Saturday, May 31, 2014
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Monday, May 26, 2014
Trafficking and Terror are the Subjects of Prof. Pardis Mahdavi’s Latest Book
http://www.pomona.edu/news
Anthropology Prof. Pardis Mahdav
In the book, Mahdavi examines how the war on terror and policies to combat human trafficking have collided. “In the U.S.,” says Mahdavi, “the media and politicians have conflated the two. In some ways, the war on trafficking has become the hyper-feminized antidote to the hyper-masculinized war on terror in our discourse. What’s new,” she explains, “is an increase in the moral panic about these issues fanned by politicians and Hollywood starlets, which has led to policies and outreach programs that make the situation worse for those vulnerable to trafficking.”
One example she cites is the impact of anti-trafficking laws in the Philippines, which prohibit unmarried women under 30 years old from migrating for work. Since people still need to feed their families and there’s not enough work, she says more are turning to smuggling and traffickers.
In From Trafficking to Terror, Mahdavi juxtaposes lived experiences with current paradigms, policies and rescue rhetoric, and she presents the need to challenge the trafficking and terror paradigm and rethink approaches to the large-scale challenges these discourses have created.
“One important step,” says Mahdavi, “is an expanded understanding of what human trafficking is. The current definition in U.S. law regarding trafficking in persons is very race-, class- and gender-biased. The law would have you believe that all human trafficking is sex trafficking, It’s not all about sex work. When I interviewed sex workers in Iran and followed them to Dubai, they negotiated everything. They had freedom to come and go. Conversely, the many male construction workers and domestic workers find themselves in coercive and abusive work situations, yet they are never imagined as trafficked and thus have little recourse through human rights law.”
The book grew out of her experiences as a fellow at the Google Ideas think/do tank, where she looked at the intersections of trafficking and terrorism, and what the technology industry can and should be doing to help combat trafficking.
Mahdavi is the author of two books, Passionate Uprisings: Iran’s Sexual Revolution (Stanford University Press, 2008) and Gridlock: Labor, Migration and Human Trafficking in Dubai (Stanford University Press, 2011), and several scholarly articles. In addition to Google, she has been an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow and a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Fellow.
Her research interests include gendered labor, migration, sexuality, human rights, youth culture, transnational feminism and public health in the context of changing political structures.
She is currently researching the effect of trafficking on families, which can include babies separated from their mothers, stateless children and mothers threatened with their children coming to harm.
Related Link:
“The family detention complex – moving beyond the trafficking debate,” by Prof. Pardis Mahdavi, Thompson Reuters Foundation, Dec. 2013
Efforts to curb human trafficking under way
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MUSCAT The Sultanate is playing an active role in the global fight against human trafficking and related crimes.
This was mentioned in the annual report of the National Committee for Combating Human Trafficking (NCCHT). The report said that there is no doubt that the important geographical location of the Sultanate of Oman, overlooking seas and oceans, represents a vital bridge and a main gate for transit between East and West and North and South and makes it subject to the greediness of human traffickers and a destination for illegal migrations, this has therefore led to the Sultanate increasing its efforts to put an end to this phenomenon that continues to threatens the world. The numerous cases of human trafficking crimes worldwide include all forms of illegal exploitation of others, exploitation of children and women in wars, sit-down protests, demonstrations and begging, as well as minors marriage, slave labour, prostitution, forced labour, slavery, abuse, deprivation and removal of organs, according to the report. It said the rate and risks of human trafficking crimes were continuously increasing adversely effecting the integrity, security and dignity of human beings. The United Nations report on Drugs and Crimes had stated that there are about three million classified as victims of human trafficking and that this crime generates huge sums of money to the offenders estimated by the office at $35 billion annually. The report pointed out that NCCHT seeks to focus on building, enhancing and developing capacities and skills of the persons working in this field through participation in internal and external training programmes, forums and seminars, so as to familiarise themselves with the issues of human trafficking and to learn from the experience of other countries in the field of combating human trafficking crimes. The Sultanate has taken a number of steps in this direction. The Public Prosecution organised workshops on human trafficking concept, giving a series of lectures on the crimes to officers at the Royal Oman Police (ROP) and the Sultan’s Armed Forces. The ROP Officers Training Institute also held a number of introductory lectures on human trafficking crimes. The topic of combating human trafficking was added to the training programme of the Higher Judicial Institute. On its foreign policy, the Sultanate took part in the Doha third forum for combating human trafficking. It takes part in workshops on capacity building for persons working in the field of human trafficking crimes and in training courses on human trafficking in cooperation with friendly states. Workshops were also held on capacity building of employees in the field of information system management and human trafficking reports, law enforcement staff and civil society working in the field of combating human trafficking. There was participation in a workshop on combating human trafficking crimes in cooperation with the Interpol. The report said that in the first quarter of 2014, NCCHT organised a number of meetings and visits for the committee to improve its performance. The committee has taken a number of initiatives. The NCCHT visited the Family Protection Home (Dar Al Wifaq,) which receives and accommodates victims of human trafficking, on January 6, 2014. The joint meeting between NCCHT and Council of Judicial Administrative Affairs in the Sultanate was held on February 17, 2014. The joint visit of NCCHT and the National Human Rights Committee to the Central Prison was on February 18, 2014. The NCCHT plans to further boost its involvement with local authorities in achieving their joint goals. Among its most prominent plans are: To establish the headquarters of NCCHT and its executive office and to activate, manage and maintain its website in order to enable it to undertake its responsibilities according to the competencies provided for in the Anti-Trafficking Law. To organise a number of seminars to build and enhance capacities in the field of combating human trafficking. To implement a number of awareness and dissemination of knowledge programmes on the forms of human trafficking crimes and ways for combating such crimes. To review the Anti-Trafficking Law and the NCCHT’s Work Plan for combating human trafficking and to propose recommendations in this regard. |
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May 13: Pedophile teacher abused scores as clues missed; killed himself in Minn.
