Harassment complaints spur federal inquiry at John Bapst

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BANGOR – Allegations of long-term sexual harassment have led to an investigation by the board of trustees of John Bapst Memorial High School and to disciplinary action against a teacher who has been there since it was a parochial school.

The allegations made by a graduate of the school have also triggered an inquiry by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights into the way the high school handles harassment complaints.

The outcome of the OCR investigation could have ramifications for local school districts that send students to Bapst on publicly financed tuition that might include federal aid. If the high school does not adequately come into compliance with federal civil rights laws, an OCR official has stated that the agency might take action against the sending districts, which could mean cutting off their federal aid.

At the center of the controversy is one of Bapst’s most popular teachers and coaches, Leonard Miragliuolo, who has taught at the school for 24 years.

The Bapst investigation was touched off by a complaint last July from Madonna Mooney of Monroe, a 1975 Bapst graduate whose friends have children at the high school.

The internal investigation by the high school into the complaint corroborated “some, but not all” of the sexual harassment allegations, according to the lawyer Bapst hired to conduct it.

Mooney and a group of about a dozen parents and former students are angered by the school’s handling of the matter, which Mooney characterizes as exhibiting “deliberate indifference.”

Matthew Tilley of Bangor said, “This is a serious issue and I find it particularly disturbing that the administration did not share my feelings of the seriousness of the allegations. I’m a father of two daughters, and sexual harassment is a serious issue to me. I hold Bapst in real high esteem and feel they have not acted in an appropriate manner.”

School trustees declined to comment. Frank McGuire, the lawyer representing Bapst, told the Bangor Daily News, “It is not the school’s practice to comment on internal matters in a public manner.”

Nearly all of the accusations are leveled at Miragliuolo, who has taught English, history and Latin at Bapst. Until recently he also coached the girls cross-country, girls basketball, and both boys and girls track teams. He also served as the school’s academic vice principal.

Miragliuolo graduated from Bapst when it was a parochial school. He was one of the teachers who stuck with Bapst and helped convert it to a nonsectarian private school in 1980 after the Diocese of Portland decided to close it for financial reasons.

Warren Silver, Miragliuolo’s lawyer, in the main rejects the actions attributed to his client, and says those that may have some truth were misconstrued, and do not have sexual overtones.

Silver also told the NEWS that “any interaction between [Miragliuolo] and John Bapst is a private employment matter.”

In a letter to Mooney dated Oct. 10, 2000, McGuire, the lawyer who conducted the internal investigation for the school, wrote, “Support was identified for some, but not all of the allegations you related.

“Based on the report the School has identified certain areas of concern, and has taken corrective action, including disciplinary action, designed to ensure that no incidents of unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, sexual harassment, or sex discrimination occur in the future,” McGuire continued in the letter. “These measures did not include the termination of Mr. Miragliuolo’s employment, which you had requested.

“The measures taken are nonetheless significant and are expected to prevent future problems, and will be monitored accordingly,” he wrote. “Except to inform you that the School has taken meaningful action to address the issues it found to exist in its investigation in response to your complaint, the School will treat information on the specific disciplinary measures taken as falling within the employer-employee relationship between the School and Mr. Miragliuolo.”

Teachers, coaches, parents, and former students have rallied to Miragliuolo’s defense, asserting that many of the things he has been accused of saying have been “taken out of context.”

“This is just so ludicrous,” said Jill LeBlanc, chairwoman of the school’s math department, who has taught at Bapst for 30 years. “Of all the people I could think of, he’d be the last because of all the good things he did for kids,” she said.

She had two sons and a daughter who took Miragliuolo’s Latin class, ran track with him and went on school trips with him. All three wrote about him in their college application essays, LeBlanc said, citing him as someone who positively influenced their lives.

Former Bapst student Angelina Moore of Augusta said, “I never ever felt uncomfortable or unsafe around him.

“Everything he does is to teach, to make people think. Everything he does is because he cares about his students,” said Moore, who played basketball and ran cross country under Miragliuolo’s supervision. She graduated from Bapst in 1994 and has served as a substitute teacher there.

Bruce Pratt teaches English at Bapst and is now the head track coach. He served as an assistant coach under Miragliuolo for seven years. Pratt said that he never heard or saw Miragliuolo say or do anything out of line.

“I wouldn’t have stood for it,” Pratt said. And, “as a coach I’ve never had a kid come to me and complain.”

The Office of Civil Rights initially opened its investigation last summer, but put its inquiry on hold as Bapst undertook its internal investigation.

The result of the internal investigation did not satisfy Mooney. She reiterated her complaint to the OCR. In March, the OCR told her in a letter that it had reopened its investigation.

Mooney is not alone in her dissatisfaction.

According to Jonathan Falk of Carmel, who has a son and a daughter at Bapst, “The investigation was too narrowly focused on one individual.” It should have also looked at administrators, trustees and “the whole climate of the school, given what’s gone on for so long,” he said.

After months of persistence, the trustees met with the parents in May.

“I’m pleased that we started to talk,” Falk said. “We’ve finally opened some doors to communicate.”

However, the fact that Miragliuolo has not been fired is “still totally unacceptable,” Tilley told the NEWS a few days after the May meeting. In Tilley’s opinion, “[Miragliuolo] crossed the line of professional propriety and has been way over the line for a long time.”

The OCR does not comment on open investigations. But speaking in general terms, Roger Murphy, an OCR spokesman, said, “We’re looking to see if a school has the appropriate policies and procedures to deal with sexual harassment.”

If a school does not properly address allegations of sexual harassment, the OCR opens an investigation, Murphy said.

In the wake of Mooney’s complaint, Bapst in February implemented a new policy forbidding harassment. It is in the process of training a man and a woman as civil rights officers to receive and handle complaints.

The only penalty the OCR can bring to bear on Bapst is to cut off federal aid to its feeder schools. To do so, the agency would have to initiate a process in administrative court that would involve the U.S. Justice Department.

Though a private school, 82 percent of Bapst’s student body this year was composed of public school students on tuition from their home districts.

In a December letter to McGuire, before OCR announced it was reopening its investigation, Elizabeth Bagdon, an OCR civil rights attorney, wrote, “Because of the uncertainty about our jurisdiction over JBMHS, if we conduct a formal investigation we would probably open complaints against districts that tuition students to JBMHS. We clearly have jurisdiction over these school districts since they receive Federal financial assistance.”

Title IX of federal law bars school districts from providing “significant assistance” to any entity that discriminates on the basis of sex, Bagdon wrote.

“‘Tuitioning’ students to a school that does not appropriately address complaints of sexual harassment or the existence of a sexually hostile environment would be a form of significant assistance prohibited by Title IX,” she concluded.

As of Oct. 1, 2000, a total of 18 public school districts had students at Bapst. The five with the most students were SAD 63 (Holden area) with 121 students, Glenburn with 78, Orrington with 56, Veazie with 37 and Dedham with 28.

According to OCR spokesman Murphy, aid is cut off only if a school refuses to come into compliance with federal civil rights laws.

“To my knowledge, we have never taken federal aid away [from a school],” he said.

And given the “amicable” relationship OCR and Bapst have had in recent months, according to Frank McGuire, the school’s attorney, “It is not the case that this is a realistic issue on the table. It is preposterous to say it is.”

The parents who have rallied to Mooney’s sexual harassment complaint say they do not want to tear Bapst down.

Laura Levenson, Falk’s wife, said she fears that people will think “we’re out to get John Bapst Memorial High School.” But, “the best thing for John Bapst is to clean this up,” she said.