Teacher on Leave After Middle-Schoolers Track Him With 'Pedo Database'

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A group of Rhode Island middle schoolers thought their teacher was a "creep" toward girls in class.

They documented his actions in class after adults ignored their complaints, per The Boston Globe.

Their records, which they called a "pedo database," are now part of an inquiry into the teacher.

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A group of Rhode Island middle schoolers thought their teacher was a "creep," so they kept a log of what they considered inappropriate interactions between him and girls in their class. The teacher is now said to be on administrative leave and under investigation.

A new report in The Boston Globe indicates the group of eight Davisville Middle School boys in North Kingstown started the log, which they dubbed a "pedo database," after watching their teacher ogle at girls in their class, give them nicknames like "sweetheart" and "sunshine," and ask them to dance for him.

The Globe interviewed one of the boys, now a 15-year-old high-school student, who told the publication that when the group tried reporting the situation, adults didn't take students seriously. The teacher himself had apparently even commented that he'd received complaints for decades without any action being taken against him, according to the Globe.

The teen told the Globe that the teacher's interactions with female students created uncomfortable situations.

"Sometimes they'd laugh. Sometimes they just kind of just sit there awkwardly," the boy said. "Even the ones that said he was 'creepy' laughed because they were obviously not trying to tick him off or anything. So they're just fake laughing, awkwardly laughing."

The group decided in January 2021 to keep written records on Discord to gather "evidence" of the teacher's behavior, according to the Globe.

"This is now the official chat that we will later use as evidence against (the teacher) about pedophilia in case anything does come up in the future and we do turn out to be right," one boy wrote in the group chat, according to the Globe. The teacher's identity hasn't made public, but the Globe said local teachers and students "know who he is."

The student said the Discord channel was updated in real time while school was held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic. In one instance, the channel said, he remarked everyone should be "in bathing suits tomorrow."

The boy told the Globe he felt bad for the girls "because sometimes it just seems like it was a humiliating thing."

"He'd play a song and he'd make one of them get up and dance," the student added.

In April of this year, the Globe said, the teacher was escorted out of school and placed on leave. The interim superintendent said an investigating was ongoing into allegations the teacher stalked a preteen middle-school girl he coached and had been inappropriate with other girls, the Globe reported.

The family of the middle-school girl, represented by the attorney Timothy Conlon, said they reported the behavior to school officials and were met with "deliberate indifference," The Providence Journal reported. The teacher was removed from coaching middle schoolers in the area only after the family threatened to take out a restraining order on him, the Globe reported.

A representative for Conlon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Once the public was asked to come forward with information, one of the middle-school boys told his mother about the Discord channel, and they contacted Conlon. The log has since been shared with the local US attorney's office; the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families; the state education department; and a lawyer conducting an internal investigation for the school, per the Globe.

"I did not ever think this would actually be used as evidence, but we always had it as if it was," the teen told the Globe. "So I'm glad that we did, even though it might have seemed like slightly stupid at times."