startribune
- Article by: MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN , Associated Press
- Updated: May 17, 2014 - 9:59 PM
Photo: ., Associated Press
This combination of photos provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows William James Vahey in 1995, left, and 1986.
He
was one of the most beloved teachers in the small world of international
schools that serve the children of diplomats, well-off American
expatriates and local elites. He was often the first to arrive in the
morning, and the last to leave each day. He led students on class trips
to exotic places, treating them to cookies and milk at bedtime.
That was the public persona of William Vahey, carefully crafted over four decades — until a maid cleaning his home in Nicaragua stole a 16-gigabyte memory drive. There, in photograph after photograph, was evidence that the model teacher had molested scores of adolescent boys, possibly far more, in a career spanning 10 schools on four continents.
The FBI said last month at least 90 boys were in the images on the memory drive. The bureau said Tuesday that it has now "been contacted by several hundred individuals from around the globe wishing either to reach out as potential victims or provide information in the ongoing investigation."
The discovery of a man the FBI regards as one of the most prolific pedophiles in memory has set off a crisis in the close-knit community of international schools, where horrified parents are being told their children may have been victims of a favorite teacher, and administrators are scurrying to close teacher-vetting loopholes revealed by Vahey's abuses.
"With the sheer volume, the sheer number of incidents in which this man molested, it surprises me that somehow this was not picked up by someone," said John Magagna, the founding director of Search Associates, the world's largest international school recruiting firm. "I don't know what went wrong."
Apparently not even Vahey's victims knew they had been molested. The double-cream Oreos that he handed out at bedtime on the overnight trips were laced with sleeping pills — enough to leave the boys unconscious as he touched them, and posed them for lewd photographs.
Vahey, a 64-year-old native of West Point, New York, attempted suicide in Nicaragua after his maid stole the drive. He survived, but killed himself on a second try, stabbing himself to death in Minnesota on March 21 and leaving hundreds of former students wondering if they were abused.
The agonized father of a student in Caracas, Venezuela, said his son, like many others, would rather not find out, but the boy cannot forget one fact. "He ate the cookies, too," said the father, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his son's identity. "Everyone on those trips did."
There were decades of missed opportunities to expose Vahey. An early California sex-abuse conviction didn't prevent him taking a series of jobs working with children. Colleagues and supervisors failed to question why he was so often with boys overnight. And at least twice, boys fell mysteriously ill while under his care and there was no investigation into Vahey's role.
In 1969, Vahey, the son of a decorated World War II pilot, was arrested on child sexual abuse charges after police said he pinched the penises of eight boys, ages 7 to 9, at an Orange County high school where he gave swimming lessons.
Vahey, then 20, told authorities he had started touching boys without their consent at age 14, when he fondled a sleeping teen on a Boy Scout camping trip. He said he touched the genitals or anuses of sleeping boys four more times before the arrest.
The psychiatrist diagnosed Vahey with an "inadequate personality," but added that the disorder did not predispose him to sexual offenses dangerous to others. The court even allowed Vahey to start work as a public school teacher's aide after his arrest.
Vahey pleaded guilty to a single charge of lewd and lascivious behavior. He received a 90-day jail sentence and five years' probation, with a condition that he should be supervised in the company of males younger than 16 during that time. After two years on probation, he was allowed to leave the country unsupervised following college graduation in 1972.
Such leniency was common at the time, said Dan Scott, a retired detective sergeant who worked for 26 years with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department office that investigates child abuse. "Nobody went after sex offenders."
