Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) – A letter is being sent to Charles County school officials demanding they take action to keep kids safe after a former school aide was charged with 206 counts of sexually assaulting students. Deangelo Bell, who is HIV positive, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he sexually assaulted 46 students from 2015 to 2017 while he worked as a teacher’s aide at the Benjmain Stoddert Middle School.
“Within two years 42 victims and no one was clued in. This man had to have some tendencies that he was a predator someone should have realized and paid attention to,” said attorney Carlos Moore with the Tucker Moore Group, which is representing families of a number of the alleged victims.
According to Moore, Bell took some of the kids out of classrooms during school hours unsupervised, something that Moore’s colleague attorney Charles Tucker said indicates the policies and procedures in place at Charles County Schools are insufficient. He said school systems have a moral obligation to make sure kids are educated in safe and secure environments.
“Something has to be done. This is the most egregious case that I’ve seen in 15 years of practice,” said Moore.
The attorneys would like to see mandatory training for teachers and other school employees to teach them how to identify child predators. School systems in 18 states offer this kind of training, but Maryland does not according to Tucker.
If the school board and/or state legislators take action, the attorneys said they will be able to avoid a lawsuit that would be costly for taxpayers.
Meanwhile Bell’s scheduled to go on trial Jan. 8. The charges against him include 22 counts of sexually abusing a minor, 97 counts of filming child pornography and give counts of attempting to transfer HIV. So far, none of the children have tested positive for the virus.
Copyright 2017 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (Photo: Charles County Sheriff’s Office)
