MADISON TOWNSHIP — The bell on the door of the Madison High School office rings several times a day, signaling a delivery for a student or teacher.
On Friday the delivery wasn’t from a local florist or eatery, but from a 26-year-old registered sex offender with flowers and a teddy bear for a freshman girl.
“We get tons of deliveries every day. Parents like to send flowers to their daughters for their birthdays, balloons, food, cakes, I mean we get deliveries of everything you can imagine, especially at the high school,” Superintendent Jim Herrholtz said.
The district won’t allow the deliveries to be taken to the classrooms. Instead, students are notified and can pick up the goods at the end of the school day, Herrholtz said.
When Paul D. Brunelle-Apley, 26, made his delivery just before being questioned by police regarding sexual relationships with two teenage students, the staff had no idea he was a sex offender, Herrholtz said.
“Not everyone wears a nametag or a uniform when making a delivery. There was nothing out of the ordinary about this delivery, but by no means did (Brunelle-Apley) get any further than the front office,” Herrholtz said.
“No one could have known who this man was or that he is a sex offender,” he said.
The victim’s mother was upset the office staff allowed the man into the building, but Herrholtz said the mother never told school officials her daughter was involved with the older man or to be aware of any contact or deliveries.
To open the lines of communication between teachers, parents and school administrative staff, the district has installed the web-based software Infinite Campus and hopes to open a porthole for parents in the near future, Herrholtz said.
The software will allow teachers to keep track of students who are having problems. It will give parents access to their children’s schoolwork, homework, attendance and disciplinary records and will allow parents to log in any medical alerts or custody issues, Herrholtz said.
“The software will send email and telephone alerts to parents if their child misses an assignment or a day of school. It allows parents to make the school aware of any allergies, medications or problems a student may be having,” Herrholtz said.
The software could have alerted the high school office to be on the lookout for Brunelle-Apley, Herrholtz said.
“The teachers deal with a lot of adult issues in these students. Everything that goes on in the community finds its way into the schools,” Herrholtz said. “We have to pay attention and find that open communication between parents and teachers and administrators to protect the students from everything from bullies to sex offenders,” he said.
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