Vahey was required to register as a sex offender and update his address whenever he moved, but he never updated his information after the first time he registered and authorities didn't pursue the matter. When the state registry was put online in 2004, his name wasn't included because authorities discovered he was no longer living in California.
Vahey began his international teaching career with a year at the American School in Tehran in the run-up to Iran's oil boom, the first in a series of stays around the Middle East and Europe. He taught history, social studies and related subjects in Lebanon, Spain, Iran again, Greece and then Saudi Arabia, almost always to middle school students.
By the time he arrived in Saudi Arabia, Vahey was married and had two sons with Jean Vahey, a woman who became a widely respected administrator in international education. He taught eighth- and ninth-grade social studies, coached boys' basketball and led school trips to Bahrain, Turkey and Africa.
Halfway through his 12-year stay in Saudi Arabia, he received a principal's certificate in New Jersey. It was March 1986, seven months before a law took effect requiring all new teachers and administrators to undergo background checks. New Jersey Education Department spokesman Mike Yaple said there is no record of Vahey undergoing a check before he got the certificate.
In Saudi Arabia, Vahey displayed an openness and concern for children that people would remark upon for the rest of his career, said Max Crum, a 38-year-old former student.
"When you're a kid, and you have teachers who are stern and mean, you kind of fear them. He wasn't that at all," Crum said.
By 1992, Vahey and his wife moved to the prestigious Jakarta International School in Indonesia, where he again taught social studies, coached basketball and developed a reputation for leading fun overnight trips for students.
"All the kids seemed to really, really like him," said Will Julius, a 21-year-old alumnus and son of a former longtime International School teacher.
After 10 years the Vaheys moved to Escuela Campo Alegre in Venezuela, where Jean became superintendent and the man known to all as Bill took a teaching job at the sprawling hillside campus overlooking the capital, Caracas.
All new hires were required to provide a police record from either their home of record or their last country of assignment, if they had been there for more than five years. Vahey presented one from Indonesia with no history of problems.
Again in Venezuela, the popular teacher and family man took students on trips
Authorities may have missed a warning sign when two students under Vahey's care were rushed to a hospital after falling unconscious in their hotel room during a trip to a basketball game, parents and staff said. A toxicity test came back negative, so the school sent security officials to investigate. They were unable to determine a cause and chalked the incident up to a possible failing air conditioning unit. Vahey was not investigated.
Vahey also privately organized outings like a weeklong annual trip to Costa Rica for some 20 to 25 students, parents and staff said.
Superintendent Gregory Hedger said that when he arrived he was surprised to learn such excursions were allowed. He put an immediate stop to trips not sponsored by the school and without parent chaperones.
Seven years later, the Vaheys went to work at the Westminster campus of London's Southbank International School, which has about 350 pupils from 70 countries. Vahey was subjected to two criminal background checks in the United Kingdom, where he hadn't lived before.
After a year, Vahey founded the "Travel Club," according to a 2012 article in Focus, a magazine for expatriates in London. The school's website describes a 13-day trip to Nepal in 2012 that included a trek in the Himalayas, white-water rafting and an elephant safari. In 2013, the spring break trip by students in grades six to nine was to Panama.
Southbank's chair of governors, Chris Woodhead, told Britain's Press Association there had been one complaint against Vahey. A boy on a trip felt sick, Woodhead said, and Vahey took the child into his room, apparently "to look after him."
"A few months later a teacher heard gossiping on a minibus and the incident was investigated," Woodhead said. "The boy's parents agreed that there was nothing untoward and the matter shouldn't be pursued."
When Vahey went on to the American Nicaraguan School with glowing references, his wife stayed in London.
In Nicaragua, Vahey taught ninth-grade world history and advanced geography in such an exciting way that students asked why other teachers couldn't do the same. He drew little notice from his neighbors until days before Thanksgiving.
That weekend, after Vahey's maid was fired for stealing, he stopped leaving the house, said Rafael, a caretaker who declined to give his last name because of the sensitivity of the topic. All Sunday, the house was dark. On Monday, school employees who let themselves in with a master key found Vahey motionless in his bed.
Two groups of emergency officials declared him dead and called the coroner. The school's director, Gloria Doll, sent teachers and parents a message saying Vahey "will be greatly missed, as he has truly been an integral part of our community."
But as a black body bag was being unloaded, Rafael said, a police officer or paramedic let out a shout. Vahey was alive.
A doctor at the hospital where he was taken said he had a weak pulse and high levels of blood toxins, but could go home after two days. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.
"All we know is that he is still with us, and that is wonderful, miraculous news," Doll wrote to the school later that day.
Vahey told colleagues he had been bitten by a poisonous spider. In early December, he sent a mass email message to the school, declaring that "it is with a sense of awe, wonder and joy that I find myself writing to you. The last week has been quite the adventure, and I am fortunate to say I am doing much better."
