

In both incidents, once school officials learned of the allegations against both teachers they took swift action in reporting it to police.

“This is something that is taken very seriously and it will not be tolerated at all, and there are great efforts to try to ensure this doesn’t happen in the in the first place, but if it does it is investigated and people are held accountable,” said Prince William County Public Schools spokesman Blackstone.

Before they are hired, the names of applicants who want to work for the county schools are checked against the National Sex Offender Registry as well as with the FBI.

Throughout the year, faculty and staff attend training focusing on sexual misconduct and harassment, said Blackstone.

While the allegations of sexual misconduct are serious, some parents aren’t panicked.

“Our schools have much bigger problems this. Bullying, for example, things that happen every day to every kid.  You can do background checks, but they’re not going to catch the people you really need to be afraid of.  The key is to stay involved with your kid, schools should do more, but you have to talk to your kids about how to handle situations like this,” said Tera Peacock, who has a child attending a middle school where Lewis once worked.

Another parent said it’s important to be open with their child.

“We as parents have to educate our children and stay close to them.  Talk to your kids and be involved at their schools…anywhere they spend time,” said Rebecca Barnes, who has a fifth grade student in Prince William schools.