School officials in Longmeadow say they will enlist a law firm for an independent review over a now former-middle school librarian arrested on a child pornography charge.
For the past week, Longmeadow Public School officials have been briefing families on the arrest of Scott McGinley, a 55-year-old Holyoke man who worked as a librarian in both the Williams and Glenbrook middle schools for nine years.
McGinley is facing a charge of distribution of child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, which announced his arrest on Aug. 13.
During a school committee meeting Tuesday broadcast by LongmeadowTV, Superintendent Marty O’Shea says the district is looking into every aspect of the case and McGinley’s time as LPS – and will hire a law firm for an independent investigation.
“It's our intention to look backward at everything that's happened by using an independent firm to take a look at the record, to ask important questions - just to make sure that there's nothing that that we missed along the way,” he told parents and community members. “We're prepared to act on the findings of the firm that is engaged.”
Shea says the district will secure a firm “as soon as possible,” one with no connections to the school system.
The announcement came amid public hearings held to address the allegations against McGinley and answer questions from parents.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, McGinley’s home was searched on Aug. 8, less than a month after undercover law enforcement came in contact with him on an “encrypted messenger application.”
Via that app, the suspect was allegedly caught distributing child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) online to a group entitled “Little boyz only."
Posing as a user, law enforcement contacted McGinley, leading to conversations in which he allegedly described having a sexual preference for younger children. He also allegedly claimed to have “students,” though he “ha[d]n’t touched them sexually.”
“As has been noted - [it's] a really troubling, disturbing, angering, frankly disgusting situation," the superintendent said. "It has been our intention to address this openly and firmly."
Authorities say the search of McGinley’s home led to the seizure of multiple devices, including a phone that, following a forensic examination, contained “over 100 files depicting CSAM.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, O’Shea said he was not aware of any complaints involving McGinley prior to the arrest, but that he was aware of an incident involving the librarian and a “dating profile” – photos of which were allegedly passed around by students at one point, the Springfield Republican newspaper reports.
“I’m aware that of a situation involving a personal dating profile - it's a matter that we investigated, it's a matter that we took action on,” O’Shea said. “We took appropriate remedial action on [it] and … whatever story might be gaining traction… that is simply not true. We have no reason to believe that that situation is any way related to the behavior that this individual was arrested for.”
The Republican also reports "no current or former students" appear to have come forward to report any abuse by McGinley as of Aug. 19.
The superintendent says once a firm is hired and a review is complete, a report will be made available to the public
In the meantime, O’Shea, as well as the rest of the school committee, reiterated that resources are available for concerned parents and students.
“We will be communicating: communicating with middle school families and high school families especially, about how we intend to open school and how we intend to remind kids that schools are safe places,” he said. “We intend to remind them of who the trusted adults are in schools, that they can reach out to administrators, counselors, school adjustment counselors, nurses, teachers…”