He was headed to Atlanta for medical tests, Vahey wrote. "Get ready for an exciting second semester as I look forward to my return to the school in January."
In early March, the maid reappeared and handed the USB drive to Doll, saying she should take a look. Its folders were marked with the names and dates of school trips dating to 2008: "Panama Trip," ''Costa Rica Trip," ''Basketball Trip" and "Spring 2013."
Doll clicked on the last folder, where she found photos of unconscious boys, many blonde or red-headed and between the ages of 12 and 14. Some had their pants off, with a man's hand touching their testicles or anus. Other boys were posed together in positions suggesting oral sex.
Doll confronted Vahey, who told her, according to an FBI affidavit, that he had given the boys sleeping pills, adding: "I was molested as a boy, that is why I do this. I have been doing this my whole life."
Vahey said he had swallowed more than 100 sleeping pills in November after discovering the USB drive had been taken.
Doll demanded Vahey's resignation, according to the affidavit.
Vahey flew to Atlanta the next day. It was only after he boarded that the school notified authorities at the U.S. Embassy in Managua, U.S. officials said. The U.S. officials immediately notified Nicaraguan police, but Vahey had left the country.
In Miami, where he changed planes, a special agent from the FBI notified Vahey of the investigation. But a bag check turned up nothing illegal, and the agents had no grounds on which to hold him.
By March 14, the school told parents Vahey had resigned. The teacher traveled to Luverne, Minnesota, where his brother, sister-in-law and mother live, the latter in a nursing home. He checked into a hotel where he fatally stabbed himself in the chest with a knife.
He left a note apologizing to his family.
"He's one of the most prolific pedophiles that we've seen here due to the sheer numbers," FBI Special Agent Shauna Dunlap said. "The number continues to go up. We continue to have folks reaching out to us."
At least 60 of the 90 or so children in the images were from the Southbank school, according to police, where a significant number of parents said they did not want to know if their children were abused. Woodhead, the governor, has blamed the U.S. system.
"How did he qualify as a teacher in the United States, how is it this information was never available to any of the schools across the world who employed him over the next 40 years?" he asked in an interview with the Press Association.
In Venezuela, students are coming forward with details that suggest they may have been abused.
"We don't know who was drugged. Right now we're just listening," superintendent Hedger said. "There's an enormous sense of betrayal ... He was one of the most popular, if not the most popular, teachers in the school."
A woman answering a phone registered in Jean and Bill Vahey's name hung up without speaking when called by an Associated Press reporter. His brothers and sons also could not be reached for comment.
Schools where Vahey taught are reviewing their background check policies and security procedures. Jane Larsson, executive director of the Council of International Schools, said a group of six international education associations was examining how schools could close loopholes allowing pedophiles to move from country to country without being detected by background checks or other reports.
"When this kind of thing happens it's a shock to everyone and it mobilizes action," she said.
Teacher recruiting firms are conducting a similar joint review.
In the meantime, one of the men molested by Vahey in the Westminster, California, swimming pool as a 9-year-old boy said that learning what had happened since then revived terrible memories.
"It certainly bothers me that a person like that would be left unsupervised and obviously not tracked over the last 45 years now," the man said, his voice growing unsteady. "I find it troubling. I guess the question is: How can the system allow that to happen?"
____
Associated Press writer Michael Weissenstein reported this story from Mexico City and Tami Abdollah reported from Los Angeles. AP writers Luis Manuel Galeano in Managua, Nicaragua; Adam Schreck in Dubai; Margie Mason and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta; Joshua Goodman in Caracas, Venezuela; Jill Lawless and Sylvia Hui in London; and Carson Walker in Luverne, Minnesota, contributed to this report.
____
Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissenstein
Tami Abdollah on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/latams
That was the public persona of William Vahey, carefully crafted over four decades — until a maid cleaning his home in Nicaragua stole a 16-gigabyte memory drive. There, in photograph after photograph, was evidence that the model teacher had molested scores of adolescent boys, possibly far more, in a career spanning 10 schools on four continents.
The FBI said last month at least 90 boys were in the images on the memory drive. The bureau said Tuesday that it has now "been contacted by several hundred individuals from around the globe wishing either to reach out as potential victims or provide information in the ongoing investigation."
The discovery of a man the FBI regards as one of the most prolific pedophiles in memory has set off a crisis in the close-knit community of international schools, where horrified parents are being told their children may have been victims of a favorite teacher, and administrators are scurrying to close teacher-vetting loopholes revealed by Vahey's abuses.
"With the sheer volume, the sheer number of incidents in which this man molested, it surprises me that somehow this was not picked up by someone," said John Magagna, the founding director of Search Associates, the world's largest international school recruiting firm. "I don't know what went wrong."
