WASHINGTON — A 12-year-old says she was groped by a contract employee in John T. Baker Middle School in Montgomery County.
And while charges have been filed in the Damascus incident, there wasn’t a note sent home to parents.
“When the allegations were brought to the attention of the [school system’s] administration, the school contacted the police and notified the parents of the student involved,” county schools’ spokesman Dana Tofig said in a statement. “Given that it was an isolated incident, the school decided not to send a letter home.”
Tofig says the school contacted police when the allegations were made and notified the parents of the child.
For the incident, John Epps Jr. has been charged with a fourth-degree sex offense. Police say Epps, 44, has been accused of touching the girl inappropriately in a hallway in October. Epps, of Fort Washington, was there to fix the school’s security cameras.
Epps was hired by Netcom, Inc. through a temporary agency.
The agency provided Netcom, Inc. with documentation to show that a criminal background check had been completed and showed no prior criminal record.
In a statement, the school system says the Department of School Safety and Security reviewed the matter after the individual’s arrest and discovered that the temporary employee had a criminal record, and the background check that had been completed by the temporary agency was inaccurate.
Maryland law requires that any person who enters into a contract with a county school board or nonpublic school “may not knowingly employ an individual to work at a school” if the individual is a registered sex offender.
An employer who violates this requirement is guilty of a misdemeanor and if convicted may be subject to up to five years imprisonment and/or a $5,000 fine.
Epps has an arrest record that includes sexual assault, but is not listed on the Maryland Sex Offender Registry.
WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report.
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