School Board will investigate James Beine’s career in the district
The St. Louis School Board decided Tuesday to conduct its own investigation into why a priest-turned-school-counselor was allowed to remain in contact with children after repeated abuse allegations had been made against him.
The 5-2 vote was a turnabout from last week, when the board blocked a similar call for an inquiry. Board attorney Ken Brostron and school security chief Charles McCrary will investigate rather than an outside investigator, which some board members preferred.
But the internal investigation won’t begin for a week or so – when St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce finishes her investigation into school counselor James Beine, also known as Mar James.
“We asked them to delay initiating an internal investigation,” said Jane Darst, Joyce’s assistant. “We have had a grand jury on this for the last two weeks.”
Meanwhile, the bitterly divided board began pointing fingers. Board members Bill Haas, Amy Hilgemann and Rochell Moore called for board Vice President Bill Purdy to resign and for board President Harold Brewster to step down from his leadership position.
Haas pointed out that Purdy is the only current board member who was on the board when the first allegations against Beine surfaced in 1994.
Beine was removed from Bryan Hill Elementary that June, but returned in September to another school, Cote Brilliante Elementary.
Haas said that Purdy and the other board members at the time “were either asleep, didn’t care or were complicit in that decision.”
Purdy, a retired high school principal, responded: “It sounds to me like somebody is engaging in Monday morning quarterbacking and trying to take advantage of a horrible situation and gain politically.”
Purdy, who said he won’t resign, has said repeatedly that he doesn’t remember the case.
As for Brewster, he laughed when asked if he would step down.
Beine resigned last month, after the Post-Dispatch revealed that the archdiocese had settled two lawsuits alleging sexual abuse for $110,000. All told, eight lawsuits alleged that Beine had sexually abused nine boys while a priest during the late 1960s and 1970s.
On Thursday, Beine was charged with sexual misconduct for allegedly exposing himself to students in the boys bathroom at Henry Elementary School.
School officials have never been able to explain why Beine was allowed to return to a school, but the former personnel director at the time said she believed the matter was handled directly by the superintendent and the School Board.
Last year, a teacher and parent complained that Beine was exposing himself in the boys bathroom at Henry. School officials said they thought the matter didn’t rise to the level of a crime, but Principal Lloyd Washington sent out a memo telling his staff that they should no longer use the children’s rest rooms.
Beine remained in the Madison County Jail in Edwardsville on a $100,000 cash bond Tuesday. James M. Martin, Beine’s lawyer, canceled a hearing that had been set for today in St. Louis to consider reducing the bond, and said he would seek other avenues to obtain Beine’s release.
“He’d rather be in jail in Edwardsville than in the city’s, anyway,” Martin said.
Reporter Rick Pierce:
E-mail: rpierce@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-209-0839