Apparently not even Vahey's victims knew they had been molested. The double-cream Oreos that he handed out at bedtime on the overnight trips were laced with sleeping pills — enough to leave the boys unconscious as he touched them, and posed them for lewd photographs.
Vahey, a 64-year-old native of West Point, New York, attempted suicide in Nicaragua after his maid stole the drive. He survived, but killed himself on a second try, stabbing himself to death in Minnesota on March 21 and leaving hundreds of former students wondering if they were abused.
The agonized father of a student in Caracas, Venezuela, said his son, like many others, would rather not find out, but the boy cannot forget one fact. "He ate the cookies, too," said the father, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his son's identity. "Everyone on those trips did."
There were decades of missed opportunities to expose Vahey. An early California sex-abuse conviction didn't prevent him taking a series of jobs working with children. Colleagues and supervisors failed to question why he was so often with boys overnight. And at least twice, boys fell mysteriously ill while under his care and there was no investigation into Vahey's role.
In 1969, Vahey, the son of a decorated World War II pilot, was arrested on child sexual abuse charges after police said he pinched the penises of eight boys, ages 7 to 9, at an Orange County high school where he gave swimming lessons.
Vahey, then 20, told authorities he had started touching boys without their consent at age 14, when he fondled a sleeping teen on a Boy Scout camping trip. He said he touched the genitals or anuses of sleeping boys four more times before the arrest.
The psychiatrist diagnosed Vahey with an "inadequate personality," but added that the disorder did not predispose him to sexual offenses dangerous to others. The court even allowed Vahey to start work as a public school teacher's aide after his arrest.
Vahey pleaded guilty to a single charge of lewd and lascivious behavior. He received a 90-day jail sentence and five years' probation, with a condition that he should be supervised in the company of males younger than 16 during that time. After two years on probation, he was allowed to leave the country unsupervised following college graduation in 1972.
Such leniency was common at the time, said Dan Scott, a retired detective sergeant who worked for 26 years with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department office that investigates child abuse. "Nobody went after sex offenders."
Vahey was required to register as a sex offender and update his address whenever he moved, but he never updated his information after the first time he registered and authorities didn't pursue the matter. When the state registry was put online in 2004, his name wasn't included because authorities discovered he was no longer living in California.
Vahey began his international teaching career with a year at the American School in Tehran in the run-up to Iran's oil boom, the first in a series of stays around the Middle East and Europe. He taught history, social studies and related subjects in Lebanon, Spain, Iran again, Greece and then Saudi Arabia, almost always to middle school students.
By the time he arrived in Saudi Arabia, Vahey was married and had two sons with Jean Vahey, a woman who became a widely respected administrator in international education. He taught eighth- and ninth-grade social studies, coached boys' basketball and led school trips to Bahrain, Turkey and Africa.
Halfway through his 12-year stay in Saudi Arabia, he received a principal's certificate in New Jersey. It was March 1986, seven months before a law took effect requiring all new teachers and administrators to undergo background checks. New Jersey Education Department spokesman Mike Yaple said there is no record of Vahey undergoing a check before he got the certificate.
In Saudi Arabia, Vahey displayed an openness and concern for children that people would remark upon for the rest of his career, said Max Crum, a 38-year-old former student.
"When you're a kid, and you have teachers who are stern and mean, you kind of fear them. He wasn't that at all," Crum said.
By 1992, Vahey and his wife moved to the prestigious Jakarta International School in Indonesia, where he again taught social studies, coached basketball and developed a reputation for leading fun overnight trips for students.
"All the kids seemed to really, really like him," said Will Julius, a 21-year-old alumnus and son of a former longtime International School teacher.
After 10 years the Vaheys moved to Escuela Campo Alegre in Venezuela, where Jean became superintendent and the man known to all as Bill took a teaching job at the sprawling hillside campus overlooking the capital, Caracas.
All new hires were required to provide a police record from either their home of record or their last country of assignment, if they had been there for more than five years. Vahey presented one from Indonesia with no history of problems.
Again in Venezuela, the popular teacher and family man took students on trips
Authorities may have missed a warning sign when two students under Vahey's care were rushed to a hospital after falling unconscious in their hotel room during a trip to a basketball game, parents and staff said. A toxicity test came back negative, so the school sent security officials to investigate. They were unable to determine a cause and chalked the incident up to a possible failing air conditioning unit. Vahey was not investigated.
Vahey also privately organized outings like a weeklong annual trip to Costa Rica for some 20 to 25 students, parents and staff said.
Superintendent Gregory Hedger said that when he arrived he was surprised to learn such excursions were allowed. He put an immediate stop to trips not sponsored by the school and without parent chaperones.
Seven years later, the Vaheys went to work at the Westminster campus of London's Southbank International School, which has about 350 pupils from 70 countries. Vahey was subjected to two criminal background checks in the United Kingdom, where he hadn't lived before.
