Stonington The state Office of the Child Advocate has found that school officials knew of the sexual harassment allegations against high school teacher and coach Timothy Chokas from 2013 to 2017 and did not take all the steps it could to respond to the allegations before allowing him to resign after more complaints in 2019.
In a 52-page report, the office also criticizes school officials for not documenting or following up on the allegations against Chokas or placing complaints in his file, and pointed out that at least one teacher failed to report concerns about suspected abuse to the state Department of Children and Families or police as required by law.
Stonington Superintendent of Schools Van Riley has finalized a plan that will have all Stonington students returning to four days of in-person learning by April 5.
Riley created the plan over the weekend with school administrators after parents and school board members again pressed him last week to bring students back to in-person learning faster than what he has proposed in several earlier plans. They pointed to other area school districts that had plans to bring students back faster.
The plan now calls for grades 2 and 3 to return this coming Monday, with grades 4, 5, 7 and 10 returning on March 29 and grades 8, 11 and 12 on April 5. Students in kindergarten and grades 1, 6 and 9 already returned this past Monday. The school system will have its spring break the week of April 12.