LETTERS

Never leveled criticism of Warwick School Committee

Posted 10/8/15

Editor’s note: The following remarks from attorney Vincent Ragosta in response to a Sept. 29 letter from Democratic mayoral candidate Richard Corrente were forwarded for publication by Jennifer …

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LETTERS

Never leveled criticism of Warwick School Committee

Posted

Editor’s note: The following remarks from attorney Vincent Ragosta in response to a Sept. 29 letter from Democratic mayoral candidate Richard Corrente were forwarded for publication by Jennifer Ahearn, chair of the Warwick School Committee.

To the Editor:

Last evening I conferred with School Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Ahearn about the commentary of Richard Corrente in his published open letter to her. As any good citizen should be, Mr. Corrente is understandably concerned about the deeply disturbing allegations of mistreatment of students and parents, which underlie my investigation. Permit me to succinctly clarify and contextualize the substance of the brief conversation with Mr. Corrente and set the record straight.

First, I confirmed much of what had long since been in the public domain, e.g. that I was engaged by the Warwick School Committee (WSC) to independently investigate and assess the school department central administration’s handling of allegations related to two young female students and teacher Mario Atoyan. Second, I confirmed for Mr. Corrente that my law firm completed its investigative process within the time constraints set by the WSC, and that I verbally reported my blunt and unvarnished findings to the WSC by May 21 of this year. Third, in response to Mr. Corrente’s inquiry as to the existence of a written report, I informed him that the reporting was conveyed verbally in two meetings with the WSC, one on May 11 and the other on May 21, both of which were recorded by Allied Court Reporters, which in turn produced written transcripts.

At no time in my conversation with Mr. Corrente did I level any criticism of the WSC, nor was any confidential or privileged information revealed to him. To the extent that is inferred from Mr. Corrente’s, letter, this communication should serve to disabuse all of any such notions. In fact, I applauded the aggressive and proactive approach of the WSC and Chairperson Ahearn in pushing for an inquiry into Atoyan’s in-school misconduct predating his arrest on unrelated sexual assault charges. Throughout my firm’s inquiry, I had the full, unfettered and timely cooperation of Chairperson Ahearn, as well as all other WSC members. Each of them demonstrated a genuine resolve to seek the truth about Atoyan’s actions and, the central administration’s responses.

In sum, any quotations attributed to me which are suggestive of criticism of the WSC are simply untrue.

Vincent F. Ragosta, Jr., Esq.

Comments

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  • Bob_Cushman

    Mr. Corrente you have some explaining to do based on what you previous wrote quoting Attorney Ragosta as saying, and now getting his explanation of your conversation with him. He is an excerpt below from your letter. This episode calls into question your honesty and credibility as a candidate for political office.

    [In my 28-minute long conversation with Attorney Ragosta he said to me, “The School Department absolutely has a typed report!” “I was outraged at how dismissive they responded!” He also stated “People should be screaming from the rooftops about how badly this was handled!” He then went on to repeat some of his discussion with Superintendent D ’Agostino. He didn’t repeat any of the sensitive information but he did say “When I questioned him (D ’Agostino) about an e-mail he received from the mother of the 13 year old girl who had a teacher draw a penis on her arm, the superintendent said ‘I get 100 e-mails a day.’” I (Ragosta) said, “How many of them are about a penis drawn on the arm of a 13-year-old girl?” Ragosta said, “He was just so dismissive!” He also stated “I just wanted to slap him!”]

    Thursday, October 8, 2015 Report this

  • richardcorrente

    Dear Bob,

    I stand by my comments. The big picture or "elephant-in-the-room" however, is the absolute fact that Ms. Ahearn has had a written report since May. Whether it was the transcripts from Allied Court Reporters or more, she had a written report since May and she denied it to my face.

    That's wrong Bob. That's just plain wrong. And the safety of our children are, to this day, paying the biggest price. Shouldn't that call into question her honesty and credibility??

    Thank you for using your real name.

    Richard Corrente

    Democrat for Mayor - 2016

    Saturday, October 10, 2015 Report this

  • JohnStark

    The finger pointing, accusations, denials, and innuendo continue unabated. Thank you, Mr. Howell, for keeping this relevant since most of us have other things on our minds. It seems that the only way this sad and infuriating saga will ever see some degree of transparency is through an AG investigation.

    Tuesday, October 13, 2015 Report this