After a year, Vahey founded the "Travel Club," according to a 2012 article in Focus, a magazine for expatriates in London. The school's website describes a 13-day trip to Nepal in 2012 that included a trek in the Himalayas, white-water rafting and an elephant safari. In 2013, the spring break trip by students in grades six to nine was to Panama.
Southbank's chair of governors, Chris Woodhead, told Britain's Press Association there had been one complaint against Vahey. A boy on a trip felt sick, Woodhead said, and Vahey took the child into his room, apparently "to look after him."
"A few months later a teacher heard gossiping on a minibus and the incident was investigated," Woodhead said. "The boy's parents agreed that there was nothing untoward and the matter shouldn't be pursued."
When Vahey went on to the American Nicaraguan School with glowing references, his wife stayed in London.
In Nicaragua, Vahey taught ninth-grade world history and advanced geography in such an exciting way that students asked why other teachers couldn't do the same. He drew little notice from his neighbors until days before Thanksgiving.
That weekend, after Vahey's maid was fired for stealing, he stopped leaving the house, said Rafael, a caretaker who declined to give his last name because of the sensitivity of the topic. All Sunday, the house was dark. On Monday, school employees who let themselves in with a master key found Vahey motionless in his bed.
Two groups of emergency officials declared him dead and called the coroner. The school's director, Gloria Doll, sent teachers and parents a message saying Vahey "will be greatly missed, as he has truly been an integral part of our community."
But as a black body bag was being unloaded, Rafael said, a police officer or paramedic let out a shout. Vahey was alive.
A doctor at the hospital where he was taken said he had a weak pulse and high levels of blood toxins, but could go home after two days. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.
"All we know is that he is still with us, and that is wonderful, miraculous news," Doll wrote to the school later that day.
Vahey told colleagues he had been bitten by a poisonous spider. In early December, he sent a mass email message to the school, declaring that "it is with a sense of awe, wonder and joy that I find myself writing to you. The last week has been quite the adventure, and I am fortunate to say I am doing much better."
He was headed to Atlanta for medical tests, Vahey wrote. "Get ready for an exciting second semester as I look forward to my return to the school in January."
In early March, the maid reappeared and handed the USB drive to Doll, saying she should take a look. Its folders were marked with the names and dates of school trips dating to 2008: "Panama Trip," ''Costa Rica Trip," ''Basketball Trip" and "Spring 2013."
Doll clicked on the last folder, where she found photos of unconscious boys, many blonde or red-headed and between the ages of 12 and 14. Some had their pants off, with a man's hand touching their testicles or anus. Other boys were posed together in positions suggesting oral sex.
Doll confronted Vahey, who told her, according to an FBI affidavit, that he had given the boys sleeping pills, adding: "I was molested as a boy, that is why I do this. I have been doing this my whole life."
Vahey said he had swallowed more than 100 sleeping pills in November after discovering the USB drive had been taken.
Doll demanded Vahey's resignation, according to the affidavit.
Vahey flew to Atlanta the next day. It was only after he boarded that the school notified authorities at the U.S. Embassy in Managua, U.S. officials said. The U.S. officials immediately notified Nicaraguan police, but Vahey had left the country.
In Miami, where he changed planes, a special agent from the FBI notified Vahey of the investigation. But a bag check turned up nothing illegal, and the agents had no grounds on which to hold him.
By March 14, the school told parents Vahey had resigned. The teacher traveled to Luverne, Minnesota, where his brother, sister-in-law and mother live, the latter in a nursing home. He checked into a hotel where he fatally stabbed himself in the chest with a knife.
He left a note apologizing to his family.
"He's one of the most prolific pedophiles that we've seen here due to the sheer numbers," FBI Special Agent Shauna Dunlap said. "The number continues to go up. We continue to have folks reaching out to us."
At least 60 of the 90 or so children in the images were from the Southbank school, according to police, where a significant number of parents said they did not want to know if their children were abused. Woodhead, the governor, has blamed the U.S. system.
"How did he qualify as a teacher in the United States, how is it this information was never available to any of the schools across the world who employed him over the next 40 years?" he asked in an interview with the Press Association.
In Venezuela, students are coming forward with details that suggest they may have been abused.
"We don't know who was drugged. Right now we're just listening," superintendent Hedger said. "There's an enormous sense of betrayal ... He was one of the most popular, if not the most popular, teachers in the school."
A woman answering a phone registered in Jean and Bill Vahey's name hung up without speaking when called by an Associated Press reporter. His brothers and sons also could not be reached for comment.
Schools where Vahey taught are reviewing their background check policies and security procedures. Jane Larsson, executive director of the Council of International Schools, said a group of six international education associations was examining how schools could close loopholes allowing pedophiles to move from country to country without being detected by background checks or other reports.
