Archdiocese, Santo Niño principal dispute state police officer’s account of interview | Education

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe and the director of the Santo Niño Regional Catholic School have admitted that they did not immediately report concerns to police about an incident between a student and a health worker in April, but both Principal Robin Chavez and the Archdiocese did do so late last year Statements made this week, Chavez denied an investigator that she had been instructed by the Roman Catholic institution not to notify law enforcement agencies.

Chavez said 30-year-old Robert Apodaca was on leave after another worker said she found him in a dark room with a boy on his lap. Shortly afterwards he stepped back. In July, he was arrested on three charges of molesting a student for harassing a student at Gonzales Community School, where he had previously worked as a health worker. He has not been charged in connection with allegations against Santo Niño.

In a Friday email to parents, Chavez wrote, “Let me be clear that at no time have I been ordered not to report this incident.”

In a discussion on September 8th, she repeated the claim to at least one set of parents.

According to a recording of the meeting the parents provided to The New Mexican, in a complaint from the boy’s parents, Chavez was referring to a message about the first report by State Police Officer Eric Jackson.

Jackson interviewed Chavez at school on April 29, according to an edited version of his attorney-provided report. The report cites allegations of criminal sexual contact of a minor and seduction of a child.

“Ms. Chavez said she contacted the Archdiocese office and was instructed not to contact the Department of Children, Youth and Family (CYFD) or law enforcement agencies as they have not yet risen to this level of notification,” wrote Jackson.

He added: “At the time of my interview, no contact had been made with any department and no contact appeared to be made.”

In the taped interview with the parents, Chavez said, “We have no control over what they are [news media] derive or what they want to write. But I can tell you that at no time was an instruction or a conversation given not to answer. “

Chavez said she and Annette Klimka, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s Victim Aid Coordinator, were preparing to report the incident to the police when the officer arrived at the school.

“There are confidentiality rules that I have to follow when there is a personnel matter,” she told the parents, according to the record. “And that is not addressed to me by the Archdiocese. … It is a typical response to a work matter that we cannot disclose, especially when a police investigation may be underway. “

A two-page document posted on the Archdiocese’s website on Friday describes the history of Apodaca at the school, from his hiring in August 2019 and initial background checks to his arrest in July.

The document quotes the April 23 incident: “In an out-of-school group, Robert Apodaca (RA) was found by a staff member with several students around his desk while they were watching a movie on his laptop. The door appeared to be locked, but the door had previously been problematic and needed to be fixed. A child opened the door when an employee knocked. The staff member “believed” she saw a child on RA’s lap. The employee saw no evidence of sexual abuse. However, both turning off the lights and having the child on your lap violate the school and ARSP guidelines. “

The employee notified Chavez of the policy violation on April 26, and the school principal notified the child’s parents on April 28.

Jackson arrived at school a day later to speak to Chavez.

“The Rector adamantly affirms that she has not been ‘ordered’ not to report the incident as reported in the Santa Fe New Mexican,” the Archdiocese wrote in her post. “This is likely a lack of clarity in communicating with the investigating officer. As the official reported, no criminal offense was recognizable. “

Parents have held protests at the school and circulated a petition urging Chavez to end her silence on the issue. They said they had not given them any information about the investigation against Apodaca in Santo Niño or his arrest on other allegations until September 3, when they sent an email in response to news reports of the allegations.

Amid mounting tensions, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a phone call regarding a disturbance at the school on Sept. 8. According to a report from the sheriff’s office, a student’s parents became disorganized and told Chavez to resign. The parents withdrew their child from Santo Niño that day. You are not charged with a crime.

State police have made little comment on the investigation – other than it is ongoing – and have not yet provided any reports or videos of Jackson’s interview with Chavez discussing their decision not to notify the police of the incident.

In an email this week, Lt. Mark Soriano of State Police that the information in Jackson’s report is accurate.

When interviewing the boy and his family, the officer wrote that the boy said he had sat on Apodaca’s lap many times and that Apodaca would take him on “laps” around the school on his own, including to an on-campus storage room and rooftop . Access area. The boy said Apodaca told him to keep it a secret, according to Jackson’s report.

The boy also said that Apodaca allowed him to play on an iPad and that he was uncomfortable sitting on the man’s lap but didn’t talk about it.

Jackson wrote in his report that the boy was scheduled for a safe home interview – a forensic interview of a child conducted at the request of the Department of Children, Youth, and Family or law enforcement – that took place on April 30th.

Leslie Radigan, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, wrote in an email this week that the school will be running a training session later this month, in collaboration with Santa Fe-based psychotherapy and pastoral counseling partners, in response to the series of events around around Apodaka.

“ASF will cooperate in an investigation if law enforcement agencies deem it justified,” she added.

Chavez wrote in her email to the parents on Friday that she had heard from some of them that they needed more communication. “While I strongly agree that there should have been some communication, I will reiterate that there are legal restrictions on what I can share about employment matters,” she wrote.

“In response, I will be working with parents, law enforcement and legal counsel to create a communication plan to alert parents of worrying issues that meets the privacy requirements that we must adhere to,” the email read.

Santa Fe public schools have also addressed parents’ concerns over allegations of sexual abuse by Apodaca.

Last week the Gonzales Community School hosted a virtual meeting with the parents.

“We responded quickly and began planning the discussion as soon as we learned of this person’s harmful behavior,” Superintendent Hilario “Larry” Chavez wrote in a recent bulletin. “I am very sorry that this happened and I am determined to ensure that we never see reports like this in our schools again.”