"When this kind of thing happens it's a shock to everyone and it mobilizes action," she said.
Teacher recruiting firms are conducting a similar joint review.
In the meantime, one of the men molested by Vahey in the Westminster, California, swimming pool as a 9-year-old boy said that learning what had happened since then revived terrible memories.
"It certainly bothers me that a person like that would be left unsupervised and obviously not tracked over the last 45 years now," the man said, his voice growing unsteady. "I find it troubling. I guess the question is: How can the system allow that to happen?"
____
Associated Press writer Michael Weissenstein reported this story from Mexico City and Tami Abdollah reported from Los Angeles. AP writers Luis Manuel Galeano in Managua, Nicaragua; Adam Schreck in Dubai; Margie Mason and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta; Joshua Goodman in Caracas, Venezuela; Jill Lawless and Sylvia Hui in London; and Carson Walker in Luverne, Minnesota, contributed to this report.
____
Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissenstein
Tami Abdollah on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/latams
Newport News man sentenced for sex trafficking of a minor
wvec
NORFOLK -- Todd Jackson, 25, of Newport News, was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison for sex trafficking of a minor and conspiracy to pass counterfeit money.
Jackson pleaded guilty on January 28, 2014.
According to court documents, Jackson was stopped by police last July with a 17-year-old girl who was listed as a runaway. The girl said she had been working as a prostitute for Jackson for the past 10 days in the Hampton Roads area. She said Jackson bought her new clothes to make her look older and told her to tell everyone she was actually older.
Jackson took all of the money she made and he advertised her services on backpage.com, according to court documents.
Jackson also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pass counterfeit currency for passing thousands of dollars of counterfeit money at Target stores.
WVEC.com
Posted on May 1, 2014 at 1:48 PM
Updated
Thursday, May 1 at 1:48 PM
NORFOLK -- Todd Jackson, 25, of Newport News, was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison for sex trafficking of a minor and conspiracy to pass counterfeit money.
Jackson pleaded guilty on January 28, 2014.
According to court documents, Jackson was stopped by police last July with a 17-year-old girl who was listed as a runaway. The girl said she had been working as a prostitute for Jackson for the past 10 days in the Hampton Roads area. She said Jackson bought her new clothes to make her look older and told her to tell everyone she was actually older.
Jackson took all of the money she made and he advertised her services on backpage.com, according to court documents.
Jackson also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pass counterfeit currency for passing thousands of dollars of counterfeit money at Target stores.
Brothers charged with abusing girl for more than a decade in N.C.
wvec.com
5/19 UPDATE:
The brothers each requested court-appointed attorneys Monday. The judge will not let them discuss the case or enter pleas until they meet with their attorneys.
Erik Jackson and Matthew Jackson appeared together in court; John Mark Jackson and Matthew Jackson appeared together; Aaron Jackson and Benjamin Jackson appeared together.
*****
HERTFORD, NC -- Six brothers from Perquimans County have been charged with sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl for more than a decade.
Eric, 27, Jon, 25, Matthew, 23, Nathaniel, 21, Benjamin, 19, and Aaron Jackson, 18, were arrested last week. They are charged with crimes related to rape of a child.
Deputies also charged the brothers' parents, John Jackson, 65, and Nita Jackson, 54, with felony child abuse, saying the couple knew what was happening but did nothing to stop it.
One of the brothers supposedly told investigators his mother witnessed the alleged abuse on at least one occasion and walked away.
"It's disgusting that you would think, that parents knew that something like this was going on and just let it go," Sheriff Eric Tilley told 13News Now. "That's disgusting."
Tilley said his office's investigation began in December of 2012 after a Jackson brother reported the alleged abuse at the urging of the brother's pastor.
"Said, you know, that's not a normal situation. That's not the way a normal family lives, you know, this is absolutely wrong and to do the right thing, you need to go and talk with the authorities," Tilley explained.
"When he came in and told us that, our initial belief was that we probably wouldn't get far with this case. We probably knew we were gonna get some resistance because this family is, like I said, they're close-knit. They stay to themselves, you know, they didn't go to school, so they're not really out socially," Tilley said.
Instead, Tilley told 13News Now, after deputies began their investigation, 2 other brothers corroborated the claims.
When investigators spoke to the victim in March of this year, she, too, said the allegations were true.
Tilley said the abuse took place beginning when she was 4 until she was about 14.
Although the brothers supposedly were home-schooled, their level of education seemed low. The oldest, Eric, had difficulty writing his name when he spoke to investigators.
When deputies went to the family's property on Chapanoke Road, they denied them access. Tilley said by mid to late 2013, the parents moved much of the family to Colorado.
The six brothers and their parents were indicted April 24, 2014.
"Never suspected anything," said Bette Butler who lives next door to the Jacksons' home and whose son grew up with the boys.
"They first moved here, we did have them to dinner a couple times. They seemed like really normal people, normal children," Butler offered. "There wasn't a lot of interaction between the Jacksons and people in the area much. I mean, they pretty much kept to themselves."
Another neighbor told 13News Now the children always seemed friendly. He added there were some odd things about the family, including the collection of junk they accumulated on the property.
"We reached out, couple of times to help 'em out when they first got here, but to no avail," the neighbor said. "To have something like this, and for the parents to be able to allow something like that to happen, you know, it's just really heartbreaking, really heartbreaking."
"The only thing that can come out of this -- good -- is that, you know, this young lady gets some kind of closure, and, hopefully, she's strong enough and with a support group put it behind her and go on with her life," Tilley said.
The defendants returned to North Carolina rather than be arrested in Colorado and await extradition. Tilley told 13News Now the parents are not cooperating with deputies and that they returned to Colorado after they posted a $15,000 secured bond.
The brothers are being held in Albemarle District Jail under secured bonds of up to $150,000. They are scheduled to be in court Monday, May 19.
http://www.wvec.com/news/Six-brothers-charged-with-258936601.html#
News
WVEC.com
Posted on May 13, 2014 at 12:04 AM
Updated
Monday, May 19 at 5:25 PM
Gallery
5/19 UPDATE:
The brothers each requested court-appointed attorneys Monday. The judge will not let them discuss the case or enter pleas until they meet with their attorneys.
Erik Jackson and Matthew Jackson appeared together in court; John Mark Jackson and Matthew Jackson appeared together; Aaron Jackson and Benjamin Jackson appeared together.
*****
HERTFORD, NC -- Six brothers from Perquimans County have been charged with sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl for more than a decade.
Eric, 27, Jon, 25, Matthew, 23, Nathaniel, 21, Benjamin, 19, and Aaron Jackson, 18, were arrested last week. They are charged with crimes related to rape of a child.
Deputies also charged the brothers' parents, John Jackson, 65, and Nita Jackson, 54, with felony child abuse, saying the couple knew what was happening but did nothing to stop it.
One of the brothers supposedly told investigators his mother witnessed the alleged abuse on at least one occasion and walked away.
"It's disgusting that you would think, that parents knew that something like this was going on and just let it go," Sheriff Eric Tilley told 13News Now. "That's disgusting."
Tilley said his office's investigation began in December of 2012 after a Jackson brother reported the alleged abuse at the urging of the brother's pastor.
"Said, you know, that's not a normal situation. That's not the way a normal family lives, you know, this is absolutely wrong and to do the right thing, you need to go and talk with the authorities," Tilley explained.
"When he came in and told us that, our initial belief was that we probably wouldn't get far with this case. We probably knew we were gonna get some resistance because this family is, like I said, they're close-knit. They stay to themselves, you know, they didn't go to school, so they're not really out socially," Tilley said.
Instead, Tilley told 13News Now, after deputies began their investigation, 2 other brothers corroborated the claims.
When investigators spoke to the victim in March of this year, she, too, said the allegations were true.
Tilley said the abuse took place beginning when she was 4 until she was about 14.
Although the brothers supposedly were home-schooled, their level of education seemed low. The oldest, Eric, had difficulty writing his name when he spoke to investigators.
When deputies went to the family's property on Chapanoke Road, they denied them access. Tilley said by mid to late 2013, the parents moved much of the family to Colorado.
The six brothers and their parents were indicted April 24, 2014.
"Never suspected anything," said Bette Butler who lives next door to the Jacksons' home and whose son grew up with the boys.
"They first moved here, we did have them to dinner a couple times. They seemed like really normal people, normal children," Butler offered. "There wasn't a lot of interaction between the Jacksons and people in the area much. I mean, they pretty much kept to themselves."
Another neighbor told 13News Now the children always seemed friendly. He added there were some odd things about the family, including the collection of junk they accumulated on the property.
"We reached out, couple of times to help 'em out when they first got here, but to no avail," the neighbor said. "To have something like this, and for the parents to be able to allow something like that to happen, you know, it's just really heartbreaking, really heartbreaking."
"The only thing that can come out of this -- good -- is that, you know, this young lady gets some kind of closure, and, hopefully, she's strong enough and with a support group put it behind her and go on with her life," Tilley said.
The defendants returned to North Carolina rather than be arrested in Colorado and await extradition. Tilley told 13News Now the parents are not cooperating with deputies and that they returned to Colorado after they posted a $15,000 secured bond.
The brothers are being held in Albemarle District Jail under secured bonds of up to $150,000. They are scheduled to be in court Monday, May 19.
http://www.wvec.com/news/Six-brothers-charged-with-258936601.html#
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